NEC and IFES Staff complete professional training course

Several senior employees of the National Elections Commission (NEC) and the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) have completed a four-day professional Training course under the Strategic and Financial Planning Training Module of the Building Resources in Democracy Governance and Elections (BRIDGE).

The workshop was held from Monday, October 26 to Thursday, October 29, 2015 at a local hotel in Monrovia. Topics discussed at the workshop were Conflict and Time Management, Election Tasks, Forecasting the Cost of Elections, Functions of an Elections Management Body, Organizational Ethics and Decision Making, among others.

Speaking at the close of the workshop, the Chairman of the NEC, Cllr. Jerome George Korkoya, said the training was part of capacity building initiatives of the Commissionas it prepares to conduct a possible National Referendum and the 2017 Representative and Presidential Elections.

Chairman Korkoya said accountability is a guiding principle in the operations of the Commission and as such training received by the employees would contribute significantly to enhancing the work of the Commission.

The Chief Technical Advisor on Elections of the UNDP, George Baratashvili, said the European Union and the UNDP will continue to provide capacity building support to staff of the Commission through the BRIDGE Training Project and other programs.

He expressed the hope that the training received by staff of the Commission would further enhance their capacity in the implementation of the six year Strategic Plan of the Commission. The Country Director of the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES), Parvinder Singh, also made remarks at the closing ceremony. He said IFES was glad to support the BRIDGE Training Course which has enhanced the capacity of staff of the Commission in the area of Strategic and Financial Planning.

The workshop was funded by the European Union through UNDP, and USAID through IFES. The training workshop was facilitated by International Bridge Training Expert, Osama Kamil and four Liberian facilitators.