Strategic Planning with the Fijian Elections Office

The Fijian Elections Office (FEO), in conjunction with the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) with funding from the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), conducted a 3-days BRIDGE Strategic Planning in Electoral Management (V3) workshop in Suva, Fiji, 19-21 June 2019.

The workshop was aimed to assist the FEO in developing a new corporate strategic plan for the period 2020 -2023.

The workshop participants were FEO personnel, predominantly senior management, including the Supervisor of Elections (SoE) Mr Mohammed Saneem and the two FEO Directors. The Electoral Commissioner Mr Simione Naiduki also attended all three days as the workshop guest.

BRIDGE facilitators for the workshop were Asenaca Kolinivala and Ana Mataiciwa from the FEO and Brian Latham and Jennifer Hammond from the AEC. The facilitators together brought a broad range of experience, knowledge and expertise to the workshop.

Mr Mohammed Saneem, in opening the workshop, welcomed participants and facilitators, giving an overview of the reasons the FEO was placing great importance on this preparatory training and encouraging participants to strongly engage with the program over the following three days. The FEO intended to develop their 2020-2023 Strategic Plan in the weeks following the workshop.

The three-day program covered the first five sections of the Strategic Planning module – planning theory – examining the general principles and structure of strategic planning for an EMB and where and how they could/would be applied to the new FEO plan.

The very last part of the workshop itself began with senior management informing the group which personnel were to form the Planning Committee and the Core Team and continued with detailing the logistics of the Strategic Planning process to be conducted the following week.

Participation from all workshop attendees was most enthusiastic – all activities were undertaken with a positive sense of purpose.

Participants comments were overwhelmingly positive and included

‘Were there elements of the workshop you found particularly useful?’

• Refresher on various topics and principles
• Group activities
• Preparation for developing the actual SP
• The breakdown of aspirations following a structure
• Discussions
• ‘Props’ and discussions
• Handouts

‘Are there areas of learning that will change the way you work?’

• Thinking outside the box
• Will assist in future SP drafting
• Will enable me to broaden my knowledge
• The workshop will enable me to clearly understand why I do what I do
• There will be a shift of paradigm this time when we proceed with the Strategic Planning exercise

‘Other comments’

• Awesome presenters
• Facilitation team is excellent and well versed with the module
• Learning new things about strategic planning
• Improves knowledge of processes
• Vital information

To conclude the workshop, SoE Mr Mohammed Saneem, gave a presentation based on key points raised at the workshop and their relevance to the upcoming planning process. He thanked the facilitators and praised the participants for their professional approach throughout the workshop and assured the group they demonstrated the necessary skill and experience to successfully conduct the FEO strategic planning sessions the following week.

Workshop participants each received a Certificate of Completion from Electoral Commissioner Simione Naiduki and Ms Jennifer Hammond received BRIDGE Workshop Facilitator level accreditation.