BRIDGE for District Electoral Officers in Ghana

By undertaking this project the Electoral Commission of Ghana afforded itself the opportunity to achieve the following objectives:

• to enhance the capacity of 32 District Electoral Officers to conduct credible elections to build upon the ability of 12 senior management officers
• to deliver BRIDGE capacity-building training (to obtain full accreditation as Bridge facilitators)

Modules treated were:

• Mod. 1 – Introduction to Election Administration
• Mod. 4 – Boundary Demarcation
• Mod. 5 – Voter Registration
• Mod. 8 – Polling and the Count

The 9-day ABRIDGE version of the training course was facilitated by Theophilus Dowetin (lead facilitator), with the 12 senior management officers of the Electoral Commission of Ghana as co-Facilitators.

The course was sponsored by the UNDP, Ghana.

Under the supervision of Theophilus Dowetin, the lead facilitator, 12 co-facilitators spent 4 days prior to the commencement of the course on customising the selected BRIDGE modules; developing of facilitators notes and preparing presentations materials in powerpoint format. Copies of participants reference material were made and other logistics requirement for the course was also attended to during this period. Administrative support towards conducting the training was provided by the Electoral Commission of Ghana and the West Africa office of International IDEA based in Accra, Ghana.

The Course was held from Tuesday December 1 – 9, 2005 (weekend inclusive). The opening ceremony was chaired by Mr. K. Sarfo-Kantanka, Deputy Chairman of the Electoral Commission of Ghana. Others present were a representative of UNDP and the Programme Manager of the West Africa office of International IDEA.

The 32 participants were divided two learning groups (16 per group) and the 12 co-facilitators formed up two facilitation teams (6 co-facilitators per group). In the formation of learning groups and facilitation teams, gender as well as level of previous involvement in elections was major considerations. The course was conducted simultaneously for the two groups according to the time table drafted by the facilitators. Each session was conducted by pairs of two facilitators. Periodically, all participants and co-facilitators were put together whenever the lead facilitator made a presentation. Most of the time, the lead facilitators task was to observe the training and later review the facilitation skills of co-facilitators. This arrangements were made with the aim to develop the co-facilitators training skills while inducting the participants into professional election administration.