Steering Committee
Second Steering Committee Meeting for the “Electoral Assistance” Component 2
EU-funded project ‘EU support to Jordanian Democratic Institutions & Development, EU-JDID’ held the second steering committee meeting for component 2 “Electoral Assistance” on Wednesday, 14th of March, 2018 at the Independent Election Commission (IEC) premises.
The meeting aimed to follow-up on the implemented activities during the past six-month period and further discuss the upcoming planned ones as agreed by the EU-JDID project and the IEC.
Her Excellency Commissioner, Samar HajHasan, inaugurated the Steering Committee meeting by expressing her appreciation to the work achieved with the cooperation of the project team. She stressed the importance of having this second steering committee to look back at what had been achieved and agree on the way forward in order to reach shared objectives. Commissioner HajHassan insisted that the long-term support provided by the EU meaningfully contributed to strengthen the capacities of IEC. In particular, she emphasised the need of flexibility and adaptability of the activities implemented to meet the IEC strategic plan that is being prepared.
Dr. Michael Steffens, Quality Support, Aid Coordination & Governance at the EU Delegation to Jordan, pointed out that the Project ensures the needed flexibility to accommodate beneficiaries’ needs while ensuring the commitment to values and objectives, which are at the core of the EU-Jordan partnership.
EU-JDID Programme Coordinator, Mr. Pinto Teixeira reconfirmed the commitment of the Project and ECES to achieve the expected results and contribute to the national democratic reform process at large.
Mr. Aous Qutaishat, EU-JDID Senior Project Advisor, provided a comprehensive overview of the main activities implemented from September 2017 to March 2018, including, just to mention few: the 15th International Electoral Affairs Symposium and Awards Ceremony, the signature of the trilateral Memorandum of Understanding between ECES, IEC and Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Leadership and Conflict Management Skills for Electoral Stakeholders training of trainers etc.
In addition to this, Mr. Qutaishat announced the main activities ahead, such as the support to the IEC assessment and certification process based on ISO 9001/17582-2014 standard; the “arabisation” of the Master in Administration and Electoral Policy curriculum, the organisation of thematic “Knowledge hours” and English language course for IEC staff, in addition to short, medium and long term capacity building activities.
IEC Secretary General, HE Dr. Awad AL-Karadsheh, highlighted that “EU-JDID team is not only supporting the institution, it is part of it”. Such close collaboration will contribute to ensure the greatest consistency between IEC strategic planning and Project activities, thus maximising resources, efforts and results.
EU-JDID encompasses three components (Parliamentary Support, Electoral Assistance and Support to the Political Party System) that are implemented by the consortium-led by the European Centre for Electoral Support (ECES). The Consortium is composed of the European Partnership for Democracy (EPD), Westminster Foundation for Democracy (WFD), Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy (NIMD) and French Agency for Media Cooperation (CFI). All the consortium members are part of the EPD. The fourth component of EU-JDID (Support to the Civil Society Organisations), is implemented by the Spanish Cooperation Agency, AECID.