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News from the Field: The ACE Electoral Knowledge Network launches new regional centers

Faith in the electoral process and in the people administering this process matters. It matters not only to the electoral exercise per se, but to the legitimacy and credibility of the regime that follows and, ultimately, to the strength of the country’s governance institutions.

This requires cost-effective and accessible election processes as well as Electoral Management Bodies (EMBs) that perform their duties in a professional manner and thereby deliver credible elections.

The ACE (Administration and costs for elections) Electoral Knowledge Network (www.aceproject.org) is a dynamic online knowledge repository that
• provides comprehensive and authoritative information as well as advice on elections,
• promotes effective and sustained networking among reputable election professionals from across the world and,
• offers capacity development services to electoral management institutions and electoral assistance providers.

Launched in 2006, this network is the result of a collaborative effort between nine key international development partners within the field of elections and democracy promotion: International IDEA, EISA, Elections Canada, the Federal Electoral Institute of Mexico (IFE), IFES, UNDESA, UNDP and the UN Electoral Assistance Division (EAD). The European Commission is an ex-officio member.

UNDEF in partnership with UNDP supports a one-year project which, under the lead of International IDEA, helps the ACE Network to expand its global geographic focus. Nine Regional Electoral Resource Centres, strategically located around the world, were officially launched during an ACE training workshop and training hosted by International IDEA at its Stockholm headquarters in July 17-20.

These Resource Centres are designed to be the regional knowledge hubs of ACE. They seek to generate and disseminate electoral knowledge with a specific regional perspective and to provide regionally tailored services to election practitioners. They strive also to incorporate their respective regional perspectives into the ACE network and enable fruitful exchanges with other election practitioners and electoral assistance providers around the world.
Furthermore, the Regional Centers will increase the availability of the knowledge generated within ACE by translation, dissemination and regional, context-specific application.

Involved in partnership-building with key stakeholders in the region, the regional Centres will be well positioned to identify ways to advance capacity building and target areas for more effective electoral assistance and support.
The vision for the ACE Resource Centres is to play a prominent role in contributing to political reform in their respective regions.

The ACE Regional Electoral Resource Centres are located in the following regions:

Central and Eastern Europe: The Association of European Election Officials (ACEEEO) – A Hungary-based association which promotes the institutionalisation and professionalism of democratic processes and procedures.
Western Africa: Gorée Institute – A Senegal-based independent, Pan-African, Public Interest Organisation promoting electoral reform and peace building in Africa.
Eastern Africa: Institute for Education in Democracy (IED) – A Kenya-based institute that promotes democracy through programmes in the electoral process, voter education, research and dissemination programmes.
Central Africa*: Commission Electorale Indépendante (CEI-CENI) – The electoral commission of the Democratic Republic of Congo in charge of administering and overseeing elections.
Southern Africa: EISA – A South Africa-based non-governmental organisation, working to strengthen electoral processes and good governance in Africa through research and capacity building. A full ACE partner and implementer of the second component of this UNDEF project.
Arab World: Al Urdun Al Jadid Research Centre (UJRC) – An independent and non-governmental organization based in Jordan working for sustainable democracy in the Arab world.
South East Asia: The Centre for Electoral Reform (CETRO) – An Indonesia-based institute that promotes the strengthening of electoral institutions and advocates for credible and transparent electoral processes.
Central America: Instituto Federal Electoral (IFE) – The Federal Electoral Institute of Mexico, the body responsible for organizing and overseeing federal elections in Mexico, actively engaged in capacity development activities for emerging EMBs.
South America: Jurado Nacional de Elecciones (JNE) – The national electoral tribunal of Peru, the highest electoral authority of Peru, in charge of the organization and legislation of all electoral matters.

Since their recent establishment, the Resource Centres have already become an effective source of data collection and translation. Information is now being displayed in more than one hundred regional and country specific pages within the ACE website. The enrichment of the regional component of the ACE website (http://aceproject.org/regions-en) is already evident. The country pages have become a “one-stop-shop” for electoral information, with updated news and links to relevant databases and websites, enhancing the usability and effectiveness of the website for academic and research purposes beyond election administrators, political parties, civil society and media.

Future activities will include the design of a regional newsletter template which will be published on the ACE regional websites and disseminated to regional stakeholders and counterparts across the regions. The regional newsletter will also feed into the global ACE Newsletter giving it a stronger geographical focus.

* The Commission Electorale Indépendante (CEI/ CENI) of Democratic Republic of the Congo is a self-funded regional centre which has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with International IDEA determining activities to be undertaken.

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