African Union Commission BRIDGE Train the Facilitator (TtF) workshop concludes capacity building for five countries in Pretoria, South Africa

Addis Ababa, 21 September 2012 – A five – nation BRIDGE TtF workshop to train some staff from the Department of Political Affairs of the African Union Commission (AUC) and selected Election Monitoring Bodies (EBM) concluded today, 21 September 2012, a week-long capacity training from 10 to 21 September 2012, at the Alpine Attitude Hotel and Conference Centre in Pretoria, South Africa.

Organised by the Democracy and Electoral Assistance Unit of the AUC, the training will equip the participants with the requisite facilitation skills to deliver electoral trainings using BRIDGE, currently the world’s most comprehensive electoral training curriculum. Upon completion of the workshop, the participants will become semi – accredited BRIDGE Facilitators.

The training programme is part of the expanded National Capacity Building Programme of the DEAU aimed at addressing specific electoral training needs of members and staff of Electoral Commissions of Member States upon request from the African Union Commission.

Participants at the training included staff and Members of Electoral commissions from the following countries: Nigeria, Kenya, Cameroun, Botswana and Malawi.

Worth recalling that, the Democracy and Electoral Assistance Unit DEAU in its mandate is charged with the responsibility of improving the national electoral processes of member states of the African Union towards the conduct of free fair and credible elections within a framework of direct technical assistance to Election Management Bodies, EMBs. In this regard, the DEAU has been developing electoral process standards which include the provision of BRIDGE electoral trainings in different aspects of electoral management to the various EMBs in the continent.

For Further Information consult the AU website: www.au.int

Interview requests should be addressed to Mrs. Esther Azaa Tankou, Directorate of Information and Communication, Tel. +251 911 3611 85, e-mail: yamboue@africa-union.org / esthertankou@yahoo.com .