TWO LIBERIANS JOINED A POOL OF ACCREDITED BRIDGE FACILITATORS IN THE ECOWAS REGION
PRESS RELEASE
The ECOWAS Commission, through its Electoral Assistance Division over the weekendorganized a Building Resources in Democracy, Governance, and Elections (BRIDGE) Train the Facilitator (TtF) workshop with funding from the GIZ.
The workshop was held from May 26 to June 05, 2022, bringing together 28 election actors from the ECOWAS region in Grand Bassam, Côte d’Ivoire.
BRIDGE is a modular professional development program with a particular focus on electoral processes, it represents a unique initiative where five leading organizations in the democracy and governance field have jointly committed to developing, implementing, and maintaining the most comprehensive curriculum and workshop package. The five BRIDGE partners are the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC), International IDEA, IFES, the UNDP, and the United Nations Electoral Assistance Division (UNEAD).
The overall objective of the BRIDGE “Train the Facilitator” course is to achieve effective and sustainable results in electoral administration, build the capacities of Electoral Management Bodies trainers and other electoral actors with a view to strengthening national institutional capacities and electoral processes as well as expose participants to workshop facilitation techniques, tools and resources for maintaining good electoral practices and culture in the region.
The training, which was facilitated by Pathé DIENG, accredited BRIDGE Facilitator, Fanta TRAORE, Co-Facilitator, and Luther BAROU as Workshop Facilitator, was meant to accredit high-quality Bridge facilitators within the region. This is particularly relevant in today’s West African context where empowered citizens and strong institutions are key to democratic progress.
At the end of the Grand Bassam workshop under the leadership of Pathé DIENG with Fanta TRAORE and Luther BAROU at his side, the participants managed to develop an effective and appropriate standardized training framework and methodology based on well-defined principles, operational rules, and procedural guidelines to measure the integrity and credibility of electoral processes in the sub-region.
During the 10 days of intensive training, participants mastered the educational objectives, key messages of the Bridge learning framework, the learning stages, and above all, to possess the cross-cutting themes. Participants were reminded that BRIDGE was all about ATTITUDE, so they learned the skills of a good, credible Bridge facilitator.
The 28 electoral experts thus strengthened their capacities of the training services of the EMBs and other stakeholders in the region on the fundamental thematic issues related to the BRIDGE training modules. At the end of the training, participants joined a pool of accredited BRIDGE facilitators in the region.
At the opening session of the workshop on May 26, 2022, the Director of Political Affairs of the ECOWAS Commission, Dr. Remi Ajibewa, cautioned participants to work to master the methodology of BRIDGE and gain supervised experience in running the Bridge Project.
The Accrediting Facilitator, Pathé DIENG, welcomed the initiative of ECOWAS and GIZ to train its experts and thereby strengthen their capacities in order to build real resources in democracy, governance, and elections.
Head of the ECOWAS Electoral Assistance Division, Dr. Francis Gabriel OKE said, “holding this training is an opportunity to encourage all participants to make the most of this training of Bridge trainers”. Dr. Oke told participants it was a privilege to be selected among many to attend the training and encouraged participants to make better use of the opportunity provided to them.
Participants appreciated the opportunity provided by the ECOWAS Commission to participate in such a rich program with a life-changing experience. Liberia was represented by the Executive Director of Naymote Partners for Democratic Development www.naymote.com a leading civil society organization working on advancing the principles of democracy, good governance in the rule of law in the region, Eddie D. Jarwolo and Patience M. Russell of the National Elections Commission.
Eddie promised to use the skills and knowledge from the training to contribute positively to Liberia’s electoral processes through his institution, Naymote Partners for Democratic Development which runs a flagship program – the Young Political Leadership School Africa, www.yplsa.org a youth leadership platform that has been committed to advancing electoral integrity for political accountability and leadership within the Mano River Union and by extension, in West Africa, and the Elections Coordinating Committee, a consortium of seven civil society organizations that are seeking to ensure credible elections in Liberia. “We can make our elections peaceful, better, and participatory working across the 3 stages, 8 steps, and 32 activities of the electoral cycle”, he said. He also thanked the ECOWAS Commission for the opportunity provided to him and others.