The EC and UNDP are collaborating in supporting the electoral cycles 2009-2011 of the community of the Portuguese-speaking African countries, comprising Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea Bissau, Mozambique and São Tomé and Principe.

These countries share a strong linguistic and cultural identity, a similar system of governance and a long tradition of contacts and exchanges amongst themselves. With Timor-Leste joining the ACP group in 2005, the ACP Portuguese-speaking countries have expanded from Africa to the Asian-Pacific region and cooperation under the 10th EDF and the "Project in Support of the 2009-2011 PALOP/TL Electoral Cycles" will thus cover these six countries.

In the programming for 10th EDF, within the scope of the political dialogue between the EC and its ACP Partners, there was room for a renewed collective approach to the PALOP development gaps, in close association this time with matching needs concerning Timor Leste.

Learning from recent experience, common problems and weaknesses will thus be addressed, in the path towards the mutually shared long-term goals of sustainable development and poverty eradication. The focus of future activities funded by the 10th EDF will focus on democratic governance including political governance of which electoral processes are a fundamental element.

This "Project in Support of the 2009-2011 PALOP/TL Electoral Cycles" would focus on the long term support to the capacity development of Electoral Management Bodies (EMB) and to the needs of the Civil Society, rather than supporting ad hoc projects aimed at specific electoral events.

The project thus would target the promotion of a deeper consolidation of the democratic culture and institutions by providing an electoral assistance as an ongoing and cyclical activity rather than being event driven at designated points in time. The activities to be implemented would focus the support on:

• The Strategic and operational plans;
• The Cost assessment and budgeting exercises;
• The Civil registry/Voter registration;
• The Procurement Plans;
• The Long Term Civic and Voter Education;
• The Support to Elected Parliamentarians and Parliaments;
• The Support to Media;
• The Support for the improvement of transmission and verification of results;
• The Support for electoral dispute resolutions;
• The Support to the recently established Forum of the Lusophone EMBs.

The project would count on the deep experiences and broad lessons-learned gathered within the EC-UNDP partnership in providing electoral assistance to PALOP/TL and globally, that will be put at the disposal of the PALOP/TL through a project encompassing the different countries to promote and consolidate their democratization processes.

The project would be implemented via a signature of a contribution agreement with UNDP and a small and flexible Programme Management Unit (PMU) under the direction of the Project Steering Committee and the Country Coordination Mechanisms that includes each PALOP/TL National Authorizing Officers, the PALOP/TL Electoral Management Bodies, the EC Delegations (as observers) and the UNDP Country Offices. The PMU will be based in Guinea Bissau and will be the dedicated, technically staffed entity mandated to administer, manage and monitor the overall project on a day-to-day basis.

The identification, formulation and monitoring steps of the project will receive the support of the Brussels based “Joint EC-UNDP Task Force on Electoral Assistance” that facilitate and support the electoral assistance cooperation between the EC and UNDP following the “EC-UNDP Operational Guidelines on the Implementation of Electoral Assistance Projects and Programmes”.

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