Strategic and Financial Planning in Kinshasa

The National Independent Electoral Commission (CENI) of the Democratic Republic of Congo is preparing to enter a long electoral cycle ahead of the 2016 presidential elections. With a country the size of Western Europe, logistical challenges are huge. Concurrently, financial planning is key in order to organize elections, which can be deemed free, transparent and credible.

In the short term and within the framework of the revision of the voters’ lists, a thorough technical and operation preparation is necessary, especially for the technicians in charge of the logistics: it is expected that 42,000 tons of electoral material will be used and moved during the upcoming elections.

From January 26 – 30, 2016, the CENI, in partnership with the European Union and the UNDP, held a five-day workshop for 33 CENI logisticians from all over the country.

The training was facilitated by:

• Ms Kamissa Camara, Expert BRIDGE facilitator
• Mr Issa Kassambara, Semi-accredited facilitator, EU Electoral Expert
• Mr Onésime Kukatula Falash, Semi-accredited facilitator and Deputy Rapporteur at the CENI
  • Mr Paul Mozambe, Semi-accredited facilitator, CENI

Mr Jean-Michel Goupil, Electoral Expert for the European Union participated in the training by facilitating a discussion on logistical challenges in the Congolese context, on logistics in situations of extreme urgency and on logistics as it pertains to air transportation.

By the end of the training, Issa Kassambara, Onésime Kukatula Falash and Paul Mozambe had all completed their fieldwork as semi-accredited facilitators and have become fully accredited workshop facilitators! Congratulations to the three of them!