It is important that the legal framework for elections provides a mandate for the EMB to participate in international electoral activities. No EMB or country is an island unto itself, and many EMBs are called on from time to time to assist other EMBs, either as observers or technical advisers, or to host study missions from other EMBs.

Although many EMB legal frameworks do not provide for participation in international electoral assistance missions, many EMBs do undertake these tasks on both small and large scales. EMBs that regularly participate in international technical cooperation include those of Australia, Canada, France, Ghana, India, Mexico and South Africa; such cooperation is both bilateral and multilateral. Many other EMBs regularly participate in international observation missions, or in professional contact and exchange activities facilitated by regional networks of election officials. The mandate of the Bangladeshi EMB provides for EMB "support to the United Nations and its member states in organizing elections by fielding of election monitors and observers and organising training for electoral personnel". The law in Bhutan tasks the EMB with providing assistance to foreign countries and organizations in matters relating to elections in situations approved by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.