Electoral assistance can be defined today as the legal, technical and logistic support provided to electoral laws, processes and institutions. It spans a broad spectrum - from the establishment of the legal framework for the administration of elections, to inclusive electoral systems and voter registration processes, support to the institutions called to administer and adjudicate upon electoral processes, through the provision of financial resources, materials, equipment and expert advice, as well as technical and financial support to civil society engaged in civic and voter education, election observation and media monitoring, including technical assistance to political parties.

In this context, by “Effective Electoral Assistance” we mean all the initiatives and activities that are intended to improve the quality and impact of electoral assistance to partner country electoral institutions and for this effectively manage all the complex set of interactions between Electoral Management Bodies, Governments, International Organizations, Civil Society Organizations, Political Parties and Service Providers. In this sense, electoral assistance is part of the wider democratic development of the partner country, in accordance with the five key principles of “ownership, alignment, harmonisation, managing for results, and mutual accountability” that inform the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness.

The recognition that concepts such as ‘effectiveness’, ‘sustainability’ and ‘capacity building’ are the way forward in electoral assistance was made by several development agencies around the turn of the Millennium, but very often the officials involved struggled to identify effective methods that could turn the above mentioned concepts into effective implementation policies. Many development agency officials dealing with electoral assistance expressed frustration over the pressures created by short pre-election time frames, in combination with large expenditures and with the sudden drop-off of interest for the partner countries’ institutional development in the post electoral period.

In the past three years, the EC, UNDP and International IDEA have undertaken concrete steps to make a more holistic approach to electoral assistance possible in the practical implementation of electoral projects. The immediate objective behind these initiatives is the intention that emerged within the EC and UNDP to rationalise their interventions in this area and harmonise them with their overall objectives in promoting democratic development.

The longer-term objective that informs all these activities is to provoke definitive changes in the manner electoral assistance is conceived, designed, identified and implemented by all development agencies and assistance providers. These efforts have been accompanied by the emergence of a methodological and linguistic distinction between election assistance and electoral assistance. This distinction defines the former as the provision of support targeting the Election Day, and the latter as a more integrated and holistic form of long term support to electoral systems, processes and institutions. In this context, the most notable development has been the design of a new planning and training tool by the EC and International IDEA, called the electoral cycle.