Introduction to Electoral Administration

UNDP Ethiopia organised three-day BRIDGE Introduction to Electoral Administration modular workshops for the National Election Board of Ethiopia (NEBE) staff as part of a broad professional development programme to develop a cadre skilled in workshop facilitation and awareness of available resources, as well as enhance broad knowledge of key principles and standards of election administration in the context of the different phases of the electoral cycle. 

The workshop was conducted during 14-16 September in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and facilitated by two accrediting level facilitators – Natia Kashakashvili and Shalva Tskhakaya, supported by three TF-complete facilitators Helen Mulugeta Tekle, Abebayehu Desalegn Lojamo and Yoseph Mergu Alula. The workshop was facilitated in English language. Twenty-three participants (ten female and thirteen male) representing NEBE, Women Federation of Ethiopia and IFES attended the workshop.

The workshop aimed at introducing the electoral topics, e.g., key international obligations of elections, legal framework of elections, principles of electoral system design, electoral management body models/powers/functions and stakeholder relationships, electoral operational planning, and main building blocks of institutional excellence.

Participants have shown interest and actively engaged in all the activities. The participants mostly recommended to extend number of days of the workshop to allow them to receive more information/knowledge, while the mostly appreciated element was the participatory/adult learning approach:

• I enjoyed the 3 days very much. I think this workshop has given me the basis and the interest to do further research on my own. Nevertheless, I would benefit from taking the operational planning module, the voter and civic education as well as the TtF.
• This workshop inspired me to work even hard to achieve institutional excellence. It’s an eye-opening experience to see our capacity and to contribute for making changes. I am enlightened on electoral system, EMB models, stakeholder engagement, international principles and so on. The most interesting part for me was the training methodology (andragogy), which I am planning to implement on our trainings at NEBE. I would like to thank the brilliant team of facilitators Shalva and Natia. Much appreciated. I would also like thank Joe, Abeba and Helen for being brave enough to be part of this process and for their contribution.
• I really appreciate the way the facilitators facilitated the workshop in a participatory manner. I appreciate the participation of local facilitators in the process since it helps to transfer knowledge and experience.
• The workshop in general was incredibly informative, interesting, participatory and insightful experience. I personally learned so many interesting things that I would not have learned if I did not take this course and thank you for that.
• I recommend if everyone can have the chance to get this kind of training to excel individual awareness to improve or enhance institutional excellence.
• Insightful, consumed a lot more information than I assumed coming into the workshop.
• The course content and its conduct along with the presentations / way of communication were very attractive.
• I really loved how it was conducted, very friendly facilitators easy to talk to and very helpful.
• This was truly fascinating training, I enjoyed the activities and overall methodology. Well organised training – you can tell a lot went into the preparation, facilitation, and organisation of the training.

At the end of the second modular workshop conduct, TtF-complete facilitator Helen Mulugeta Tekle has completed the accreditation process and has been granted a certificate of Workshop Level BRIDGE facilitator.

Special appreciation goes to Semira Temam, UNDP electoral project staff member, for her dedicated organisation of the BRIDGE workshops.