BY JOE BAXTER

Early in 2000, IFES recognized it  needed a new approach to delivering quality training to the staff of Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in preparation for a nationwide voter registration exercise in 2001 and the April 2003 State and Federal Elections.

Drawing on its experience in other African countries, IFES recognized that elections are administered not from a capital city but by electoral officials operating at the local level.

Nigeria’s INEC had local election offices in each of the nation’s 774 local government areas, which were responsible for all aspects of election planning and organization within their area. Standard approaches, such as conducting a training course over a period of months or sending electoral officers abroad for training, were financially prohibitive.

Also, the training had to be delivered promptly to fit the Commission’s schedule of preparations for the elections. To solve the problem, IFES designed a complete Basic Election Administration Training (BEAT) course that was delivered over a two-week period in each of Nigeria’s state capitals.

The BEAT workshops were designed to provide basic skills in election administration at a reasonable cost and in a timeframe that met the needs of the Commission. The workshops provided a comprehensive introduction to the election administration profession and election planning and organization standards. Emphasis was placed on the necessary elements for free and fair elections and on ethical guidelines for election administrators.

The workshops also covered planning the election process, logistics and management, conflict management and dealing with the news media. The workshops employed a participatory, hands-on approach with no lectures and were led by seasoned election administrators from outside Nigeria who had experience both in their own countries and as advisors in other countries. IFES is now working to standardize the BEAT course as a module that can be implemented in any country that requires broad, systematic training of its local election officials.