There is an increasing number of international agencies and individual consultants ready, willing and able to provide election administration assistance and, in particular, civic and voter education. Obtaining international assistance requires a knowledge of these resources as well as the specific tasks for which international support is required.
International Government Organisations
Electoral support has become a core activity of the United Nations (UN) family, which has established a number of specialist units capable of responding to a wide range of necessary activities – from election observation and administration to civic and voter education. With the publication of the seminal UNDP Human Development Index “Human Development Report: Deepening Democracy in a Fragmented World”, the UN recognized a growing trend by its members to support democracy and governance activities in parallel or as foundations to development. With the establishment of the Democracy Support Fund in 2006, a global consensus emerged in which countries act in solidarity with one another to promote democracy.
These global initiatives have been stimulated by or tracked by regional and sub-regional initiatives. The African Union and the Organisation of African States both established mechanisms by which countries could be held accountable for deepening democracy.
All of these initiatives have encouraged a partnership for electoral support and civic education.
Obtaining support
Despite the increasingly joined up architecture of institutions at a global level, international governmental organisations (IGOs) do still operate within different spheres of influence and with different frames of reference. Further information can be obtained about each of these IGOs from local or regional offices or from their web sites.
Regional bodies such as the European Union (EU), the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the Organisation of American States (OAS), and the African Union, and international organisations, such as the Commonwealth and the United Nations, all provide different levels of election support to their members and, on occasion, to donor countries and those requesting assistance. The United Nations family provides an online note at http://portal/undp/org/server/nis/4649027220113235. A number of individual countries also provide assistance through government development agencies, for example the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the British Department for International Development (DFID), the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), and the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA), and their embassies abroad. On occasion, individual countries may be asked by IGOs to act on their behalf. In general, support from governments will have to be sought by the government or someone representing an inclusive community of interests within a country.
International Nongovernmental Organisations
Apart from governments there are a number of NGOs or consortia of NGOs that provide assistance in support of democracy. These include the partners in the Administration and Cost of Elections (ACE) Project. Many of these in addition to providing small grants, maintain websites providing information on donor organisations, technical assistance provided (organized by assistance area, such as voter education), and regional information resources.
Unlike government funding agencies, international nongovernmental organisations may opt to fund only those projects being undertaken by fellow nongovernment, thereby supporting the development of the nongovernmental sector as a whole. For this reason, it will be important for those seeking grants to adequately understand the orientation, goals, and priorities of the organisation from which funding is being sought.
Preparing for Support
Resources can be obtained only if the organisation has specifically identified the type of support that may be required and matched this to a donor with complementary programmatic goals and funding priorities. Support might take the form of technical assistance, for example advice in developing, implementing, or evaluating a voter education programme, via training of trainers (TOT), through the provision or necessary equipment, in the form of a grant, or by covering the costs of a specific activity such as the printing or delivery of materials. Once a proposal has been prepared, any of the ACE partners will be willing to refer people to potential areas of support.
