Building Resources in Democracy, Governance and Elections - BRIDGE
The Building Resources in Democracy, Governance and Elections (BRIDGE) training is a modular professional development programme with a particular focus on electoral processes. BRIDGE represents a unique initiative where five leading organisations in the democracy and governance field, namely the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC), International IDEA, the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United Nations Electoral Assistance Division (UNEAD), have jointly committed to develop, implement and maintain the most comprehensive curriculum and workshop package available, designed to be used as a tool within a broader capacity development framework.
Among ECES personnel, there are several BRIDGE accrediting and accredited facilitators. Consequently, within the capacity development component of its projects geared at ensuring sustainability and ownership of results, ECES also delivers BRIDGE specific modules and BRIDGE ‘Train the Facilitators’ (TtF) workshops.
BRIDGE has four main objectives:
- to promote internationally accepted principles of democracy and good electoral practice;
- to enhance the skills and confidence of stakeholders in the electoral process;
- to increase the awareness of tools and resources available for the building and maintaining of a sustainable electoral culture; and,
- to develop a support network for stakeholders in electoral processes and encourage a culture of sharing information and experiences.
ECES implemented a number of BRIDGE trainings, including a BRIDGE module in Electoral Observation in Pristina and Kosovo. The training was funded by the Organisation for Cooperation and Security in Europe (OSCE) and was part of a capacity building scheme to strengthen the skills of CSOs in monitoring the performance of the Election Management System body (EMS) and other elected institutions.
For more information, please visit the dedicated website of BRIDGE.
