Network for Enhanced Electoral and Democratic Support (NEEDS) Project
EISA, in collaboration with International IDEA, will be providing training to selected domestic observer groups from countries which are beneficiaries of European Union (EU) assistance.
Objectives
The overall objective is to ensure that electoral observation has a real impact on the democratic development agenda pursued by the EU in beneficiary countries and more significantly, the establishment of synergies between electoral observation and electoral assistance in the development of strategies for EU external cooperation programmes and the enhancement of the quality and capacity of domestic election observation in view of a systematic assessment of elections against international and regional standards for genuine democratic elections.
More specifically, the initiative aims to:
- Consolidate methodology in line with international and regional standards of democratic elections
- Improve observers capabilities through development of common approach in the recruitment and training of observers
- Contribute to democratic process in third countries through:
- support to domestic observers and CSO through regional partners
- development and promotion of strategies for implementation of recommendations including capacity building.
Activities
- Identification of eight domestic observers CSO and work with partners to strengthen their (EO) capacity on:
- election observation methodologies
- use of international standards for elections in election observation
- ability to produce credible observation report and recommendations
- Regional networking all over Africa to facilitate regular exchange of experiences and promote South South cooperation.
- Organise five training courses of five days of length of which outline and methodology will be provided by the observers and regional network coordinator of the project.
- Participate in training in other regions and provide recommendations for follow up in Africa.
The project will be executed in three phases from 2009-2011.
The first phase will be implanted from October 2008 to September 2009 and will take the form of a training workshop from 4-8 May 2009. Eight CSOs from eight Ghana, Kenya, Namibia, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe will be selected to take part. A five day training course will be held at EISA.
The second phase will be from October-September 2010. Eight CSOs from eight francophone countries in Africa will be selected for another five day training workshop.
The third phase will be implanted in 2011.