Voter and Civic Education – in the context of “enjoy your 45MB of internet.”

NEC Liberia transforms traditional lecturing into high-impact, engaging, and interactive facilitation.

“Bravo!!! To the three facilitators for working so hard in helping us get on the course.” – was the feedback received from one of the 23 deputy Magistrates participating in the Civic and Voter Education (CVE) training course organized in Buchanan, Liberia, between 2 – 4 November.

The three facilitators in question attended the Train the Facilitator Workshop organized in August 2022. They are the first from this group who successfully implemented all the requirements prescribed by the BRIDGE Methodology and deserve their BRIDGE Workshop Facilitator accreditation. They were motivated, trained, coached, and accredited by a joint effort of UNDP Liberia Elections Support Project (LESP) and Liberian National Elections Commission (NEC) facilitators.

This workshop was just the beginning of the five training workshops that aim to strengthen the capacities of the NEC staff and CSOs to transform traditional lecturing into high-impact, engaging, and interactive facilitation and applied training workshops. The UNDP LESP strategy to build sustainable internal training capacities of the NEC brings results. 

In Liberia, the telecom operator sends a message, “enjoy your 45 MB of free internet,” while we are all used to measuring the internet in GB 

According to the LESP Capacity Development and Strengthening Specialist and Accrediting BRIDGE Facilitator Mr. Zage Filiposki, “the success of this BRIDGE programme we measured by the change our participants bring back “home” at their workplace. Together with Liberian colleagues, after each course, we observe what they perform differently, applying new skills and new knowledge, and ultimately increasing motivation and a new attitude. Witnessing these outcomes makes us, the facilitation team, fulfilled”.

The experienced BRIDGE facilitators, Mr. James S.B. Wallace, Director of Procedures and Training, and Ms. Emma K. Togba, Deputy Director of Operations of the NEC Liberia, are at the forefront of the NEC Liberia Capacity Implementation and Rollout strategy. They bring a lot of expertise to further guide the new teams and to sustain and expand the transformation.

The UNDP LESP programme is enabled by Irish and Swedish funding.