“Our land is locked, but our minds are free.” These were the sentiments of 28-year old Bhakta Raj Joshi, District Election Officer for Dandeldhura, a remote district in the east of Nepal, following his participation in the IFES funded three-day BRIDGE program on Introduction to Election Administration and Pre-election Activities. BRIDGE (Building Resources in Democracy, Governance and Elections) is a comprehensive professional development course designed by and for election administrators to better understand the electoral process.
The training, which took place in the picturesque hill town of Dhulikel from 13th-15th December 2010, was attended by 21 recently appointed Election Commission staff, from Election Commission headquarters and districts around Nepal. IFES worked with the Election Commission BRIDGE team to put together an intensive but highly participatory introductory electoral administration program, covering topics such as what constitutes free and fair elections, electoral framework principles and international electoral standards, as well as more practical sessions on electoral systems, operational planning, voter education. The training culminated in a polling and counting simulation exercise on the roof terrace of the hotel, overlooking the snow-capped Himalayas.
The BRIDGE program has been successfully implemented in Nepal since mid-2008. During this time, the Election Commission has built up a pool of 12 fully accredited BRIDGE facilitators and trained 372 participants in a range of topics, including pre-election activities, voter registration, polling and counting, electoral justice and gender and elections. The program has been extremely well received by the Election Commission and the participants alike.
As Election Commission Joint Secretary, Shyam Sharma, one of the fully accredited BRIDGE facilitators and a champion of BRIDGE within the Commission, says: “The BRIDGE program has become central to the Election Commission’s training strategy. The Election Commission staff come from the government civil service and by and large have generalist backgrounds. To carry out our work effectively, it is essential to build the skills of our staff in electoral administration and the BRIDGE curriculum in terms of its content and methodology plays a key role in achieving this.”
Joint Secretary Shyam’s vision for BRIDGE in 2011 is multi-faceted. As he explains: “It is important that we keep up the momentum of the BRIDGE program and work out ways to use BRIDGE more creatively. In 2011, I want to work with IFES to continue to contextualize the BRIDGE program to Nepal and use the BRIDGE materials and methodology for tailored weekly tutorials for staff on specific topics such as electoral systems, voter education and electoral dispute resolution. I also want to work with IFES to increase the number of female BRIDGE facilitators in Nepal (there is currently only one) and use BRIDGE to help advance our gender mainstreaming program by running specific modules at the national and regional level on gender and elections.”
There is no doubt of the extent to which the Election Commission has embraced the BRIDGE program and training philosophy. The Commission is so committed that it has designated a special BRIDGE training facility in its soon to be constructed Electoral Education and Information Centre, funded by the Australian government through UNDP. With this kind of commitment to institutionalizing the BRIDGE program, and with such positive advocates as Bhakta and Shyam, the future of BRIDGE in Nepal is extremely bright.