This question was posted on behalf of Anyanzo David,  The Electoral Commission of Uganda

What factors should one consider when developing "voter education training plan" for an EMB?  The voter training plan, will be used to train election officials handling voter education in the field.

Summary of Responses

Practitioners’ Network members shared a wide range of considerations for developing a voter education training plan for an EMB.  

Members generally mentioned the need to use international standards for voter education, with a member from the United Kingdom citing a BRIDGE module on voter education outlining the following considerations:

1. The structural context - the law and available budget and people
2. What messages need to be delivered
3. Who needs to receive which messages
4. When each message needs to be received (many are best delivered before the election campaign starts)
5. The best methods to deliver each message to the people who need to receive it, within the available budget

A few members also stressed the importance of drawing from best practices when facilitating the training (e.g. being politically neutral, accommodating different learning styles, using accessible language in written and verbal instructions, making learning meaningful).

Most frequently, however, members shared considerations for the implementation and design of voter education programming, grouped below:

1. Including strategies for including external stakeholders in voter education such as civil society organizations (domestic and international), state institutions, local authorities, the media that are involved in voter education
2. Stressing the need to measure results of voter education programs, and collect feedback for EMBs
3. Stressing the need to allow enough time in voter education campaigns for messaging, feedback, and potentially adjusting the message after feedback
4. Finding ways to leverage training resources through community organizations, peer-to-peer outreach, and the news media
5. Stressing the need to tailor voter education programming to the context of implementation
6. Instilling an understanding of countries’ legal and regulatory frameworks for media (e.g. Right to Information Law, Cyber Security or ICT Law, whether there is a Public Service Broadcaster) and how they affect voter education programming
7. Instilling an understanding of demographic factors specific to the context of implementation (e.g. literacy levels in country, regional, ethnic, racial, or sectarian divides, etc.)
8. Drawing from past experiences of elections and voter education campaigns when training electoral staff in voter education, and when designing and implementing voter education programming
9. Stressing the need for voter education campaigns to specially target youth, people with disabilities, women and other minority groups, and suggesting strategies for the inclusion of these groups
10. Highlighting the technologies used in voter education
11. Suggesting strategies/best practices for messaging in voter education campaigns (e.g. door-to-door campaigns, radio programmes, workshops, focus group discussions, road shows, etc.)
12. Stressing the importance of considering physical security when designing and implementing voter education programming in countries experiencing, or emerging from a period of political conflict
13. Suggesting strategies to communicate the following information in voter education campaigns:  (why to vote, how to vote, where to vote, when to vote)
14. Highlighting the importance of logistical considerations when designing and implementing voter education (e.g. transport, communication infrastructure, etc.)

Contributing Members:

• Bruno Kaufmann
• Sherif Alaa
• Elaine Ginnold
• Jacky Sutton
• Abdul Aziz Mbond
• Ellen Kandororo
• Nchimunya Michelo Silenga
• Catherine Muchiru Kamindo
• Helena Catt
• Suhail HajHammad
• Norbert Masson
• David Hardley Ajwang Onyango
• Shipra Chowdhury
• Aiah Stephen Mattia
• Denise Nzisabira
• Francisco Barrera
• Simotwo Sukuku Martin
• Matheantoa Selebalo
• Henry Makabayi
• Amin S. Wasike Yusuf

1) WHAT? Knowledge about the available tools for citizens as voting and participatory rights

2) HOW? Knowledge about how voters/citizens can make their voices heard (methods, channels, forms)

3) WHEN? Knowledge about the opportunities to vote/participate in the debate around the election period

*In addition to the above, I would think of the following:

1) Engaging domestic and international civil society organizations who work in voter education in both processes: brainstorming and implementation.

2) Engaging other state and non-state institutions that are relevant to the process to facilitate the task (local authorities that might help distribute materials, state-owned as well as privately-owned media...etc)

3) Thinking of all aspects of the process that the campaign addresses (how the system works, how, when and where to vote, why is it important to vote, how to register as candidate or voter, how to get accredited, voters with disabilities,...etc

4) Allowing enough time for the campaign so that:

      a) there's enough time to convey the message;

      b) and there's enough time to receive feedback and adjust the message if needed.

*Disclaimer: My answer represents my own personal opinion and not that of any organization or institution that I work(ed) with. Thanks!

In addition to the previous comments, I think that the following factors are important:

1. Stress the importance of non partisanship for trainers doing voter education in the field

2. Use plain language in written and verbal instruction

3. Find ways to leverage training resources through community organizations,  peer to peer outreach, and the news media.

4. Establish a way to measure the results of the voter education program

Also very important to consider the legal and regulatory framework for media in the country. Is there a Right to Information Law? Or a Cyber Security or ICT Law? Or drafts of such law? Is there a Public Service Broadcaster? Is the media sectarian or are there professional outlets that can be expected to broadcast or publish voter education material for free or at concessionary rates? How effective is the minority language media?

In addition to all that have been said previously i think one important factor to be taken  into account is the number of  trainees and their profile (EMB personel that are to be trained). The existence or no of an electoral law or code. The plan should consider the different types of elections prescribed by the law and their respectives specific character. Past elections experience should be stressed out. The plan should also have a section on the kind of technology used.

From my understanding, you are trying to develop a training plan. To add on to what everybody else has said, I think you should also take the following into consideration:

The elements of training, accepted standards and principles, the many stakeholders and their different needs, time and efficiency, monitoring and evaluation.

Other issues you may take into consideration as you plan your training are:

 ◦How do we make learning meaningful?

◦What are the different learning styles and their effectiveness?

◦What should we do in our training sessions to facilitate?

All the best.

In addition, to the above, it is important to conduct a needs assessment to establish the voter education needs. The other is factor is the medium that will be used to diseminate the voter education content and the different groups of voters who may need targed education. Such groups include the youth, people living with disabilities, women in special circumstances and marginalized populations.

All considerations must be supported by the countries legal framework.

There is a good BRIDGE module on voter education which could be used for the training.

For me the crucial considerations are:

1. the structural context - the law and available budget and people

2. what messages need to be delivered

3. who needs to receive which messages

4. when each message needs to be received (many are best delivered before the election campaign starts)

5. the best methods to deliver each message to the people who need to receive it, within the available budget

in addition to what has been mentioned above,, 

In case you have active political parties, they may play major role in voter education.

if you seek a long term voter education, you may work through Ministry of Education. 

there are 2 options:

1. the EMB could directly train students using different tools, like elections simulation, lectures, materials distribution for students and their families.

2. the EMB could work with Ministry of Education to include lessons about elections in students curriculum.

I t should be noted that there are three components to the construct of electoral education viz. civic education which deals with human rights and the need for individuals to be able to participate in elections etc; next is voter information which as the term implies means information that the electorate would need to know in order to exercise their franchise e.g.. that they must be registered, the existence of voter rolls, their electoral district, polling division, address of polling station, documents they need to take to the polling station  and so on. The third element voter education relates to the knowledge that election officers must have in order to execute the duties such that voters can exercise their right to vote, which implies that such officers must be au courant with the election rules governing the election, which rules would delineate all the procedures that must be followed. The trainers conducting such exercises must be highly experienced individuals and the participants of such training should not be involved in active politics

Your plan should include; Security, Trust, Honesty, religion, Race identification, Conflict Prevention, and what about equipment compatibility, environment at which you would like to disseminate with the information. After all these does your budget allow you to do other things, Logistics, Management , Corruption and what would you want to do according to the Rule of Law or constitution of the country, Human Rights, and the legal framework. Also check on time frame and who you are reaching.

• Budget 

• Target  Audiences  (EMB as well as the member of Election working group)

• Resource persons (Facilitators)

• Develop content (civic and voter right and relevant laws in a very easy way )

• How to transform the knowledge (training methodology)

• Where and when would the knowledge deliver (fixed a timetable and training place)

• How to collect feedback from EMB (evaluation methodology)

BRIDGE module on voter education could be use for this training. It is a well organised module that could be use for EMB as well as the stakeholders. 

Stephen Aiah Mattia, Friday, 21 February 2014- An EMB voter education plan has to be ostensibly different from a voter information plan. The distinction between voter education and voter information will therefore inform the plan that the EMB shapes up. A few considerations may include the target beneficiaries of the plan and its objectives or outcomes. Some EMBs will target their core permanent staff as beneficiaries of voter education to enhance their capacity to sail through a particular electoral event, or a series of events in a multi-year electoral cycle. Such a plan may envisage logistics management, stakeholder/citizen engagement; poll worker training; results management and relevant IT skills, etc.

However, a voter information plan may be narrowed down to the basic knowledge that a voter requires to participate in the various activities of the process. When is registration? Where do I need to go to get my registration done? What do I need to identify myself, or establish my qualifications, etc. A similar frame can be applied to voting, including the steps involved. Different stakeholders may need different information at different times.

Whatever the nature and target of the training/information, better if it is predicated on a strategic plan that appreciates the organizations programs, and  implementation due dates and evaluation timelines. Any plan lacking these basic elements is like a vessel without a sail

In addition to what has been developped above, I think that the plan of voter education could target  to answer the following questions:

- why do I vote?

- How do I vote ?

- Where do I vote?

- When do I vote?

- Who do I vote for and why do I vote for him?

After that you determine the budget for this action. Develop messages for sensitization and who they are targeted to ( youth, women, people living with disabilities, political parties, stakeholders). All that must be in Appliance with the law Framework related to élections.

Deberia tenerse en cuenta de incluir todas las recomendaciones antes mencionadas en el marco del procedimiento que es el calendario de elcciones o electoral, para que si es educacion al elector, este enterado de todas las actividades que se desarrollan y en cuales pueden y deben participar Ejm:

Inscripciones: de candidatos y de sufragantes para pertenecer al registro electoral

Nombramiento de jurados de votacion (jurados de mesa), funciones, obligaciones etc.

Testigos de los partidos politicos, funciones, contravenciones, documentos etc

Votacion: pasos, documentos etc

Y asi sucesivamente con todas las acciones de la eleccion, contenidas en un cronograma electoral

• entry behaviour of the field staff( what do they already know about voter education)
• literacy level of the citizens or the voting population.
• Type of content or strategies to be disseminated.
• availability of funds.
• Age of a majority of voting population.

- Inclusion of the civil societies in the development of the plan is very important

- Consideration of the lingual statuses of the nation will also add a good part

- coverage of the training programmes needs also to be considered

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To prepare a voter education training plan you would have to come up with the programme and course content.  You would also have to consider the training methods to be used (when training the educators and the methods the educators will use in the field).

A consideration would be made to refer to any such exercise conducted by the organisation to utilise lessons learned from its success or failure.  The approach for voter education would vary between urban and rural populations as well as the the literate and illiterate.  The objective would be to come up with messages and approaches that capture the whole voter population.

Logistical considerations in terms of materials, transport, communication media and facilitation of the trainers, among others ought to be considered.

Evaluation of each stage of the activity should be made to ensure that you keep in line with you set objective.  This is a quality control aspect.  To achieve quality focus should be on the process, not the outcome because waiting to see the outcome may be too late.

Arrangements should be made to compile a report about the voter education pointing out the success and challenges which will guide planning a subsequent related activity.

In addition to the above, you need to state if the voter education is for the purpose of voter registration or election and the duration that is available for the exercise.

You need to map the country into regions (those with difficult terrains, poor communications network, urban/Peri-urban/rural, race, religion,age groups. This will help you decide on the means (radio, television, door - door voter educators) as well as budgeting for facilitators.