Strategy 2012 - 2013

In the period from 2012 to 2013 ECES will implement its activities and projects focusing on sustainable strategies that will take into account the complex political circumstances and the consequences of any electoral support.

By using the political economy analysis and promotion of political dialogue as an integral part of electoral assistance projects, ECES will target the development of regional, national and local capacities. Emphasis will be placed on dialogue and mediation for the consensual and inclusive management of political transition and the prevention and mitigation of electoral and political conflict.

In this context ECES will implement its projects by giving priority to:

• Integrating electoral assistance projects with other activities that are carried out in the fields of democracy and development support more broadly. This includes a focus on education, infrastructure, women’s empowerment, parliamentary development and anti-corruption action, while maintaining a strategy for stabilisation and recovery, combined with access to the rule of law, justice and security.
• Use of strategic, operational and financial planning as a tool to ensure a phased approach within the electoral cycle that donors could support. This action will have specific indicators which would also help to make long-term electoral assistance more effective in its implementation.
• Increasing the synergies between domestic, regional and international election observations missions and electoral assistance so that the recommendations of the observation missions are routinely treated as a starting point for the formulation and implementation of electoral assistance projects.
• Increased support to national election observation organisations to aid the development of appropriate and customised methodologies for the implementation of long term observation or the set up of a permanent “observatory” focusing on the most sensitive steps of any given electoral cycle.
• Building and developing national and local capacities on the ground, facilitating connections at national, regional and global levels through the facilitation of south-south cooperation, peer reviews, and exchange of experiences among EMBs and regional EMB organisations chiefly by funding regional and transnational projects.
• Increased support to regional and national schools of electoral administration and to academic curricula relating to electoral studies. This also takes into account distance education and E-learning programmes using sustainable and cost effective communication technologies.
• Development of leadership and conflict management skills for all electoral stakeholders with the aim of further enabling them to face the complex and interrelated challenges of organising and dealing with electoral events.