IFES Holds an International BRIDGE Facilitator Training in Bagdad, Iraq.

The International Foundation for Electoral Systems(IFES) held an international Train the Facilitator (TtF) programme in Bagdad in August 2011 facilitated by Hermann Thiel and Skye Christensen. Participants were invited from the UN and IFES to participate in the ten-day workshop. The group was small but highly diverse. Six Iraqi participants and seven international participants completed the TtF representing more than a dozen nations, and a range of technical specialties. The course was held in English at IFES’s compound in Bagdad’s International Zone.

This training was conducted to fulfil IFES’s internal staff training objectives, but will additionally serve to reinforce the Independent High Electoral Commission’s (IHEC) on-going professional development programme. From May to July 2011, IHEC and IFES trained nearly 300 election officials in a series of 10 customised BRIDGE introductory modules. The partners hope to continue BRIDGE implementation throughout the inter-election period. The new facilitators from this course will significantly increase the cohort of national and international BRIDGE-accredited facilitators who are working to improve electoral processes in Iraq and the region.

The organisers congratulate each of the new partially accredited facilitators, and offer them a warm welcome to the global BRIDGE family.