BRIDGE Implementation and strategic planning workshops in Albania

From 9 to 12 December 2019, the Central Election Commission (CEC) of Albania undertook two BRIDGE workshops namely a one-day BRIDGE ‘implementation workshop’ and a 3-day workshop on ‘Strategic Planning for Electoral Management’ (version 3). Both workshops were supported by the Association for Political Studies (APS), Council of Europe (CoE) and the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA).

The purpose the BRIDGE implementation workshop was to provide guidance to the CEC on designing and setting up a BRIDGE programme for 2020 and beyond.

The purpose of the BRIDGE Strategic planning workshop was to:

• Familiarise participants with the steps, concepts and methodologies of strategic planning as a management tool that can enhance their performance;
• Support participants to appreciate how the applicability of strategic planning concepts and methodologies to the electoral management can help strengthening the CEC’s planning and operational capacities;
• Provide participants with an understanding of how, through a structured, long-ranging strategic planning process, the CEC can reach fundamental decisions and implement key strategic actions to help determine the essence of what this institution is, what it does and how it does it;
• Provide the Executive Management of the CEC with sufficient knowledge that can enable them to make an informed decision on whether or not to formally commit the CEC to a multi-year strategic planning process;
• Showcase the BRIDGE adult learning methodology to the CEC.

In total, 15 participants (9 female & 6 male) attended the implementation workshop and 19 participants (11 female and 8 male) attended the strategic planning workshop. The majority of the participants were from different departments of CEC, however 3 participants were from APS. The workshop was facilitated by Mr Zage Filiposki (Accrediting BRIDGE facilitator), Ms Doina Bordeianu (CICDE, Accrediting BRIDGE facilitator) and Mr Erik Asplund (International IDEA, BRIDGE Workshop Facilitator). Also Mr Antonio Spinelli (International IDEA) acted as a guest speaker/resource person during the strategic planning workshop. Ms Ana Tenolli (CEC) and Mr Erjon Tase (APS) managed and administered the workshops.  Both workshop took place at the CEC in-house, purpose built, training facility located in the CEC HQ in Tirana, Albania.