Happy Halloween: Shaking a few skeletons out of the BRIDGE Closet

The Facilitator Bulletin Edition 4 | October 2011

Inside this issue: 1 Shaking a few skele-

tons

2 Fun with BRIDGE

3 Facilitator Bios

4 Upcoming Events

5 Past Events

6 Recently Accredited

7 Facilitator Update

In the ten years that we’ve been conducting BRIDGE workshops around the world, we’ve certainly accumulated more than our share of skeletons in the closet. To those of you who celebrate Halloween and for the sake of promoting discussions and debate, let’s drag a few of those dusty bones out into the sunlight. Skeleton 1: The BRIDGE Consultant As we strive to professionalise electoral management, we have also accidentally pro-fessionalised ourselves. Among the hundreds of accredited facilitators, there are now BRIDGE cadres (myself included) who have built their own consultan-cies providing facilitation services to international organisations. Personally, I didn’t intend for this to happen, but the demand for experienced facilitators has been more than steady enough to keep me facilitating full-time. This trend isn’t unnoticed by our colleagues who are weary of being stuck at their desks in DC, Jakarta, or Abuja. Recently I’ve found my inbox full of emails from friends, both seasoned election experts and junior officers, who are saying ‘I’m going to quit my day job and become a full-time BRIDGE consultant like you.’ While the consultantisation of BRIDGE might make some people uncomfortable, it's a good and natural evolution of the programme, provided that those consultants con-tinue to follow the principles of transparency and fair play. That said, the rise of con-sultants raises a few potential conflicts of interest, but each of these deserves it’s own skeleton… Skeleton 2: The BRIDGE Mafioso I’ve encountered plenty of sentiment from country offices and aspiring facilitators who feel that BRIDGE is dominated by a cartel of consultants who are promoting an ‘open’ product, and then monopolising the implementation. It’s easy to understand this sentiment: when individuals can’t participate in a TtF or complete their accredita-tion despite trying for years, or when implementers find themselves rescheduling events to match a key facilitator’s schedule, they feel frustrated. This perception weakens the power of the BRIDGE idea, which has always been both open and par-ticipatory. BRIDGE isn’t a Ponzi scheme - if it were Ross Attrill would be a millionaire. There are good reasons why there are sometimes shortages of good facilitators, and why this shocks the country offices. When we promote BRIDGE, we show a network of hundreds of facilitators. This presentation is accurate to the extent that there are loads of facilitators out there, but it’s not an accurate representation of available, ac-tive, and qualified facilitators.

The vast majority of facilitators have day jobs, and aren't waiting around for consul-tancies. Some have been accredited for political reasons; many others have no com-parative experience. Thus, while there are now hundreds of accredited facilitators out there, there are understandably few who do most of the consultancy work. If you need someone with a specific technical capacity, specific language skills , and a dec-ade of electoral experience, you’d better start looking early. We need to be more up-front about this issue with our implementers.

Article by Skye S. Christensen

Budapest, Hungary

There are some simple solutions to overcome the BRIDGE Mafia perception. Firstly, we need to be open about sourcing facilitators. Most of this is still done at the last minute through personal networks. Networks are useful, but everything should be posted online as well. Second, we need to change the way we communicate with implementers. As an implementer you’re better off finding the consultant team before planning the event rather than the other way around. As facilitators, let’s reach out to the implementers and get them thinking about the facilitators as soon as they begin to think about the project. There’s also no Mafia behind the scarcity of open international TtFs. The BRIDGE partners are focused on country programmes, and have little interest in providing independent consultants with TtFs. The solution would be for a conveniently-based training institute to offer an annual TtF for a fee so that consultants and staff of international organisations would have equal opportuni-ty to take part. Skeleton 3: A Few Proprietary PPTs Anyone who's facilitated a few workshops quickly builds a toolkit of activities and resources that is very much their own. This is organic development of curriculum, and in an ideal world these innovations would feed back to the BRIDGE office and the global curriculum. Unfortunately, this process is going through growing pains. In the last five years, as BRIDGE has grown, many of the best activities are no longer included anywhere in the curriculum. There’s a wonderful set of activities, for instance, on the PR formulas which are done at most every workshop in the Arab world. They aren’t in the Electoral Systems module, and I’ve never seen them done outside the region. There are also parts of the curriculum that are out of date. If you develop some useful material, it has a habit of traveling far and wide, often anonymously. This raises the ghostly spectre of facilitator protectionism. Over the years, I’ve worked with facili-tators who freely share all their materials, and those who guard them as trade secrets. The question is whether the materials that each of us create are proprietary innovations, or whether they belong to the donor, to BRIDGE, or to the local partner. If the consultant market gets more competitive, some may hoard curriculum more viciously. For the BRIDGE community to thrive we must promote both sharing and innovation - everyone is more likely to share when attribution is secure. Let’s note the author(s) when using other’s materials, and refrain from hoarding our own. A future update to the BRIDGE rules might set the default expectation to ‘share, with attribution.’ In a future version of the curriculum, I’d love to be able to openly edit the curriculum files wiki-style where updates could be tracked, undone when necessary, and attributions secured. Skeleton 4: The Missing Evaluator It is getting embarrassing that we’ve been implementing BRIDGE for a decade, and yet we haven’t had a proper evaluation. Considering all the public money that has been invested in BRIDGE, it’s only fair that we document our impact through some independent evaluations. In any case, we’ll all sleep better at night knowing this particular skeleton is out of the closet. There are two main types of programmes, and the type has a big impact on what we can evalu-ate. Comprehensive programmes are characterised by systematic accreditation of national facili-tators, while isolated projects (workshops or TtFs) include pretty much everything else. The differences between these two types of programmes are most evident when it comes to the question of evaluation. How can one judge the outcomes of an isolated workshop without follow-up opportunities for accreditation? While isolated modules can meet specific technical assis-tance goals, the outcomes of these activities are almost impossible to measure. When we move our evaluation lens to the comprehensive programmes, we can expect a range of observable outcomes from staff capacity, to local facilitator quality. This means two things, we should be prioritising comprehensive programmes where appropriate, and we should be pushing our do-nors to cough up some money for a real independent evaluation. I hope this rummage through the BRIDGE closet has brought some interesting issues to the de-bating table. BRIDGE’s progress this year has been astounding, but concerted effort is required to keep the open and inclusive nature of the BRIDGE idea alive. Happy facilitating!

“ BRIDGE isn’t a

Ponzi scheme - if it

were Ross Attrill

would be a

millionaire. There

are good reasons

why there are

sometimes

shortages of good

facilitators, and why

this shocks the

country offices. ”

The Facilitator Bulletin Page 2

This article is the work of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of the BRIDGE Office and Partners.

Page 3 The Facilitator Bulletin

Randomly chosen photos from various BRIDGE events. Keep your eye out for future bulletins

to see your photo, or if you’d like your workshop highlighted here in the next edition, let us

know or send in a photo!

“ I have passed

a long way full of

enjoyable,

memorable and

joyful moments

before getting to

the Expert

category. ”

Page 4 The Facilitator Bulletin

“ I have facilitated

over 70 BRIDGE

workshops in 17

different countries

in Asia, Africa and

Europe.”

Facilitator Bios Name: Emad Yousef Organisation: Independent Consultant Country: Jordan Facilitator category: Expert facilitator since 2006 Employment position: Currently, I work as an Independent Consult-ant in electoral processes. Before that I worked as a program Manager for International IDEA Arab World program from 2006 - 2008 and I was also a coordinator for IFES MENA regional program from 2008 - 2009. Between 2003 - 2006 I worked in electoral assistance missions in Pa-kistan, Iraq, Denmark, Lebanon and Afghanistan assuming responsibil-ities in Voter Education, Polling and Counting, Training and operations. What BRIDGE workshops have you facilitated in? I have facilitated over 70 BRIDGE workshops in 17 different countries in Asia, Africa and Europe. This covers many modules including, Introduction to Election management, Elec-toral Systems, Legal Framework, Boundary Delimitation, Election Management Design, Strate-gic Planning, Media, Observation, voter education, civic education, contestants, polling count-ing and results, training, voter registration and others. What do you like the most about being a BRIDGE facilitator? I like everything about BRIDGE. The curriculum offers a wealth of materials and experiences where I learn so much. The methodology is revolutionary and brings people and expertise in the heart of the learning process. The people, the BRIDGE family, is what makes all this particular. BRIDGE provided me with the chance to meet great people and great friends. With every new workshop, I feel my family is expanding. What are your hobbies and interests? I like reading, travelling and going to the cinema. Late-ly, I read a lot about history. Tell us about a time in your BRIDGE journey that stands out in your memory. When I did my TtF in Melbourne, I met with a guy who came from my city, Amman. Since then our BRIDGE history was for a great deal, almost one. We planned for programs, we facilitated workshops, we travelled together to many countries in Asia, Africa, Arab world and Australia. Wael Al-Faraj, was more than a colleague, he was my best friend and a brother. Wael has left early, but his legacy, both on personal and professional levels, will always be with us. Those who were lucky to know him and work with him.

Name: Natia Kashakashvili Organisation: UNDP & IFES Country: Georgia Facilitator category: Expert Facilitator Employment position: BRIDGE Facilitator, Procedures Manual expert What BRIDGE workshops have you facilitated in? I have conducted the first pilot BRIDGE modules in 2003 for the Election Administration of Georgia and since then instilling the BRIDGE methodology in the operational training programs in Georgia, Afghanistan, Armenia, Leba-non, Sudan etc. I have been involved in conducting BRIDGE work-shops in Georgia, Afghanistan, Kosovo and Turkmenistan (Europe and CIS regional workshop). Recently I have conducted the series of the customized modular workshops for the specific target groups/stakeholders in Georgia. What do you like the most about being a BRIDGE facilitator? The freedom to improvise during the facilitation (while feeling the dynamics of the group) is the most amazing thing about being the BRIDGE facili-tator. My co-facilitator, Giorgi Sharabidze, while observing my improvisation, labeled it as “freestyler flying”. What are your hobbies and interests? Photography, Travelling, Interior Design Tell us about a time in your BRIDGE journey that stands out in your memory. I have passed a long way full of enjoyable, memorable and joyful moments before getting to the Ex-pert category. The unique way of getting accredited always stands out in my memory. Back in 2003, when Ross Attrill guided Georgia for its first use of BRIDGE for the training of Election Administration, there was only the capacity of one semi-accredited Georgian facilitator (George Baratashvili) who could implement the BRIDGE project. Ross Attrill mentored me to adapt and customize the BRIDGE materials, therefore granted the semi-accreditation “for the field work”. After 4 years I attended the Ttf course. So, I got accredited the other way around, which makes me proud not only about myself, but how BRIDGE can be flexible and accommodating when needed.

Photo: Emad Yousef & Wael Al-Faraj

Page 5 The Facilitator Bulletin

UNDP, IFES, EU & ERIS Funded Introduc-tion to Electoral Administration Workshop Djerba, Tunisia 15 - 16 October 2011 Tozeur, Tunisia 08 - 09 October 2011 Sfax, Tunisia 05 - 06 October 2011 Kairouan, Tunisia 01 - 02 October 2011 Tabarka, Tunisia 24 - 25 September 2011 Hammamat, Tunisia 17 - 18 September 2011 UNDP Funded Gender & Elections Workshop Kathmandu, Nepal 12 - 14 October 2011 IFES Funded Electoral Systems Workshop Beirut, Lebanon 05 - 07 October 2011 10 - 14 October 2011 AusAID Funded Electoral Dispute Resolution Workshop Pretoria, South Africa 10 - 14 October 11 AusAID Funded BRIDGE Workshop Makassar, Indonesia, 10 - 13 October 2011 UNDP & CEC Funded External Voting Work-shop Moldova, Chisinau 05 - 07 October 2011 IFES & UNDP Funded Strategic & Financial Planning Workshop Budapest, Hungary 03 - 07 October 2011 EU Funded Train the Facilitator Workshop (TtF) Sao Tome and Principe 27 - 07 October 2011

BRIDGE in Sao Tome e Principe

IFES and Election Expert Funded BRIDGE Workshop Paris, France 26 - 30 September 2011

AusAID Funded Electoral Dispute Resolution Workshop Accra, Ghana 17 - 21 October 2011 AusAID Funded Media & Elections Work-shop Dili, East Timor 24 - 27 October 2011 UNDP Funded BRIDGE Train the Facilitator (TtF) Workshop Niamey, Niger 24 - 04 November 2011 UNDP Funded DG BRIDGE Briefing and Showcase New York, USA 26 - 28 October 2011 UNDP Funded Gender and Elections Work-shop New York, USA 31 - 04 November 2011 AusAID Funded BRIDGE Workshop Pretoria, South Africa 31 - 04 November 2011 UNDP and ESP Funded Gender and Elec-tions Workshop Dharan, Nepal 06 - 09 November 2011 UNDP and ESP Funded Gender and Elec-tions Workshop Pokhara, Nepal 13 - 16 November 2011 AusAID Funded Train the Facilitator (TtF) Workshop Accra, Ghana 14 - 25 November 2011 UNDP and ESP Funded Gender and Elec-tions Workshop Kathmandu, Nepal 20 - 23 November 2011 IFES and UNDP Funded Train the Facilitator (TtF) Workshop Budapest, Hungary 21 - 02 December 2011 UNDP and ESP Funded Gender and Elec-tions Workshop Surkhet, Nepal 27 - 30 November 2011 Doti, Nepal 04 - 07 December 2011 IDEA Observation and Dispute Resolution Workshop Kathmandu, Nepal 26 - 28 December 2011

Upcoming Events Past Events Click on the event titles to view the related article.

The Facilitator Bulletin Page 6

AusAID Funded Civic Education and Voter Information Workshop Paro, Bhutan 26 - 30 September 2011 19 - 23 September 2011

BRIDGE in Bhutan

AusAID Funded Civic Education and Voter Information Workshop Dili, East Timor 22 - 25 August 2011 AusAID Funded BRIDGE Workshop Kupang, Indonesia 26 - 29 September 2011 Pangkalpinang, Indonesia 15 - 18 September 2011 ECN Funded Management Design and Voter Information Workshop Kathmandu, Nepal 25 - 27 September 2011 EU Funded Media and Elections Workshop Dili, East Timor 15 - 22 September 2011

BRIDGE in East Timor

AusAID Funded BRIDGE Workshop Bali, Indonesia 23 - 26 August 2011

EU Funded Train the Facilitator (TtF) Work-shop Luanda, Angola 13 - 23 September 2011

BRIDGE TtF in Angola

UNDP Funded Electoral Systems Workshop Ashgabat, Turkmenistan 12 - 16 September 2011

BRIDGE in Turkmenistan

IDEA Funded Train the Facilitator (TtF) Workshop Nairobi, Kenya 05 - 16 September 2011 BRIDGE TtF in Kenya

Past Events continued Click on the event titles to view the related article.

The Facilitator Bulletin Page 7

UN Women Funded BRIDGE Workshop Honiara, Solomon Islands 05 - 09 September 2011

BRIDGE in Solomon Islands

USAID (IFES) Funded BRIDGE Workshop Juba, Sudan 29 - 02 September 2011 22 - 26 August 2011

BRIDGE in Sudan

AEC / VEC Funded Introduction to Electoral Administration Workshop Melbourne, Australia 24 - 26 August 2011

BRIDGE in Australia

ESP Funded Introduction to Electoral Admin-istration and Electoral Management Design Workshop Kathmandu, Nepal 18 - 20 August 2011

IDEA Funded Train the Facilitator (TtF) Workshop Pretoria, South Africa 22 - 02 September 2011

BRIDGE TtF in South Africa

AusAID Funded Civic Education Workshop Dili, East Timor 15 - 18 August 2011

BRIDGE in East Timor

AusAID Funded Voter Registration Work-shop Accra, Ghana 08 - 12 August 2011

BRIDGE in Ghana

PNGEC Funded Media and Elections Work-shop Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea 07 - 03 September 2011

Past Events continued Click on the event titles to view related articles.

The Facilitator Bulletin Page 8

UN Woman Funded Implementation Work-shop Honiara, Solomon Islands 01 - 03 August 2011

BRIDGE in Solomon Islands

IFES Funded Train the Facilitator (TtF) Work-shop Baghdad, Iraq 01 - 10 August 2011

BRIDGE TtF in Iraq

EU Funded Train the Facilitator (TtF) Work-shop Dili, East Timor 01 - 12 August 2011

BRIDGE TtF in East Timor

IFES Funded BRIDGE Workshop Kathmandu, Nepal 29 - 29 July 2011

UNDP Funded Introduction to Electoral Ad-ministration Workshop Maseru, Lesotho 28 July 2011 UNDP IFES Funded Introduction to Elec-toral Administration Workshop Chisinau, Moldova 28 - 29 July 2011

BRIDGE in Moldova

AusAID Funded BRIDGE Workshop Samarinda, Indonesia 25 - 28 July 2011 IFES Funded Introduction to Electoral Ad-ministration Workshop Erbil, Iraq 24 - 28 July 2011

BRIDGE in Iraq

EU Funded Train the Facilitator (TtF) Work-shop Maputo, Mozambique 18 - 29 July 2011

BRIDGE in Mozambique

Past Events continued Click on the event titles to view related articles.

The Facilitator Bulletin Page 9

Recently Accredited Facilitators

Congratulations to the following Facilitators that have been accredited in the months of July, August, September and October.

Name Country

Jos Malam Jassi Bissau

Antonio Pereira da Silva Jau

Bissau

Alessandra Rossi Haiti

Carmina Sanchis-Ruescas Haiti

Filomena G. Antonio East Timor

Honorio Cruz da Silva East Timor

Patricia de A.F.B.M. Xavier East Timor

Celistiano Xavier East Timor

Jos Soares Fonseca East Timor

Ivo Rangel East Timor

Deolindo Deo Ramos East Timor

véronique KANDO Senegal

Pathe Dieng Senegal

Marolyn Peters Indonesia

Jessica Ngere Solomon Islands

Erland Evriansyah Indonesia

Farah Novita Indonesia

Antonia Ngabala-Sodonon South Africa

Silvina da Silva Tavares Bissau

Nelson Menezes d`Alva Bissau

Jos Malam Jassi Bissau

Workshop Category

Name Country

Belinda Bennett Australia

Fabio Bargiacchi Sao Tome and Principe

Tomsie Phillips Kenya

Amalia Stepanyan Turkmenistan

Peita Mamo East Timor

Accrediting Category

Name Country

Koki Muli Sudan

Brian Latham Melbourne

Natia Kashakashvili Georgia

Expert Category

Semi-accredited Category Congratulations to all successful participants that attended the Train the Facilitator courses in Sao Tome e Principe, Angola,

Kenya, South Africa, Iraq, East Timor, Mozambique and Niger.

Name Country

Ahmad El Rawas Lebanon

Sharbil Khoury Lebanon

Samih Ayoub Lebanon

Nada Abou Saleh Ghaziri Lebanon

Mirna Shidrawi Lebanon

Haissam Minkara Lebanon

Marie Louise Ramy Lebanon

Pudjiarti Pudjiarti Indonesia

Wahyu Wijayanti Indonesia

Yosmardin Yosmardin Indonesia

Pinto Barus Indonesia

Andreas Pandiangan Indonesia

Wahdi Hafizy Indonesia

Darmansyah Darmansyah Indonesia

Abdul Aziz Indonesia

Roderick Kidoe Solomon Island

Husni Husni Indonesia

Kofi Kye-Duodu Ghana

Molly Nawe Kamukama Ghana

Mario Guterres de Oliveira East Timor

The Facilitator Bulletin Page 10

Facilitator Update

W e can see that many BRIDGE facilitators have been very busy over the past few months – BRIDGE workshops are being run all over the world, from Tunisia to

the Solomon Islands to Nepal. For those of you who are looking for opportunities to complete your accreditation or to get more facilitation experience, we hope you will get the chance soon. Meanwhile, here are some new things to check out on the BRIDGE website that will make your work as a facilitator a bit easier!

New Facilitator Page

When you log in to the

website you will now be

taken to the new Facilitator

page (you can also get

there by clicking on ‘Facilitator’ in the top

menu). This brings together links to all the

useful facilitator tools such as accreditation

forms, evaluation feedback and event regis-

tration.

New FAQs

The Frequently Asked

Questions have been up-

dated to be more useful to

new users of BRIDGE.

It’s a great tool for facilita-

tors who would like to re-

fer people to some simple

information about what

BRIDGE is.

Sample Agenda Library

While facilitators have always had access to the sample agendas included in

each module, we are now collecting real-world examples of agendas from

BRIDGE workshops run all over the world. See what we have so far in the

library, accessible through the curriculum download area.

See what we have so far in the library, accessible through the curriculum or

module pages.

Updated BRIDGE PowerPoint

We’ve finally updated the BRIDGE PowerPoint which now reflects updat-

ed statistics and logos and has new photos and maps. A variety of Power

-Points are being developed for different audiences.

Cleaned up curriculum download area

The curriculum download

files have been cleaned up

and should be easier to

navigate. You can also ac-

cess the files through the

new curriculum page.

Goodbye Version 1

All BRIDGE Version 1

materials have been ar-

chived, both in English

and any translations. If

you would still like to ac-

cess Version 1 materials,

please contact the

BRIDGE Office.

The Facilitator Bulletin Page 11

Coming Soon!

Access to Facilitator Evaluation Reports

We’ve had some feedback about Facilitator Evaluation Reports. These are the reports in each module that we ask facilitators to complete at the end of a workshop and submit to the BRIDGE Office. It has been suggested that we publish these for reference for other facilitators. This would mean that if you are about to run a workshop, you can refer to the evaluation re-ports of facilitators who have run it before. We are also planning to overhaul this form en-tirely to be more useful for general evaluation and facilitation purposes. If you have any thoughts about this, please let us know.

Social networking

Twitter

The BRIDGE Office is

tweeting regularly to keep

the BRIDGE community

updated on what’s going

on in the BRIDGE world.

http://twitter.com/ebridgeoffice

Facebook

The BRIDGE Office has set up a Facebook page! ‘Like’ us and keep updated on goings-on in the BRIDGE world, plus communicate with other BRIDGE people. This is a new Facebook page and will take over

from the current BRIDGE fanpage that the fantas-

tic people in IDEA’s Pretoria office have been run-

ning. If you are currently subscribed to this page,

please subscribe to our new page as the fanpage

will be deleted at the end of the year. Thanks

Margot, Chaba and Rushdi for all your work get-

ting BRIDGE on Facebook!

We encourage all to join in on our discussions

through the Facebook page. Tell us what you

think—or just like the discussion if you support it.

Spread the news about the new Facebook page

with all your friends and invite them to join.

http://www.facebook.com/EBRIDGEoffice

T his brings us to the end of another edition of the facilitators

bulletin.

We would like to remind you all again that your feedback and thoughts on

the BRIDGE Bulletin, website and social networks are valuable to the

BRIDGE Office. We encourage you to send your feedback comments to

projectoffice@bridge-project.org

Until next the edition… from the BRIDGE Office

Module pages

A dedicated page for each BRIDGE module which is a central point for all information relating to that module. This would include the objec-tives, synopsis, key understandings, links to the curriculum materials, links to the sample agen-das.

Translation page

We’re setting up a central page for all translated documents and any other useful translation infor-mation.

More new stuff