IFES is conducting its first civic education campaign in Côte d’Ivoire aimed at helping millions of people unable to vote or access basic services due to a lack of official documentation. Civil society partners in four of the most affected regions are organizing workshops from October 20-November 8 to teach people about the complex process of obtaining identification papers, a process known in French as audiences foraines.

The identity issue in Côte d’Ivoire—specifically who constitutes a true Ivorian citizen—was the base of the 20002 conflict between the government and the Forces Nouvelles, opposition forces that control the north. That conflict ultimately split the country along north-south lines.

Côte d’Ivoire has awaited elections since the United Nations adopted Resolution 1633 in 2005, mandating elections to be held no later than October 2006. Months after missing the deadline, President Laurent Gbagbo and Forces Nouvelles leader Guillaume Soro signed an accord in March 2007 in Ouagadougou that promised to re-unify the country, install a transitional government and put Côte d’Ivoire firmly on the path to elections within ten months. Although significant advances were made in accordance with that timeline, several key aspects have met with delays pushing the prospect for elections well into 2008.

More than a quarter of the population in Cote d’Ivoire, a country of 18 million people, is estimated to be without proper identification papers. IFES’ new project, funded by the United States Agency for International Development, delivers civic education training in four regions: Savanes, Denguelé, Worodougou and Bafing. These regions represent Cote d’Ivoire’s borders with neighboring Mali, Burkina Faso and Guinea and are believed to have the highest populations of residents without proper identification.

Trainers use a “picture box” developed by IFES which contains a series of illustrations depicting the steps in the audiences foraines process. The illustrations teach citizens they must appear before a judge with two witnesses who can attest to their birth in Côte d’Ivoire and how to use the judge’s ruling to obtain identity papers and ultimately a place on the voter register. The trainings are being conducted in seven local languages.

The current campaign will end with a debriefing for civic educators in Korhogo on November 10. IFES hopes to expand the project in order to reach all disenfranchised citizens in time for the upcoming elections.