IFES CONDUCTS BRIDGE PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT TRAINING

In its quest to enhance credible local government elections in Nigeria, IFES Nigeria on April 24-28, 2017 conducted BRIDGE professional development training for the Chairman, six Commissioners and 14 senior staff of CROSIEC with USAID and UKAID support. CROSIEC Chairman and members are appointed about a year ago to conduct local government elections in the state.

The Professional development training was intended to expose CROSIEC and its senior staff to basic electoral administration and management aspects to enhance their ability to conduct incontrovertible and credible local elections in Cross River state. The training also provided the opportunity for participants to understand and appreciate the knowledge, skills and attitude that are required in managing an EMB and conducting elections.

Dr. Mike Ushie, Chairman of CROSIEC officially opened the training and thanked IFES for its support in organizing the training which he described as timely and will go a long way to enhance his Commission’s capacity ahead of their Local Government Elections.

The five days training covered the following thematic modules: Introductions to Electoral Administrations (Elections: What it is; Why; and Types; Electoral cycle, Introduction to EMBs Legal & Institutional Framework for and Challenges of Election Administration in Nigeria, Guiding Principles for Election Administration, Ethics in Election Administration and Electoral system)

Strategic and Financial Planning (The planning cycle, Levels of planning, Steps in strategic planning, SMART goals in planning, Budgeting Approaches and Forecasting, The structure & Types of an Organization and their advantages & disadvantages, Organizational culture and values, Essence of communications, Chain & Barriers, Strategies for effective communication, Leadership: Meaning, Types and Objectives) Operational Planning, the big logistics event, importance of logistics planning Electoral Security Risks assessment and Planning Gender Issues in Election (ECOWAS Framework; INEC Gender Policy and Implementation Challenges).

Chuta Chinjindu and Seray Jah as lead facilitator facilitated the workshop. At the end of the training, participants submitted

individual as well as institutional reintegration plans indicating how they intend to apply knowledge gained in the training in

three, six and twelve months respectively.