NEEDS Project

Dear friends,

As the NEEDS Project comes to an end we would like to thank everyone with whom we have worked together for the cooperation in carrying out a lot of really interesting and good work over the last four and a half years.

With the assistance of friends and colleagues, the NEEDS Project carried out over 50 events in Belgium and all over the world, made significant inroads into updating the EU’s observation methodology ,improved synergies with colleagues working in electoral assistance, set up eLearning to help new STOs with their safety and security in the field, created guidelines to improve the quality of mission outputs on communication, reporting, gender analysis, established a new standard set of observation forms with a centralised database, helped to create improved cooperation between signatories of the Declaration of Principles, supported the creation of the new set of Global Principles for Citizen Observers.

Many thanks to you for all you have done over the last four and a half years to make these achievements possible.

Please accept our heartfelt and warmest wishes for the holiday season.

All the best from,

The NEEDS team

The elearning course on Security and Field Awareness is now available for everyone!

If you would like to take the course go to our website and register at the link below.

http://web.needsproject.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=73&Itemid=93&lang=en

Elearning The Network for Enhanced Electoral and Democratic Support (NEEDS) is a project funded by the European Commission, designed to enhance the quality and capacity of European Union Election Observation Missions and support domestic observer organisations around the world.

[ Electoral Analyst Notification ]

NEEDS Workshop for EU EOM Electoral Analyst

The NEEDS Project, on behalf of the EU Services in charge of election observation, will accept expressions of interest for the upcoming NEEDS Workshop for EU EOM Electoral Analysts, to take place in Brussels from Wednesday 18 to Friday 20 July 2012.
The invitation is open to a select group of participants and is not intended as a training event as such, but rather as an opportunity to receive information on the latest EU methodological updates and guidelines on observation forms, reporting, gender, briefings and recommendations.

We also see this as a great opportunity for professional exchange between Electoral Analysts and a chance to discuss some of the challenges of the position, for example on the use of new electoral technology, dealing with results management crises and making the link to electoral assistance projects.

Please also note that given the limited number of places available, the EU services reserve the right to select the most qualified candidates. All travel and living expenses attached to participation will be covered by the NEEDS Project, financed by the European Commission.

Attendance will be open to candidates who meet these minimum criteria: at least one experience of the Electoral Analyst position on international election observation missions and/or at least seven years of international technical electoral assistance experience.

If you are available and you meet these minimum criteria, send a letter of interest to [email protected] before 29 June 2012.

New Declaration of Principles

The Global Network of Domestic Elections Monitors announced the formal launch of the Declaration of Global Principles for Nonpartisan Election Observation and Monitoring by Citizen Organizations (http://www.gndem.org/declaration-of-global-principles) on 2 April 2012. This great achievement was the result of the efforts of many domestic observer groups all around the world with the help and support of the National Democratic Institute (NDI).

The NEEDS project was proud to support these efforts by promoting the adoption of the Declaration through training events for domestic observer organisations in Kigali, Shanghai, Tunis, Brussels and Cairo. NEEDS also ensured the participation of the main drafters of the Declaration at the Global Forum of Domestic Observers organised by the European Commission in July 2010. This provided the opportunity to present the draft and fine-tune the future Declaration with the 85 domestic observer organisations that took part.

Declaration of Global Principles for Nonpartisan Election Observation and Monitoring by Citizen Orga Setting forth a clear and forceful statement of principles and code of conduct for nonpartisan election monitoring by citizen organizations marks a major milestone in the development of nonpartisan election monitoring around the world. The Declaration of Global Principles for Nonpartisan Election Ob...

The publications listed here have been produced by the previous NEEDS Project, the European Commission and other institutions engaged in the field of electoral observation and assistance. They represent an essential first list of reading material on election related topics.

ACE Observational Portal

The NEEDS Project is cooperating with the ACE Electoral Knowledge Network and the Steering Committee of the Declaration of Principles Annual Meeting to develop an universal repository of international election observation missions' reports. This special project started following a request by the endorsing organisations of the Declaration of Principles on International Election Observation to create a unique online space where all international election observation reports could be easily stored, found and compared.

The ACE Observation Portal is online (http://aceproject.org/electoral-advice/dop) and being constantly updated - there are currently around 1,300 reports uploaded and the aim is to reach 2,000 by the end of 2012. Ultimately, the goal is to build a comprehensive electronic library covering all the documents ever produced by international observation missions since the year 2000.

Observation Portal — ACE Electoral Knowledge Network Genuine democratic elections are an expression of sovereignty, which belongs to the people of a country, the free expression of whose will provides the basis for the authority and legitimacy of government. The rights of citizens to vote and to be elected at periodic, genuine democratic elections are...

DOP MEETING

Catherine Ashton and Jimmy Carter in the Declaration of Principles for International Election Observation meeting 4 - 6 October 2011, Brussels

In October 2011, the President of the European Parliament Jerzy Buzek and High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton hosted the 6th Annual meeting of the signatories of the Declaration of Principles for International Election Observation in Brussels. Senior representatives of the signatories, including former US President Jimmy Carter, former Canadian Prime Minister Joe Clark, head of the OSCE/ODIHR Ambassador Janez Lenarcic joined Mr Buzek and Baroness Ashton in delivering a statement on the way forward for international cooperation on electoral assistance and observation.

elearning

NEEDS has produced a six-module elearning course for Short-Term Observers on Safety and Security in the Field. It is tailor made to help new STOs understand the safety and security challenges of working on an EU Election Observation Mission. Based on content developed by experienced EU Security experts, the modules guide STOs through the use of audio, text, interactive games, animated storylines illustrating security challenges and tests that lead ultimately to a certificate upon passing the final exam at the end of the course. The modules deal with all the general aspects of participating in an EU EOM, from preparations prior to deployment, to arriving in the country, deployment to the area of responsibility, observing the campaign, safety around Election Day and returning home. Security considerations that are specific to the country of deployment will be covered by the security team on the ground. This course provides a good starting point for beginners to electoral field work to help understand the challenges and prepare for the task more thoroughly.

The elearning course is currently still in the testing phase. It will be launched upon final approval by the European Commission.