The ACE Project: Bridging the Electoral Knowledge Gap

1. the ACE Project a collaborative effort

2. the “knowledge gap” THE KNOWLEDGE GAP some countries were largely unprepared to go through major democratic transitions that featured crucial elections electoral institutions not always possessed the necessary experienceand knowledge to deliver and guaranteecredible elections electoral practitioners had virtually no access to comparative knowledge, bestpractices and lessons learned in the field of elections there was no coherent electoral administration methodology, the field lacked of common standards

3. the ACE Project a complete and systematic collection of informationon all aspects relating to the organization of elections

4. target audience media representatives policy-makers and legislators academics election administrators researchers and students electoral practitioners the civil society members of parliament multilateral institutions political party representatives donor agencies

5. the new challenges new needs and priorities

6. the changing needs CREDIBILITY GAP THE KNOWLEDGE GAP ? building the trust of the various stakeholders in the electoral process creating transparent and sustainable electoral systems and processes solving political, financial and logistical challenges undermining their work and the credibility of the elections addressing problems of lack of retention of their institutional memory

7. expanding the ACE partnership the ACE Project could no longer provide all the appropriateresponses to address the new challenges ACE Project evaluation

8. T H E E L E C T O R A L K N O W L E D G E N E T W O R K KNOWLEDGE BASE PRACTITIONERS’ NETWORK CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT 2 1 3 acquire and manage knowledge generate and share knowledge adapt and apply knowledge

9. THE ACE KNOWLEDGE BASE ACQUIRE AND MANAGE KNOWLEDGE existing online databases, tools, publications and libraries Practitioners’ Network centralized repository for electoral knowledge knowledge knowledge acquisition produce and share knowledge new databases, publications, tools and services to be developed as part of the project retention codification dissemination

10. ELECTORAL COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE REGIONAL RESOURCE CENTRES THE PRACTITIONERS’ NETWORK GENERATE AND SHARE KNOWLEDGE a group of electoral practitioners sharing common interests, common professional responsibilities andcommon goals THEMATIC Europe North Africa a network of Electoral Resource Centres, strategically established in different regions worldwide to collect, share and make knowledge accessible in the form of comparative data, resource materials, case studies and events North America Asia Central America Middle East Oceania Southern Africa REGIONAL South America West Africa Europe REGIONAL RESOURCE CENTRES

11. CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT ADAPT AND APPLY KNOWLEDGE long-term capacity development projects to assist electoral management bodies to reach higher levels of professionalisation CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT FACILITY (CDF) regional training programmes to strengthen the professional capacity of electoral administrators training, professional advisory services, and peer partnerships targeted assistance activities for electoral management bodies requiring to strengthen their policy and legislation frameworks capacity development tools and formal educational programmes on electoral administration based on the ACE texts, leading to the awarding of formal certificates/diplomas by academic institutions affiliated to the Project