In an effort to develop the capacity of Iraq’s Independent High Election Commission (IHEC), IFES and the IHEC recently launched a comprehensive program to help IHEC staff gain a deeper understanding of the electoral process and the international standards for genuine and credible elections. 

The program consists of custom-tailored BRIDGE—Building Resources in Democracy, Governance, and Elections—sessions. BRIDGE is an internationally recognized  curriculum designed by and for election administrators to better understand the electoral process. 

From April to July 2011, IFES is implementing a series of 12 BRIDGE workshops to be conducted for more than 300 IHEC staff members at the national and governorate (provincial) levels. During these workshops, IHEC staff and international specialists will discuss various aspects of elections including: principles of electoral administration, international standards and best practices for elections and different types of electoral systems. 

As part of the introductory BRIDGE workshops, 16 IHEC members are receiving special training from the international BRIDGE facilitators in order to achieve full accreditation as BRIDGE facilitators. These 16 IHEC staff members were also involved in planning the program from its initiation and will rotate as facilitators during the initial 12 workshops. 

Following these initial 12 introductory workshops, IFES and IHEC plan to conduct more specialized BRIDGE courses for staff members. Some of these future workshops will be facilitated by IHEC staff members.