We have established ECES at the end of 2010 and we have implemented activities already in more than 50 countries, mainly, but not only, in Africa and the Middle East. We created ECES to promote electoral and democratic strengthening through the provision of advisory services, operational support and management of large projects. We mainstream capacity and leadership development via peer exchanges and comparative experiences, dialogue and the prevention of electoral conflicts.
We are practically a delivery mechanism to implement electoral and democracy assistance activities that are consistent primarily with European values and EU policies targeting the facilitation of cooperation on electoral matters between the EU, the EU member states and their partner countries. We signed our first large contract with the EU on the 1st of February 2012. 10 years down the line we are proud to say that we have mobilised a grand total so far of 124.944.027 million euros from over 30 donors. The budget of these funds has been executed following closely the donors’ financial management and audit rules.
Our biggest donor has been and is the European Union, which has awarded us a total of 45 contracts for a total amount of 95.340.332 million euros through its different financial instruments (European Development Fund, Instrument contributing to Stability and Peace, European Neighbourhood Instrument, European Instrument for Democracy/Human Rights, Development Cooperation Instrument EU Trust Fund for Africa). The second most important donor is Germany, followed by France, Italy, Denmark, Austria, Ireland and Luxembourg.
Various other partners also contributed to our projects, ranging from, International and Multigovernmental Organizations, Regional Networks, private companies, non-EU Member States like the USA, Canada and Australia and other public institutions.
With the objective of contributing to democratic and electoral processes around the world, we have contributed back to the budget of European Union-funded projects implemented by ECES an overall amount of 2,436,198 million euros from our own core funds.
For more information have a look at the dedicated page of our website.