Since it began on May 16th 2012, the EU-funded Supporting Democracy in Libya Project - SUDEL has been implementing, throughout the territory of Libya, a unique approach bringing together initiatives in Dialogue and Reconciliation, Local Elections and Capacity Development.
Building upon the progress made by the earlier EU-funded “Supporting Democratic Transition in Libya” project of the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA), SUDEL was a key actor in promoting the strategic linkage between countrywide National Reconciliation initiatives between national leaders as well as the momentum for Dialogue observed at the local level among feuding local communities.
The SUDEL project was funded by the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR) and spanned a period of 1 year. It has been implemented by a consortium consisting of four partners: ECES (as consortium leader), Club de Madrid, Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy (NIMD) and European Partnership for Democracy (EPD).
The overall objective of SUDEL Project was to support the reconciliation processes and democracy building in Libya. In the context of the local elections of 2012, the specific objectives have been to:
- Strengthen the involvement of Libyan stakeholders in democracy building;
- Provide operational and technical support to local elections; and
- Promote dialogue among political stakeholders and the engagement of citizens.
The Project entailed three key components:
1. Increase the involvement of Libyan stakeholders’ in the democracy building process through the development of Codes of Conduct, the delivering of Training of Trainers (TOT) on election observation techniques and a Training of Trainers (TOT) in Conflict Management Skills for Electoral Stakeholders (LEAD)
2. Provision of operational and technical support for the organization of local elections in Libya, such as Tripoli, Benghazi, Zliten, Al Beyda and Derna.
3. Fostering post-election dialogue among political stakeholders and the engagement of citizens at large to raise awareness, promote participation and reconciliation.
The first action of SUDEL in Libya consisted of ECES procuring and delivering by air, in a record time, the electoral material necessary for the Benghazi Local Elections Committee. Check out the video about this air delivery.
On 16 August 2012, ECES signed a new action named Increase Assistance to Local Electoral Processes - SUDEL II, with the EU, and has enabled the Consortium to reinforce its assistance to local elections in Tripoli and in other towns and cities in Libya.
In the framework of the SUDEL Project, ECES in collaboration with the film-maker Jarreth Merz, has produced several videos:
Women's Role in the Transition and Electoral Processes in Libya: Through the experiences of three female candidates, the video’s goal is to show both the importance and the challenges that women are faced with when pursuing their political goals and ambitions, both, as voters and as representatives. Additionally, this documentary grants viewers access to the process of democratisation in Libya in an unprecedented way. It attempted to capture the complexity of electoral cycles and provided the audience with an insight into the first local electoral processes in Libya.
It takes viewers on a political tour of the electoral processes in an Arab country, and it is designed to be accessible to the electoral stakeholders engaged in raising awareness on key-concepts, such as elections, democracy, legitimacy/credibility and reconciliation.
Two short preliminary trailers on the Benghazi and Tripoli local elections were also released in August 2012.
For more information, please send an email to info@eces.eu
