In 1992, the United Nations General Assembly mandated the creation of a small unit devoted to electoral assistance activities. The main role of this Electoral Assistance Division is to evaluate all requests for electoral assistance, to undertake needs-assessment missions, to provide consistent answers from the United Nations system to requesting governments, to work cooperatively with UN and non-UN system actors in the design and implementation of electoral assistance project activities, to develop operational strategies for electoral components of peace-keeping operations, to maintain a roster of electoral experts able to provide technical assistance on short notice, to facilitate the international observation of elections, and to serve as the UN’s institutional memory in the electoral field