IEC Jordan expands the pool of BRIDGE facilitators to run its Professional Development Program

IEC Jordan in cooperation with IFES Jordan and with the financial assistance of USAID is currently implementing the long-term professional development program using the BRIDGE curriculum for its staff and stakeholders. IEC Jordan has identified IEC staff and some electoral trainers to participate in the Train the Facilitator (TtF) Workshop, who would potentially be involved in the implementation of the specialized BRIDGE and other electoral courses. 

TtF was conducted by expert level facilitator Natia Kashakashvili and workshop level facilitators Samar Tarawneh and Katia Madanat from 16 to 26 March, 2015 in Amman, Jordan. In total 16 participants (four of which were female) attended the workshop, representing the south, north and central regions of the kingdom.

The workshop followed a typical structure of a TtF workshop. For the first paired presentations pairs (eight) conducted 30 minutes session on Electoral Systems, tackling only the technical characteristics of the Majority-Plurality and Proportional Systems; while for the second paired presentations pairs drafted sessions related to the electoral systems such as: Boundary Delimitation, Quotas, Design and production of ballot papers, etc. Pairs were mentored closely by the facilitation team to direct them to the useful resources and reference materials for drafting the curriculum.

Participants have identified curriculum writing exercise as one of the best skills that they have acquired through the TtF:

“It was a completely different experience to write the facilitators’ notes having in mind that somebody else is supposed to present it. It also helps you, as a facilitator, to structure your own presentation in a logical sequence”;

“After preparing/writing the curriculum by yourself, you can start realizing the value of the process and the energy/time it involves”;

“Curriculum writing exercise made us structure instructions and thoughts even in real life”;

“Curriculum writing exercise was an eye opener regarding the importance of the very clear, structured and precise Trainers Guide/Facilitators’ Notes in the wide-scale Training Programs”.

TtF participants underlined achievements of the second paired presentations compared to first paired presentations:

“During the first paired presentations we, the pairs, were literally imitating the lead facilitators, or following the instructions written in the FN, while the second paired presentations helped us to understand the reason why we are doing the activities or behaving in certain ways”;

“Paired presentations made me understand how to work in a pair with facilitator and the importance of the support that the co-facilitators have to give to each other”;

“Being a trainer is completely different to being a facilitator. I realized that being a facilitator means to put yourself in the shoes of the participants”.

In addition to these achievements, participants noted several skills that were acquired through the TtF workshop: Self-control, organizing/planning skills, acceptance of the constructive feedback, importance of linking the activities with the learning outcomes as well as to previous activities, activated listening skills, how to rephrase the sentence/question in order to encourage creation of more ideas and opinions, how to extract knowledge and information from the participants, how to structure the session in a logical sequence.

At the end of the TtF, participants deconstructed BRIDGE (what is/isn’t BRIDGE, what BRIDGE can/cannot do), evaluated their achievements at the TtF and conduct of it. Facilitators introduced participants to the BRIDGE implementation steps, rules and usage of the BRIDGE web-page. Individual interviews were held with each participants where the strengths and areas for improvement were highlighted.

During the closing ceremony, Assistant Secretary General Badrieh Bilbisi together with the facilitation team granted BRIDGE semi-accreditation certificates to all participants.

IEC Jordan plans to continue delivering BRIDGE modules within its long term Professional Development Program for Election Officials that are adapted to the Jordanian context and needs.