Election observation BRIDGE Course in Swaziland

17 April 2018

IMG 8097The Swaziland Elections Support Network (SESN) under the auspices of the Coordinating Assembly of NGOs in Swaziland (CANGO) is implementing a project titled SUPPORTING WOMEN EMPOWERMENT & EQUALITY IN SWAZILAND (SWEES) supported by the European Union.

The Swaziland Elections Support Network (SESN) under the auspices of the Coordinating Assembly of NGOs in Swaziland (CANGO) is implementing a project titled SUPPORTING WOMEN EMPOWERMENT & EQUALITY IN SWAZILAND (SWEES) supported by the European Union. The main objective of the project is to contribute to the realization of an enabling environment for the protection and promotion of human rights, with specific focus on political, social, economic and cultural rights of women and girls in Swaziland. As part of the activities of the project, CANGO plans to deploy a local observer electoral mission to observe the 2018 National elections of Swaziland. In view of this, CANGO conducted a 4 day Election Observation BRIDGE Modular Workshop at Sibabane Hotel, Ezulwini, Swaziland.

The workshop brought together 44 participants of which 21 were male and 23 were female. These were drawn from community based organisations and the Electoral Boundary Commission as well as the CANGO secretariat. The workshop was conducted by Rindai Chipfunde Vava, an Accrediting BRIDGE Facilitator and Kundai Matenga a semi-accredited BRIDGE Facilitator. The aim of the workshop was to provide participants with knowledge and skills on election observation and engaged participants on the role of domestic observers as well as discussed in detail the elements of the electoral cycle and the importance of monitoring all processes as well as complementing the electoral management body in processes such as voter education and voter mobilisation.

The workshop was conducted using the adult- learning methodologies, hence was highly interactive and made use of energisers, group exercises, role plays, lectures and debates. This was done in order to keep the participants engaged, to draw from their own experiences and to contextualise the country’s electoral processes. Sessions on organising and facilitating trainings were also included in the agenda in the event that the participants were called upon to also train community-based observers.

Participants expressed their gratitude for the training and highlighted that the methodology used to deliver the training simplified the concepts and kept them interested to learn more and actively participate in the training. The ultimate goal of the workshop was to create a database of well- trained election observers who will also be able to cascade their knowledge and skills to other community- based activists.

{gallery}SwazilandMarch2018{/gallery}

Facilitators:
Location:
Format:
Audience(s) for this workshop:
Language(s):
Modules used at this workshop:
Expected Outcomes:
Categories: