Ethiopia and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) signed on June 18 a project document to support the upcoming national elections.
The agreement was signed by Ahmed Shide, Minister of Finance, Birtukan Mideksa, Chairperson of the National Electoral Board of Ethiopia, and Mr Turhan Saleh Resident Representative of UNDP in Ethiopia.
The project is going to be implemented by the National Election Board of Ethiopia for the coming three years with the resource mobilized through UNDP.
The total required fund for the project is $40 million, out of that $34.6 million is a pledge to be funded by various development partners, $2 million is secured by UNDP itself and $3.3 million is to be mobilized during the project period.
The development partners that contribute for the project are 11 bilateral countries, of which 8 of them have confirmed their support.
The main objectives of the project are to assist the electoral management body to become more capable, transparent and trusted institution; and provide the required assistance for undertaking inclusive, transparent and credible elections.
The intervention areas of the project include institutional strengthening for ensuring transparency, efficiency and inclusiveness of the electoral operations, facilitating public outreach as well as stakeholder and media engagements; and capacitating the institution to identify, manage and respond to electoral violence.
The government believes that the support will have crucial contribution to underpin the auspicious steps that the new leadership is taking in order to flourish democracy based on mutual respect and trust.
