Together, development agencies and partner counties should
plan and implement electoral assistance within a framework of democratic
governance by thinking ahead 10 years, rather than reacting to each electoral
event as it occurs. In order to achieve this, it is crucial to acknowledge at
both the political and operational levels that every time a decision to support
an electoral process is made, such a decision entails involvement and
commitment to the democratic evolution of the concerned country far beyond the
immediate event to be supported. Any decision to keep offering ad hoc electoral
support, while this might still be acceptable at the contingent political
level, must be accompanied by the consideration that it will not solve the
democracy gap in any partner country, but will instead trigger a more staggered
process of development cooperation. Indeed, the core mistake of past electoral
assistance projects did not rest in the provision of ad hoc short term support,
but in the belief that such support would suffice to ensure the sustainability
of the following electoral processes, the independence and transparency of the
EMB concerned and the consequent democratic development of the partner country.
These
considerations, together with the recognition that obstacles to the
implementation of long-term assistance remained, led International IDEA and the
EC to the development of a visual planning and training tool that could help development
agencies, electoral assistance providers and electoral officials in partner
countries to understand the cyclical nature of the various challenges faced in
electoral processes: this tool has become known as the
electoral cycle approach.
Elections are composed of a number of integrated
building blocks, with different stakeholders interacting and influencing each
other. Electoral components and stakeholders do not stand alone. They are
interdependent, and therefore the breakdown of one aspect (for example the
collapse of a particular system of voter registration) can negatively impact on
every other, including human and financial resources, the availability of
supplies, costs, transport, training and security, and thus on the credibility
of the election itself. In turn, if an electoral process suffers from low
credibility, this is likely to damage the democratisation process of the partner
country and block its overall development objectives.
The cyclical approach to electoral processes and electoral assistance
was designed by EC and International IDEA electoral specialists working on the
first pilot module for training development agencies officials dealing with
electoral assistance projects. The concept rapidly gained consensus among
practitioners and development agencies agencies. Its conceptualisation was
completed with the publication of the EC
Methodological Guide on Electoral Assistance, the International IDEA
Handbook on Electoral Management Design and the UNDP
Electoral Assistance Implementation Guide. This approach has been officially
endorsed by the EC and UNDP for every common electoral assistance project
through the signing of the “Operational
Guidelines for the Implementation of Electoral Assistance” in April 2006. The
document recognises that “electoral
assistance has to take stock of all the steps of the electoral cycle and that
inter-election periods are as crucial as the build up to the elections
themselves, thus requiring regular inter-institutional contact and support
activities before, during and after election periods, for the sake of lessons
learned and inter-institutional memory aiming at improved electoral processes
in beneficiary countries”. These guidelines are already acting as a
catalyst in aligning other development agencies with the strategy and features
of UNDP-managed electoral assistance projects.
The aim of this
“Focus On…” is not to describe the notions underpinning the electoral cycle
approach, but rather to describe how it has rapidly become a cornerstone of the
efforts to make electoral assistance more effective. Since its first
conceptualisation in 2005, there have been several electoral assistance
projects which were successfully implemented or designed (Democratic Republic
of Congo, East Timor, Togo, Sierra
Leone) in accordance with
the principles set forth in the Operational Guidelines and informed by the
electoral cycle approach. It has also become
a model for both planning electoral assistance projects, for developing
capacity within national EMBs and for raising awareness among stakeholders.
An adequate understanding of the various components,
stages and entry points of an ideal electoral cycle should also be used to
better plan and respond to any sudden call for urgent electoral support and
clarify from the outset what is achievable and needed in the short-term, as
well as identifying what must be the objectives of different, longer-term
initiatives. The recognition of the different needs and deliverables related to
each stage of the electoral cycle is essential for appropriate programme
identification, formulation and implementation, as well as development agencies
and stakeholder coordination. The establishment of joint monitoring and quality
support mechanisms at top levels between the EC and UNDP for the improvement of
the implementation of field operations (through the establishment of the EC-UNDP
Joint Task Force on Electoral Assistance, JTF) is a further step towards the
consolidation of the principles for making electoral assistance more effective.
The focus of the JTF is on identification, formulation, implementation, support
and monitoring of all EC-UNDP electoral assistance projects, whenever needed
and demanded by EC Delegations and/or UNDP Country Offices. The lessons learned
are consolidated and codified so that they can be effectively applied to the
implementation of new electoral assistance projects, joint EC-UNDP training
activities, and the ACE project in the Practitioners’ Network.
The electoral cycle approach has also proved to be a formidable learning
tool for electoral officials. Effective electoral assistance requires adequate
transfer of know-how, through long-term capacity building that enables
electoral administrators to become more professional and to better understand,
plan for and implement their core tasks (see paragraph on institutional
strengthening and professional development). The electoral cycle approach is a
key instrument to facilitate understanding of the interdependence of different
electoral activities, helping EMB officials to plan and allocate resources for
specific activities in a more timely fashion than in the past. In particular,
it places an important emphasis on the post-electoral period as a significant
moment of institutional growth, and not just as a vacuum between elections.
Lastly, elections
do provide an important and secure entry-point for wider interventions to
support democratic governance development, such as the strengthening of civil
society, the promotion of human rights (including issues of gender, minorities
and indigenous peoples), support to parliaments, media and political party
development, reinforcement of the rule of law and justice, and more
opportunities for political dialogue and conflict mitigation. Electoral assistance
programmes should thus be designed to be broader than the traditional concept
of an electoral assistance plan. The electoral cycle approach is valuable in
engaging other stakeholders in the process and providing them with tools to improve
their assessment of times and roles for their action. Consequently, financial
support should be linked to a longer-term and integrated strategy, which should
include the electoral period as one phase of a longer-term democratisation
process.
Next:Setting Up an Effective Electoral Assistance Project: From Identification to Evaluation
