Electoral Administration and Building Institutional Excellence

Strengthening Electoral Administration and Institutional Excellence at the Electoral Commission for Sierra Leone (ECSL)

A group of 25 ECSL staff, Directors, Assistant Directors, Senior Election Officers (SEO), Election Officer (EO) and Assistant Election Officer (AEO)  assembled at the New Brookfields Hotel for a four-day workshop from 24 to 27 February 2025. The workshop was funded by the European Union (EU) through Development Alternatives Incorporated (DAI), and the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA).

The objectives of the workshop were to explore:

1. Standards, principles, and management techniques that are fundamental to good electoral practices.
2. The main principles of electoral systems design, including advantages and disadvantages of the main systems.
3. The various models of Election Management Bodies, their functions and guiding principles.
4. Components of organizational excellence and what it might look like in an electoral management context.
5. Elements, attributes, underlying principles, drivers and potential inhibitors of excellence in the context of electoral management.
6. tools, resources and strategies necessary for achieving and sustaining excellence in all aspects of electoral management.
7. Ideas that can build the ECSL’s excellence and sustaining it to promote its core values of credibility, integrity and professionalism.

Days one and two of the program focused on the introductory aspect, covering fundamental guiding principles to electoral administration, the various models of election management bodies and electoral systems designs. Days three and four focused on building institutional excellence in electoral administration.

Perhaps the most important part of the agenda was reflecting on the building blocks of institutional excellence, enablers and inhibitors of excellence in organisations. The group was separated into subgroups and asked to share ideas on positive contributors to institutional excellence, evaluating options on how to make positive contributions to the core values of the ECSL. The groups produced very considered and useful ideas which will benefit the ECSL’s profile.

The evaluations from the participants indicated that they all really enjoyed both the content and style of the workshop. Most importantly, they all felt they had learnt a great deal and now felt better equipped to fulfil the ECSL’s mandate.

Some comments included:

“The sessions were all beneficial to me and I liked it because we shared so many ideas and worked as a team’.

“We need more trainings like these”.

“Excellent content and facilitation. I will adopt the methodology for our internal workshops. Hopefully I will be offered an opportunity to participate in a training of facilitators course soon”.

The facilitation team comprised Titi Pitso, Workshop Facilitator, Tomsie Dlamini, Accrediting Facilitator. They were assisted by Gibrilla Murray Jusu,  TtF complete.

The participants were extremely hard working and energetic in their interactions. It is obvious they are very committed to enhancing strong institutional excellence through innovative and sustainable strategies in the ECSL. The facilitation team members all look forward to seeing what initiatives the ECSL will develop to help the staff in discharging their electoral constitutional mandate and responsibilities with excellence.