Implementation Workshop: Egypt, July 2008

The first of these ‘Implementation Workshops’ was conducted at the National office of the Australian Electoral Commission in Canberra, Australia from April 30-May 2 (with input from Yvonne Goudie, Therese Laanela, Ross Attrill, Michael Maley, Paul Dacey and Melanie Chan).

The third workshop is proposed for 10-14 November in Sydney Australia.

The main objectives for the Cairo meeting were: to discuss BRIDGE facilitation challenges and how these challenges should be addressed in the V2 Implementation Manual; the drafting of customisation and translations guidelines, and the development of a draft Agenda for the November workshop.

The size and complexity of the BRIDGE Version 2 Curriculum, and the increasing number of projects to be starting soon, requires the development of new tools for implementers and facilitators. The main tool for facilitators and Implementers of V2 will continue to be the “Implementation Manual” (that is the V1 published manual that you all have on your shelves). The BRIDGE Project office started to update this manual in 2008, simultaneously whilst completing the V2 curriculum. However, the manual was far from complete – and the editors realised that the emerging implementation issues surrounding V2 were immense and required an equally immense editing task. The act of compiling the current manual draft, made painfully clear a) just how much has happened, and is happening, in this project and b) how little opportunity there has been to reflect, codify and convey the new realities: the complexity and size of the Version 2 curriculum; the lessons learned from BRIDGE on the ground; the new issues and ideas emerging (e-learning, opportunities with the ACE partnership); and the sudden expansion of the project with the inclusion of UNDP and IFES.

Therefore the workshops, targeting key facilitators and implementers, had the objective to review the draft updated and expanded implementation manual, and to add the much needed voice from the practitioners.

This meeting was very useful – given that such a group of people with common (BRIDGE) work interests and issues rarely gets the opportunity to meet face to face. To this end, many BRIDGE implementation issues were clarified, debated, and set aside for later discussion in relation to the implementation manual update. The deliverables from the meeting included the development of a list of “Key Challenges” (as faced/expressed by the facilitators/implementers in the region) – with many recommendations drafted for both the Implementation Manual and for discussion at the Sydney meeting/next Partner meeting, sand the commitment by all the attendees to follow up this document with further “Concept Notes” relating to some of the identified challenges. Both of these documents – “Key Challenges” and “Concept Notes”, as well as a detailed report of the meeting, will be sent to BRIDGE partners soon.

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