BRIDGE Train the Facilitator TTF Session for Directors in charge of Training of West African EMBs

From August 20 to 30, 2024, on the initiative of ECONEC and ECOWAS, a BRIDGE TtF workshop was held in Lagos, Nigeria for the training Directors of West African Electoral Management Bodies (EMBs). Working with the ECOWAS Commission’s Electoral Assistance Division, ECONEC is promoting the conduct of credible elections and the deepening of democratic culture in ECOWAS region (15 countries of West Africa).

The TtF participants composed of highly electoral professionals was an enjoyable and productive moment as it enables the beneficiaries to know better the BRIDGE curriculum and strengthen their capacities, skills and attitude as future BRIDGE workshop facilitators.

According to ECOWAS Head of Division for Electoral Assistance, the BRIDGE TtF courses responds to the need to for EMB members of both ECONEC and ECOWAS staff to select their pool of BRIDGE facilitators in order to better support the process of capacity development and operational training within their organizations and beyond.

It is generally known that elections are the largest and most complex logistical operations a country would conduct in peacetime. Yet, organizing an election is significantly different from day-to-day public administration. For instance, conducting elections often requires recourse to a large number of ad hoc staff, whose regular activity is not election administration, to help carry out different functions in the various phases of the electoral process. Because of this therefore, organising elections usually requires several rounds of training and re-training for these ad hoc staff. What this implicitly means is that the successful conduct of an election is largely dependent on how well such trainings are carried out.

Created in 2008 as the umbrella body of EMBs in West Africa, the ECOWAS Network of Electoral Commissions (ECONEC) has as its core mandate to promote the conduct of peaceful, fair and credible elections whose outcomes are accepted by all stakeholders. Its means of action include the conduct of symposia on salient emerging thematic electoral developments of interest to election administrators, capacity-building programs, peer-learning events, research, and advocacy. Thus, in pursuit of this mandate, ECONEC has planned to leverage the BRIDGE curriculum and methodology to conduct a TtF course for EMB staff charged with the responsibility of training. This endeavour finds its rationale in the fact that such a training will, on the one hand, help enhance each EMB’s in-house training capacity while also contributing, on the other hand, to networking and peer-learning among staff of EMBs in the region.

As a reminder, the TtF course aimed to achieve a two-fold objective: first, to equip the EMBs of ECOWAS-member States with sustainable training capabilities; and secondly, to help develop a readily accessible pool of BRIDGE TtF Complete trainers in the region.

In keeping with the BRIDGE training methodology, the TtF course has been conducted using a format that combines interactive discussions and practical group work exercises. The different sessions were interspersed with various ice-breaker and aide-memoire activities.

The training team was comprised of a BRIDGE Accrediting Facilitator, a BRIDGE Workshop Facilitator, and a TtF Complete person.