Gearing EMB policies and practices to promote sustainability helps an EMB enhance stakeholder confidence in the electoral process and in itself. For example, governments and donors want to see that the funds they appropriate to the EMB are used effectively, and that the EMB is developing its capacity to reduce its reliance on external interventions and inputs, especially donor support. Other stakeholders, such as political parties and the general public, also want to see sustainability of EMB policies and practices as a way to increase electoral integrity and political participation.
The challenge of sustainability is more pronounced among EMBs in emerging democracies, which often rely heavily on donor aid. Economic and political hardships may prevent these countries from being able to wholly fund their own elections themselves. In transitional elections, high integrity costs relating to confidence-building processes — such as peacekeeping, voter education and information, and election observation and monitoring — may be financially unsustainable, and are often funded through donor aid.
A high level of international assistance for second and third elections in emerging democracies may not result in greater efficiency or effectiveness, even though many of the threats to the initial democratic transition may have receded. As the international political agenda moves on, reduced donor interest may mean that such funding is not even available.
Two immediate challenges have been the transfer of authority from international EMBs to fully national EMBs, as in Cambodia and Timor-Leste, and determining how best to ensure the institutional sustainability of newly founded EMBs, as in Afghanistan, Tunisia and Libya.
