ECES is specialised in effective handling of the very complex and delicate set of interactions among the electoral management bodies, multilateral and bilateral development agencies, governments, CSOs, political parties, and providers of electoral material and services by implementing the following set of activities:
- Management of basket funds (EU and other donors): through the adoption of transparent management procedures in line with “best practices” of the sector, ECES is able to maximise the coherence and the complementarity of external contributions to the electoral processes in view to avoid duplication of efforts.
- Political dialogue: strengthening and consolidating electoral stakeholders’ commitments and adherence to common and shared democratic values.
- Crisis management/mediation process with key electoral stakeholders including political leaders: support various local forums, such as a panel of influential persons; including nationals and senior mediation and conflict management experts who can advise and support the panel.
- Link existing peace-building projects to early warning mechanisms: this activity seeks to tap into already ongoing local initiatives along these lines that need strengthened coordination to enhance effectiveness.
- Religious networks and association mapping and inter- and intra-faith dialogue, with potential to counteract extremism and radicalisation: inter-and intra-faith dialogue has the potential to deal effectively with political and electoral challenges and contribute to the progress of democratisation and peaceful conduct of elections in ways that will give meaning and direction to followers of different faiths, anchored in religious guidance.
- Confidence-building dialogue initiatives (regional, national and community level): such activities can contribute to strengthening and consolidating a wide range of electoral stakeholders’ commitments and adherence to common and shared democratic values.
- Advisory support: provision of specific, high quality, flexible and customisable electoral expertise in view to develop appropriate and effective answers to the needs of national authorities and electoral stakeholders;
- InnovElections: hybrid approach to training delivery through a flexible menu of training curricula, coupled with remote solutions to mitigate the challenges imposed by the coronavirus pandemic;
- Logistics and operational support: evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of the logistic and operational electoral chain is a require for improvement in terms of effectiveness, timing, cost, sustainability, while providing support to logistic operations (inventory, electoral kit, deployment and storage of electoral material, etc.).
- Media monitoring and institutional communication: media monitoring, which consists of observing media contents using quantitative and qualitative analysis in the long run, is essential to evaluate the media coverage of the electoral process, pluralism and citizens’ perception of the Electoral Management Bodies (EMB) and the electoral process.
- Procurement of electoral material: development of acquisition plans on behalf of donors and in full compliance with the procedures and technical specifications, which allows to identify the needs that develop the most appropriate management methodology and chronogram taking into account the challenges related to the electoral calendar;
Support EMBs to enhance their capacity to manage donors’ funds including reporting and procedures and expending evaluation: fully in accordance with the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness and the Busan Partnership, ECES, while ensuring the transparency and traceability of funds’ usage, support beneficiaries to become fully autonomous in managing financial contributions.
- Development of innovative information and communication technologies (ICTs), user-friendly solutions and applications adapted to electoral support: technology can be a strategic asset for supporting electoral assistance related activities.
- Implementation of civic-voter education campaigns: ECES designs and implements civic and voter education activities for different electoral stakeholders, particularly for electoral management bodies and CSOs. This is done using innovative tools, such as production of videos and using media monitoring and social network and implementing nation wide mobile cinema campaigns.
- Design and securitisation of ballot papers: several studies demonstrated that the order of candidates, typography and layout such as the presence of logos and photos are not neutral ballot paper’s elements. In order to ensure a fair and equal treatment to all candidates, a digital processing of candidates and political parties logos allow standardising the presentation in line with common rules (background, colours, and templates).
- Transmission of election results: support the design and implementation of transparent, effective and credible results transmission systems, which can contribute to the facilitation of acceptance of results while reducing the risk of accidents and violence;
- Production of visibility plans: ECES for each and every single project produces visibility plan according to the rules and regulations of each donor, which is submitted to approval before it is implemented. This includes design and publishing of dedicated websites and social network activities.
