The First BRIDGE Implementation Workshop in Arabic
6 November 2007
The workshop was organized by UNDP Iraq and the International Electoral Assitance Team, along with International IDEA, and IFES. The event goal is support the the Iraqi High Electoral Commission (IHEC) strategic long term capacity building planning. This event is part of an integrated project which aims to build the capacity of the Independent High Electoral Commission of Iraq, lead by International Electoral Assistance Team, along with UNAMI, UNDP and other UN agencies. The project is funded through the International Reconstruction Fund for Iraq (IRFFI) through Cluster G.
Participants were mainly from IHEC, in addition to the Jordanian ministries of Interior and Political Development, the Palestinian Central Election Commission (CEC), UNDP Lebanon and IFES Lebanon. Some of the participants had been exposed to BRIDGE in one way or the other, while for other participants, it was the first time.
The first two days were dedicated to Showcasing BRIDGE where participants were exposed to BRIDGE resources, materials and methodology. The activities used were taken from several modules such as Introduction to Electoral Administration, Boundary Delimitation, Access to the Electoral process, Electoral systems and Voter Registration.
During the following three days, participants were presented with different elements of the successful implementation of BRIDGE. Topics included Electoral cycle and where does BRIDGE best fit in it, stages of implementation, considerations for course design and implementation, Budgets, Evaluation and introduction to the TtF workshops. Participants from every country drafted an Implementation Proposal that was presented on the last day. Four proposals were presented from Iraq, Palestine, Jordan and Lebanon.
The workshop was very much appreciated by the participants. Most of them were eager to start implementing BRIDGE once they return to their countries.
The facilitation team consisted of: Yvonne Goudie (AEC), Wael Al- Faraj (UNAMI), Emad Yousef (IDEA) and Ossama Kamel (IFES).