Many developing countries moving towards democracy or consolidating democracy often rely heavily on external funding for their elections. Thus, donor agencies have a stake in ensuring that such resources are used well and not wasted by inadvertent administrative errors or mistakes made by poorly trained voting station staff. Investing in capacity building of EMBs contributes to the goals of election funders as such investment will reduce the misuse of funds and enhance cost-effective elections. When elections are conducted cost effectively, they will be more affordable for home governments, which will reduce the financial burden on external donors.

Analysis of the various challenges facing attempts to improve the effectiveness of electoral assistance shows that professional development of electoral officials must be factored in as a permanent activity by assistance providers and partner institutions. This offers the best chance of ensuring institutional sustainability for the electoral institutions of the partner countries and a successful gradual disengagement strategy for the development agencies of the development agencies countries.

The benefits of training and professional development activities are not immediately tangible and offer little visibility for development agencies, unlike ballot boxes or voter education and information materials. However, as EMBs in partner countries generally have a difficult time persuading governments to approve budgets that contain sufficient funds for these activities, this is a typical area where external assistance is requested, sometimes at a very late stage in an electoral cycle, when electoral officials are already too absorbed by operational duties related to the upcoming electoral event. Furthermore, a lack of qualified personnel in other sectors of the partner country’s structure can be an additional factor preventing the sharing of other partner countries’ resources in electoral processes.

Effective electoral assistance in this sector should mean greater awareness of the professional development and institutional capacity needs of recipient EMBs rather than focusing solely on training needs for procedures related to a given electoral event. Organisational and staff development (OSD) for the EMB’s long-term staff should address their capacity-building and skills requirements, and also take into account staff career development. OSD aims to unify the EMB’s strategic objectives and the skills required to attain these through the career development goals of its staff. Staff development may take a number of basic forms, such as customised short-term informal training, mentoring of staff by senior EMBs or another organisation’s officials, and long-term formal training in the form of courses or academic development programmes.

The tendency for electoral assistance providers and development agencies to focus too much on national elections, envisioning top–down democratisation, also requires careful reconsideration. Local elections can be as important as national ones for the democratic development of a partner country and also require targeted capacity building programmes.

One of the key issues for effective assistance is the promotion of legislative reforms that provide the EMB’s highest officials with the means to protect institutional memory and continuity. This can be achieved by introducing staggered terms for EMB members or a clear delineation of responsibilities between the Electoral Commission (or Board of Commissioners) and the EMB Secretariat. It is crucial to help the EMB develop a coherent vision for its role between elections – which may form part of long-term electoral reform proposals. The possibility of enhancing the career development of EMB staff should be identified and supported, including if possible international secondment.