ECES in all its needs related to Information-Communications Technologies (ICTs) is supported by Democracy Essentials, a Brussels-based company specialised in web development, which aspires to play an important role in providing services in the wide domain of democracy building assistance. Democracy Essentials has unique expertise in the production of digital tools for electoral processes, including e-learning products, digital data gathering tools and apps for election observation, media monitoring and electoral results management systems. Democracy Essentials has implemented digital projects for the European Union (EU), the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) at the Organization of Security and Co-Operation (OSCE) in Europe and the Council of Europe.

 

The company currently supports GIZ, the German Agency for International Development, for the development of the EU’s Election Observation and Democratic Support (EODS) digital election observation tools and has been an ECES partner for web-based development and electoral assistance projects. Other specific fields of expertise for the company are portal development, website hosting production for electoral management bodies, especially in Arab-speaking countries. Through the specialised services of Democracy Essentials, ECES intends to pursue the customization of open source software products to support the project’s knowledge management system and the installation of its web-based applications for both capitalisation and visibility purposes, as well as create cost-effective applications for data-gathering, crowdsourcing and communication purposes.

 

Democracy Essential is led by Khaldoun Dudin who has more than 12 years experience as Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Expert, with more than 10 years in Election Observation Missions and Electoral Assistance projects. He has worked on more than 30 European Union Election Observation Missions (EU EOM) in Africa, Asia and Latin America, where he has managed ICT infrastructure in high complex large-scale missions. Previously he worked for the EU's Network for Enhanced Electoral and Democratic Support (NEEDS) Project and assisted them in database administration, e-learning solutions and online reporting tools. Mr Dudin assisted Election Management Bodies (EMBs) to build ICT infrastructure, Voter Registration and Election Result Management systems. He has produced e-learning courses for renowned international organisations such as the EU and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). Mr Dudin has worked for major international IT companies around the world and has extensive experience in software development, communication systems, wireless applications, website development, network, database analysis and security software applications as well in setting-up all-encompassing hardware infrastructures. He has a B.Sc in Computer Science & Information Technology from Applied Sciences University in Jordan.