By Hassan Ibrahim Conteh
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) together with the European Union has renewed a partnership to supporting electoral processes in countries around the world.
The renewed partnership was announced at the end of a meeting between senior officials of both sides to reaffirm their long –standing relationship.
A revised European Commission-UNDP Electoral Assistance Guidelines was also signed, which aims at enhancing electoral assistance.
Neven Mimica, EU Commissioner for International Cooperation and Development, said in a statement that the new version of the guidelines demonstrated the ability of the partnership to renew itself to responding to challenges faced by staff in the field when implementing joint electoral assistance projects.
“Today's meeting also reflects our commitment to deliver on our shared vision of credible, inclusive and transparent electoral processes as a foundation for democratic governance," she said, according to a statement shared by the UNDP.
The EU and UNDP are the largest electoral assistance providers globally. Both have closely worked together on more than 100 projects across all regions, out of
which 74 were in Africa. Some observers believe that such partnership would help strengthen countries’ capacities to carry out free and fair elections, and promote women’s participation in politics, notably as both voters and candidates.
“We share a common vision of the fundamental role that elections play in
supporting the long-term democratic process,” said Helen Clark, UNDP
Administrator.
She added: “I look forward to this continued strong partnership with
the EU to support free and credible elections around the world.”
Since 2006, the electoral Joint Task Force (JTF) which is based in Brussels [Belgium] has played an active role in supporting the implementation of the EC-UNDP partnership on electoral assistance. Officials of both sides are optimistic that the new ‘guidelines’ will help the Joint Task Force to ensuring a more efficient implementation of the electoral assistance projects.
UNDP and the EU are partnering in 140 countries to deepening democratic
governance, prevent or help countries recover from conflict and natural
disasters, build resilience, and adapt to climate change.
(C) Politico 21/04/16
