Building Institutional Excellence – Lesotho IEC

The Institutional Excellence Module Comes to Lesotho

UNDP Lesotho, with funding from the German Cooperation and in partnership with the Independent Election Commission (IEC) of Lesotho, organized a three-day BRIDGE Building Institutional Excellence workshop for IEC Lesotho staff. The workshop’s goal was to strengthen and protect the EMB’s reputation, assisting them to carry out their mandate with integrity and efficiency, so they can ultimately ensure the legitimacy of the electoral process. It was also customized to help the IEC focus on institutional excellence as they embark on a strategic planning process.

The workshop was facilitated by Accrediting facilitators, Ross Attrill, Natia Kashakashvili and Shalva Tskhakaya at the Avani Maseru Hotel 13-15 December, 2023 in Maseru, Lesotho. Twenty-seven participants (11 women and 16 men) representing IEC Lesotho HQ and 11 heads of District Election Offices attended the workshop.

The workshop was opened by the IEC Lesotho Commissioner Dr. Karabo Mokobocho-Mohlakoana and participants were welcomed by the UNDP CTA Mr. Shalva Tskhakaya and UNDP Governance team leader Mr. Thabo Mosoeunyane.

The workshop agenda primarily focused on introducing the four building blocks of the Institutional Excellence Model – Culture, People, Strategy and Structure.

On day-1 participants were introduced to the concept of institutional excellence and the building blocks, enablers and potential inhibitors of institutional excellence. As the IEC is about to embark on a strategic planning exercise, the “strategy” building block was discussed to help participants understand strategic elements needed to drive institutional excellence in an EMB.

On day-2 participants explored the role and complexities of organisational culture, and examines the importance of cultivating a positive, values-based and high-performance culture in an organisation. The importance of effective leadership in the pursuit of institutional excellence was also part of the building block “culture” discussions. Participants were encouraged to reflect on the impact and effect that existing systems, processes and resources have on their organisation’s ability to build and achieve excellence, and how organisational structures and procedures can enable or inhibit excellence in electoral management.

On day-3 participants were taken through the building block “People” exploring how to recruit, develop and retain the staff necessary to facilitate institutional excellence. Participants focused on the importance of personal development planning and performance assessment of the staff in particular and institutional performance in general. Participants were introduced to the concept of continuous improvement and its importance to the pursuit of excellence. As part of the summarizing activity, participants developed a plan for the inclusion of elements of institutional excellence in their upcoming strategic planning process.

Participants actively engaged in all the activities and discussions and evaluations were extremely positive across the three days.

At the end of the 3^rd day, workshop was closed by the IEC Lesotho Commissioner Dr. Karabo Mokobocho-Mohlakoana and UNDP Deputy Resident Representative Mr. Taye Amssalu.

This is only the second time this module has been conducted and the first time it was conduct immediately prior to a strategic planning process. The IEC was very grateful to have been provided with the opportunity to focus on excellence in the lead up to developing their next strategic plan. We wish them well in that pursuit.