Nation Elections Commission of South Sudan Voter and Civic Education Workshop

The United Nations Integrated Electoral Assistance Team Brings the Voter and Civic Education Module to South Sudan

To aid the development of its draft Civic and Voter Education Strategy, the National Elections Commission (NEC) of South Sudan sought the support of the United Nations Integrated Electoral Assistance Team (UNIEAT). A customized Civic and Voter Education Module was developed for senior members of the commission and the secretariat staff.

On Tuesday, 25 June 2024, a group of 22 participants representing NEC Commission members and staff and officers of UNIEAT assembled at the Pyramid Hotel in Juba for a four-day workshop. The objectives of the workshop were:

·    To explore concepts of civic education, voter education, electoral education and voter information.

·    To consider principles, strategies, tools, mediums and approaches to designing and implementing voter and civic education programs.

·    To strengthen understanding of the steps involved in designing and implementing voter and civic education programs for elections through context-specific practical exercises.

·    To facilitate exchange of ideas and experiences that build the NEC’s confidence in designing, planning, implementing and communicating upcoming voter and civic education programs

Day one of the program focused on the draft Civic and Voter Education Strategy and the NEC’s legal mandate in regards to the provision or Civic and Voter education. There was also a focus on the rationale for conducting Civic and Voter Education (CVE), the principles that underpin good CVE, and the eight steps that can be followed in developing and implementing CVE programs.

Days two and three focused on allowing the participants to experience working on those eight steps and providing inspiring CVE examples from across the region and beyond. The hope was that it would start the process of CVE skill acquisition in order to develop programs specific to each of the stakeholder groups in South Sudan.

Perhaps the most important part of the agenda was a planning exercise on day 4. The group was separated into subgroups and asked to reassess the draft Strategy to include all they had learned in the previous three days and to include clear strategies for evaluating the success of any future programs. They were asked to focus on the following:

1. Who are their target audiences and why?
2. What should be the key messages?
3. How best to communicate those messages?
4. When to communicate those messages?
5. Who is needed to develop and communicate those messages?
6. What is needed to develop and communicate those messages?
7. How can the NEC build all this into its strategic vision?
8. Future NEC collaborations and activities and how to prioritise those?

The groups produced very considered and useful answers which will hopefully better inform the CVE Strategy.

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 fulfill the NEC’s CVE mandate.

Some comments included:

“We have gained specific tools and access to resources that will make our work easier”

“I love the examples of voter education initiatives from other countries. Very useful and inspiring”

“It’s all beneficial to me. Its going to allow me as an NEC staff member to have a good plan for CVE”

“We need more trainings like these”

“Excellent content and facilitation”

The facilitation team comprised Ossama Kamel from Egypt/France, Tomsie Dlamini from South Africa and Ross Attrill from Australia all of whom are Accrediting facilitators from the AEC. They were ably assisted by John Diing from IEAT who had recently completed a TTF and who has started his journey towards Workshop accreditation. We know John is going to make an excellent facilitator.

The participants were extremely hard working and energetic in their interactions. It is obvious they are very committed to developing and implementing a high-quality CVE program for South Sudan. The facilitation team members all look forward to seeing how the CVE Strategy takes shape and what initiatives the NEC will develop to help the citizens of South Sudan gain a better understanding of their electoral rights and responsibilities and how to better participate.

Ross Attrill – Accrediting Facilitator