Developing a strategic plan is the basic step in focusing the efforts of the EMB on achieving a set of agreed objectives based on its legally defined responsibilities. The strategic plan is the management tool that is the EMB’s interface with its external environment - particularly its stakeholders, a tool from which fundamental decisions on EMB activity flow: operational planning and prioritising, resource allocation, service standards. The strategic plan is the basis for the fundamental decisions on EMB activity: for its operational planning and prioritising, its resource allocation, its service standards, and for providing the EMB with a blueprint for service, organisational strengthening, integration, and improvement. It is an instrument that helps the EMB to operate at a high level of performance and to achieve good customer satisfaction, and it is a helpful tool for the EMB to understand its changing environment.

The strategic plan is a public document that stands as a record of what the EMB stands for, what it does and why, and what it intends to achieve. As well as being a road map that guides and motivates the EMB for a defined period of years, it serves an important role as a marker against which the EMB’s performance can be measured by its stakeholders.

The strategic plan can assist the EMB to achieve high levels of performance and good customer satisfaction, and if effective, it can promote a vision of the EMB as an open, democratic, and accountable institution. To do so, it must be consistent with the EMB’s mandate and implemented within the framework of the constitution and the electoral law. It takes account of all known factors which could affect the EMB’s performance, such as:

• the regulatory environment;
• technology;
• likelihood of conflict;
• stakeholder participation or voter apathy; and
• EMB-government relations.

It would be unusual for an EMB’s strategic plan to cover more than one national election cycle as post-electoral event reviews may result in significant changes to the electoral administration environment. A strategic plan is not a document set in concrete: it is a practical strategic guide for the EMB, and must obviously change if significant changes in the external or internal environment require a revised strategy. An EMB without a strategic plan is like a pilot without a compass.

Basic elements of the plan, which would be elaborated to a greater or lesser extent in the planning document, are the EMB’s:

• Vision – what the EMB aspires to be;
• Purpose, Objective, or Mission - the fundamental focus of the EMB;
• Values – the ethical concepts on which the EMB’s activities are based, such as accountability, productivity, independence, impartiality, professionalism, commitment, efficiency, competence, fairness, and non-partisanship;
• Outcomes and focus areas – the basic results the EMB aims to achieve;
• Key results - the effects that the EMB wants to have on its environment;
• Indicators - measurable targets that assist in determining how well the EMB has achieved its intended results;
• EMB data – the establishment, structure, and composition of the EMB;
• Performance Management Strategy (PMS) – how the EMB will promote the improvement of individual, team and organisational performance in a holistic, systematic, and sustainable way.

Strategic plan development may be facilitated by the EMB’s undertaking of an analysis of its strengths; weaknesses; opportunities and threats (SWOT). Identifying the contextual elements on which the intended outcomes of the strategic plan are based, is necessary to allow valid judgments of achievements. The assumed context could include specific levels of stakeholders’ participation, adequate infrastructure to support the strategic plan, or qualified and experienced staff being recruited and retained. Each country is likely to have some country-specific context, such as the EMB’s efforts to deal with the effects of HIV/AIDS on its employees.

It is important that the EMB consults with its stakeholders in the development, monitoring, and review of its strategic plan. This promotes stakeholders’ awareness and appreciation of the EMB’s challenges and strengths, and may boost their confidence in the electoral process in general. It also promotes the EMB’s awareness of the expectations and priorities of its stakeholders.