This event is part of an integrated project to build the capacity of the Independent High Electoral Commission of Iraq, lead by International Electoral Assistance Team, along with UNAMI, and UNDP. Were the project is funded through the International Reconstruction Fund for Iraq (IRFFI) through Cluster G.
In total, there were twenty two participants who attended the two weeks programme representing 7 different Arab countries, electoral management bodies, and International organizations including IFES, and NDI.
The participants were not only introduced to the BRIDGE training methodology, but were also taught generic training skills, writing skills, and adaptation skills to ensure that subsequent BRIDGE courses are tailor-made to their home countries needs and situations. The training course gave also a practical opportunity to all participants to work on the development of BRIDGE implementation as a methodology and a programme in each of their countries. While having different experiences from the region helped participants to assess their own situation and to identify best practices
In the last few years IDEA along with other BRIDGE partners started focusing their work and tackling electoral reform issues in the Arab world. Therefore, and to adhere to such long term goals, the main objective of the this training course was meant to provide and build a core team of Arab facilitators. This team is expected to be involved in developing the electoral processes in the region, by providing high level training courses in election to EMB staff, as well as other election stakeholders.
The training was highly appreciated by the participants who stressed the effectiveness of BRIDGE methodology, curriculum and the performance of the facilitators in their evaluations of the course. The participants also identified the need for more BRIDGE training to cover other important aspects of elections and electoral processes.
The facilitation team comprised 6 Arab Bridge facilitators: Handrin salih, Shuhub Ahmad and Wael Al-Faraj from Iraq, Ossama Kamel from Egypt, and from Jordan Emad Yousef and Reem Ersheid who has been granted her full accreditation after completing the second component of her training to become BRIDGE facilitator.
