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Annual Progress Report for USAID- SELP 2016

Annual Progress Report 2016

United Nations Development Programme April 2017

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UNDP Annual Progress Report of 33

Table of Contents1. Acronyms...................................................................................................................................5

2. Basic Information....................................................................................................................7

3. Project Design..........................................................................................................................7

4. Executive Summary...............................................................................................................7

5. Progress against Indicators.................................................................................................9

6. Cross-Cutting Issues............................................................................................................21

7. Key Challenges......................................................................................................................21

8. Lessons Learnt.......................................................................................................................22

9. Monitoring and Evaluation.................................................................................................22

10. Risk Matrix...............................................................................................................................23

Annex 1: DVEC Training Assessment Report..................................................................26


1. Acronyms

AWP Annual Work plan

BRIDGE

Building Resources in Democracy, Governance and Elections

CBO Community Based Organization

CEC Chief Election Commissioner

CSO Civil Society Organization

CVE Civic and Voter Education

DEC District Election Commissioner

DRO District Returning Officer

DVEC District Voter Education Committee

ECP Election Commission of Pakistan

EO Election Officer

GIS Geographical Information System

GPS Global Positioning System

IEC Information, Education & Communication

JI Jamaat-e-Islami

IT Information Technology


KP Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

LoA Letter of Agreement

MCGA Micro Capital Grant Agreement

MQM Muttahida Quami Movement

MoU Memorandum of Understanding

PEC Provincial Election Commissioner

PML (N) Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz)

PPP Pakistan Peoples’ Party

PTI Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf

REC Regional Election Commissioner

RO Returning Officer

SELP Strengthening Electoral and Legislative Processes

ToRs Terms of References

ToT Training of Trainers

TtF Train-the-Facilitator

UNDP United Nations Development Programme

WPC Women Parliamentary Caucus


Annual Project Progress Report: April 2016 to March 2017

2. Basic InformationFund/Programme Pakistan Electoral and Democratic Support

(PEDS)Project Title Strengthening Electoral and Legislative

Processes (SELP), UNDPProject Objective To strengthen the democratic governance in

Pakistan through provision of technical assistance to Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).

Countries covered PakistanName of Implementer United Nations Development Programme

(UNDP)Reporting period 1st April, 2016 to 31st March, 2017

3. Project DesignProject Purpose (From the original Project Bidding Form/Contract).

The purpose of the project is to strengthen the social contract in Pakistan through catalyzing enhanced standards of democratic governance, particularly with regards to gender equality and women empowerment.

UNDP Pakistan’s Strengthening Electoral and Legislative Processes Project focuses on developing the capacity of key democratic governance institutions including Political Parties, Provincial and National Assemblies and the Election Commission of Pakistan. The project also facilitates dialogue and builds consensus among multiple stakeholders around key electoral reforms; works to deepen democratic culture by engaging citizens, particularly women and youth, in civic and voter education activities; and aims to increase long-term public confidence in the administration and conduct of elections.

4. Executive SummaryThis report provides a narrative description of all programme and operational activities conducted during the reporting period; April 2016 to March 2017.

Under electoral assistance, the beginning of the year focused on developing customized training curriculums and handbooks for various trainings, in collaboration with the ECP. These included the development of comprehensive curriculums including handbooks and manuals for the Training on Electoral Management, Civic and Voter Education for District Voter Education Committees (DVEC), Media Trainings for ECP Media Focal Persons and Aspiring Women Candidates. Alongside, consistent with the strategic approach, the formal


consultations took place with the senior leadership of the Election Commission of Pakistan in order to engage them in dialogue on the need and sequence of activities planned over the year.

With the roll-out of the carefully planned activities in all four provinces of Pakistan, major results were achieved in later part of the year. Some of the significant results, achieved during the reporting period, are highlighted below:

In efforts to build the institutional capacity of the ECP, UNDP and the ECP jointly organized the training of three BRIDGE Modules: for twenty-nine (29) ECP officers (01 female and 28 males) with the assistance of International BRIDGE Facilitator. Moreover, UNDP also arranged a one-week training course on Leadership and Management for twenty (20) senior officers of ECP (grades BPS 19 and above) at LUMS University, Lahore.

As a result of advocacy efforts of the UNDP, the senior management of ECP decided to fully implement the RMS in General Elections 2018. Moreover, over 67,768 polling stations were digitally mapped using Geographical Information Systems (GIS) technology. The GIS mapping of polling stations was preceded by the successful training of 540 ECP officials on GIS and Results Management System (RMS) at the district level in 2016. Once completed, the GIS mapping of all polling stations will add another critical layer of transparency to electoral administration by removing any chances of creating ghost polling stations’, or change the location of polling stations just before an election. This will serve to bolster the public confidence in the electoral process.

Moreover, thanks to the successful training of 225 ECP officials from all district offices on Voter Education, and how to establish District Voter Education Committees (DVECs), the ECP was able to establishing DVECs at district level in 2016. These DVECs will carry out various activities on quarterly basis to help boost civic literacy at the local level.

In an effort to build cross party consensus on electoral reforms, UNDP organized four Round Table Discussions on the Draft Elections Bill 2017 with key stake holders in the provinces. The discussions were held in Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar and Quetta where, more than 160 stakeholders (Karachi: 40, Lahore: 33, Peshawar: 42 and Quetta: 50) participants attended the events. A report based on recommendations gathered at these events was compiled and shared with the Parliamentary Committee on Electoral Reforms for consideration.

UNDP along with its local partners, capacitated 4,101 women to engage in electoral processes in Karachi, Lahore, D.I. Khan, Faisalabad, Quetta and Kohat under its training project, Aspiring Women Candidates. Through direct engagement with women at the grassroots through local civil society organizations, UNDP created an infrastructure for reducing the number of unregistered women voters. By March 2017 end, UNDP had successfully engaged 56,950 people, of which 48,986 were women, in sensitive areas. It is anticipated that this will also achieve a bandwagon effect within target communities i.e. the


more women register to vote as a direct consequence of our engagement will encourage more others to do so.


5. Progress against Indicators

Headline Activity 1: Advancing Electoral Reforms Agenda

Indicator 1.1: No. of dialogue and policy seminars on electoral reforms and no. participants attending

The project held a series of Round Table Discussions on the Draft Elections Bill 2017. The objective of the discussions was to gather perspectives from provinces on the Draft Bill. The Roundtables were held in Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar and Quetta.The events provided a unique opportunity for provincial legislators, election experts and representatives from academia, civil society and the media to review the Bill and make recommendations resulting in gathering useful perspectives from the stakeholders in the provinces on the Draft Bill. The events produced very useful input in the shape of observations and recommendations which were compiled and shared with the Parliamentary Committee on Electoral Reforms. The following table shows details of these events:

Sr # Location Date ParticipantsMale Female Total

1. Quetta 17.01.17 44 06 542. Peshawa

r18.01.17 30 11 41

3. Lahore 18.01.17 19 14 334. Karachi 19.01.17 21 19 34

Total 114 50 162

Headline Activity 2: Enhancing ECP’s Institutional Capacity

Indicator 2.1: No. of ECP Officials trained

With the support of UNDP, ECP organized BRIDGE (Building Resources in Democracy, Governance and Elections) Training Course from 29 December 2017 to 08 February 2017 for 28 ECP officers (01 female and 27 males). The three BRIDGE


Modules covered included: Legal framework, Delimitation and Gender in Elections. These modules were rolled out under the facilitation of International BRIDGE Facilitator. In addition, there were 9 other national facilitators: 7 from ECP and 2 from UNDP.

UNDP arranged a one-week training course on Leadership and Management for senior management of ECP (grades BPS 19 and above) at LUMS University, Lahore from 13th to 18th February, 2017. A total of 20 participants (ECP:19, UNDP:1) participated in this course. The training included seminars on Impact of Leadership Styles on Decision Making, Communication, Gender Diversity, Change Management, Stakeholder Management, Time Management and Conflict Management. The objective of this programme was to develop the understanding of officers on leadership and to strengthen their techniques for managing the performance of their team members.

US Visit of UNDP/ECP official for conference in 2016

UNDP is one of the partner organizations for the Global Elections Organization (GEO) Event, which takes place every few years and is the largest gathering of senior electoral administrators in the world. In 2016, the GEO Conference took place in Washington, DC from 9th to 10th November, 2016. About 80 delegations of Electoral Management Bodies from around the world participated in the GEO Conference.

The project supported the ECP Delegation including Chief Election Commissioner, three commission members (Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan) and the Secretary ECP to participate in the GEO Conference. The ECP Delegation shared its experience of working holding elections in Pakistan as the state Electoral Management Body as well as benefited from the lessons learned shared by other participants. During the visit, the delegation also observed the American Presidential Elections.

Indicator 2.2: Increase in job knowledge for ECP staff through trainings

Sr. No.

Course Pre-Training Average

Post-Training Average

Result

1. DVEC Trainings (Sep 16- Oct 16)

74% 78% Increase of 4%

2. LUMS Senior Management Training

Training Impact Report.


Indicator 2.3: Implementation of Gender mainstreaming strategy for the ECP

Work under this indicator has not started yet.

Headline Activity 3: Enhancing ECP’s Administrative Capacity for Electoral Processes

Indicator 3.1: No. of Polling Stations GIS mapped

67,768 polling stations have been digitally mapped using Geographical Information System (GIS). The remaining 1,850 polling stations will be mapped by the end of April 2017. Once completed the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) will have developed a permanent polling scheme – a critical development for improving the transparency of electoral administration processes.

Through the GIS mapping process, the ECP has been able to:a) identify buildings which are not suitable to serve as polling stations; b) remove ‘ghost’ polling stations; c) ensure polling stations are within a 2-mile radius of where people live.

Following is the location-wise breakup of the GIS-mapped polling stations:

Province Total Polling Stations GIS Mapped

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa & FATA 11,000

Punjab 39,071

Sindh 14,406

Balochistan 3,291

Total 67,768

Indicator 3.2: No. of ECP IT officers and data entry officers trained on GIS mapping/RMS technology

After approval of the nation-wide implementation of GIS polling scheme by the ECP, a mobile software application was developed to conduct the mapping of the GIS


polling stations. ECP nominated their own staff to perform this GIS polling scheme activity in the field. For this purpose, special GIS devices were procured. Two separate trainings were designed for nominated staff from each province and laptops were procured in order to roll out IT trainings and give participants a hands-on experience on the software developed. 540 ECP Officers, from all over Pakistan, participated in these trainings. Those were practical trainings on the use of technology. The first two days of the training were given to Regional Election Commissioners (RECs) and District Election Commissioners (DECs). The second two days of the training were given to the staff of the RECs/DECs.Indicator 3.3: No. of by-elections pilot testing RMS technology for generating results (% institutionalization of RMS in General Elections 2018

During the course of the year, the RMS system was upgraded with following functionalities:

Android version of PSMS for taking snaps of the Polling Stations and Result Forms for further transmission to the system

Copy Polling Scheme from NA to PA Import/ Export Polling Scheme from / into Microsoft Excel Scanning of Form-XIV, Form-XV, Form-XVI and Form-XVII Form-V (List of Contesting Candidates) with pre-printed candidates’ names

Following the request of the secretary ECP, RMS has been piloted in the following By-Elections during the period: April 2016 to March 2017:

a) PS-106 (Karachi-18)b) PS-117 (Karachi-29)c) NA-245 (Karachi-7)d) PS-115 (Karachi-27)e) PS-127 (Karachi-39)f) PP-7 (Rawalpindi)g) NA-258 (Karachi)h) PS-78 (Jhang)i) PB-7 (Ziarat)

Indicator 3.4: No. of petitions filed challenging Results, as compared to General Elections 2013.

Progress under this indicator will be reported after General Elections.

Indicator 3.5: No. of Presiding and Returning Officers trained for General Elections 2018.

Progress under this indicator will be reported in the next reporting period.


Headline Activity 4: Increasing Participation of Women, Youth and Minority in Electoral Processes

Indicator 4.1: No. of women trained on how to campaign for Elections through Aspiring Women Candidates Project

UNDP prepared a comprehensive Handbook for Aspiring Women Candidates that covers topics such as Guidelines and Rules on core functions of Local, Provincial and Federal Government, role of elected officials and the criteria for candidates’ nomination, overview of election process, candidate nomination, polling process, and campaign techniques. It also includes the nomination forms and the code of conduct for contesting elections. 10,000 handbooks for Aspiring Women Candidates were printed and distributed to local partners for the rollout of training of AWCs at district level.UNDP held a competitive process to evaluate and select six (6) CSOs to assist UNDP in training Aspiring Women Candidates for General Elections 2018. Activities in 2 districts were funded by DFID whereas activities in six (6) districts were funded by USAID. For the purpose of this report, the achievements made in six (6) districts that were covered by USAID are a follow:

Sr. No. CSO District

1. AGAHE Lahore

2. GEESE Faisalabad

3. CGPA DI Khan

Kohat

4. Pahel Pakistan Karachi

5. Taraqi Foundation

Quetta

An induction workshop for the CSOs selected to conduct the training of aspiring women candidates was held on 14th October in Islamabad. A total of 11 representatives including 2 female participants attended this workshop. Afterwards, UNDP conducted orientation workshops with the staff of selected CSOs, all over Pakistan that covered topics such as the project overview, objectives of the project, geographical scope, key activities of the project, UNDP’s support, and schedule of ToTs trainings. Different facilitation techniques including icebreakers, group work, individual exercises, energizers role plays, audio/visual etc. were used to deliver the


trainings. A pool of 98 Master trainers (MT) (Female MTs= 87, Male MTs= 39) were trained to further roll out trainings of aspiring women candidates. Post the orientation workshops, the CSOs undertook various activities in their respective districts. They held coordination meetings with different stakeholders including representatives of political parties, CSOs, local leaders, community notables, ECP, social welfare department, district administration etc.

Trainings for AWCs were conducted in six major districts of Pakistan, by partner organizations. Participants of these trainings belong to different mainstream and local political parties. The core objective of these trainings is to enhance the insight of the women, interested in contesting elections, on the following:

Ability to enhance insight on electoral processes, Ability to increase hands on knowledge of AWCs on nomination and electoral

processes, Develop capacity of women cadre of political parties on constituency profiling and

election campaign strategy, Familiarize AWCs how to contest elections.

Snapshot of the AWC Project Implementation Process


Mobilization and Applications of

Women Candidates

Project team received 5,351

applications from aspiring women

candidates in result of the mobilization

strategy adapted for the project

implementation. Team conducted

meetings with political actors, civil

society organizations for

their support in the mobilization, IEC

material poster and brochures printed and disseminated

Selection of Aspiring Women

Candidates

4,101 aspiring women candidates selected from the

received applications

according to the defined selection criteria; selection criteria comprised

of basic requirements that

are mandatory for a contestant in local bodies and general

elections in Pakistan

Capacity Building Trainings of

Aspiring Women

150 trainings have been conducted and

4,101 aspiring women participated

in these capacity building training sessions; major contents of the

training sessions were importance of women in electoral process, functions

and mandate of local bodies, submission of nomination papers,

polling process, constituency profiling and communication

strategy

The local partners successfully trained 4,101 women in 150 trainings. The details of trainings imparted to AWCs are tabulated below:

Sr. # CSO Location Province

Forms received

Total Participants Trained

Total No. of Trainings

Party wise breakdown of trainees

1 CGPA Kohat KP 505 330 15JUI 63, PPP 59, ANP 49, JI 48, PTI 76, IND 35

2 CGPA D.I.Khan KP 553 330 15

JUI 68, PPP 73, PTI 142, PML(N) 20, JI 10, ANP 1, MQM 1, IND 15

3 Agahe Lahore Punjab 1438 904 36

PML(N) 523, PTI 198, JI 24, PPP 79, PML(Q) 35, APML 27, IND 18

4 GEESE Faisalabad Punjab 1004 921 30

PML(N) 511, PTI 163, JI 21, PPP 94, PML(Q) 73, APML 2, IND 48, PML(Z) 2, PAT 2, AWP 5

5 Pahel Pakistan Karachi Sindh 1028 915 30

MQM 423, PPP 246, JI 56, PML(N) 115, APML 7, IND 68,

6 Taraqee Foundatio

Quetta Balochist 823 701 24 HDP 49, BNP 45, MWM


n an

95, IND 245, PAK-MAP 10, PPPP 59, PTI 48, JUI 37, PML-N 68, NP 7, JWP 38

Total 5,351 4,101 150

Following the completion of Aspiring Women Candidates Project, UNDP organized a one-day Experience Sharing Workshop with partner organizations namely, AGAHE, PAHEL Pakistan, GEESE, CGPA, PAK Women, Taraqee Foundation. Highlights of the project were shared with the CSOs, as well as the challenges and future strategy to increase participation of women in electoral processes. Report on the same has also been prepared by the team.

Indicator 4.2: No. of individuals reached through civic/voter education.

Initiatives to promote civic literacy focus on the districts with low voter turnout (i.e. below 40%). In these areas, the aim is to develop a ‘local infrastructure’ of local actors1 trained to conduct community based civic education campaigns that are sensitive to the local cultural context. The intent is to provide awareness, information and skills to motivate active civic engagement and promote social cohesion, especially among youth and women.

UNDP engaged six (6) CSOs to conduct grassroots engagement on CNIC and voter registration and voter education in tehsils with less than 40% registered female voters. 3 of these grants were covered by DFID and 3 by USAID. For the purpose of this report, the 3 covered by USAID are reported.

CSO Province District Tehsil

Youth Organization

Balochistan

Khuzdar Aranji

Zehri

Saroona

Ornach

1 District Election Commissioners, women parliamentarians, representatives from the Youth Parliament, representatives from District Press Clubs, United Nations Volunteers


Khuzdar

Lasbela Liari

Mastung Dasht

Kirdgap

Kalat Johan

Gazg

Mangochar

AGAHE Punjab Rajanpur Rajanpur

Takhleeq Foundation

Sindh Karachi South

Kiamari Town

Jamshed Town

Karachi West

Baldia Town

Orangi Town

Site Town

Karachi East

Gadap Town

Malir Landi Town

The CSOs implemented CNIC and voter registration and voter education activities in nineteen (19) tehsils of nine (9) districts of Balochistan, Punjab and Sindh. The CSOs conducted a baseline to highlight the barriers to women CNIC and voter registration and identified the key stakeholders and the role that they can play for women CNIC and voter registration. Some of the barriers highlighted were lack of knowledge and importance on CNIC and voter registration, distance to NADRA offices, a lengthy process to obtain a CNIC,


rigid cultural norms and male dominancy for women to obtain their CNICs and register their vote. These CSOs were given a two-day orientation workshop by UNDP, where activities were designed to overcome these barriers. They then conducted activities such as district stakeholders’ orientation workshops, formation of voter mobilization committees, advocacy meetings with stakeholders, mapping of Women without CNICs, registration of women CNICs through NADRA Mobile Registration Vans (MRVs), facilitation of women to NADRA centres , referral of women to the NADRA centres, youth and influential workshops, motivational stalls and seminars at girls’ schools, voter education seminars for educated and working women and awareness raising campaigns on women CNIC and voter registrations. 56,950 people, of which 48,986 were women, were directly reached through these civic outreach initiatives designed to promote civic literacy. As a result, 13,054 Computerized National Identity Cards (CNICs) of women were registered through Mobile Registration Vans and at National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) facilitation centres.

AGAHEActivity Total Number of

Beneficiaries

Women CNICs registered through MRVs 5,375

Women facilitated at NADRA centre 3,157

Women mapped for CNICs Renewal 456

Women without CNICs mapped in 16 UCs 12,755

Beneficiaries of IEC Material distributed 19,969 (F: 17045, M: 2111, Y: 813)2

Two Stakeholder/community meetings held

71 (F:04, M:67)

Seminar to celebrate National Voters’ Day 175 (F: 07, M: 168)

Two (2) Awareness raising sessions with youth

367 (F: 203, M: 164)

Four (4) Street Theatre performances 891 (F: 419, M: 264, Y: 208)

2 F: Female, M: Male, Y: Youth


Total number of people reached 43,216 (F: 39,421, M: 2,774 , Y: 1,021)

No. of Stakeholder meetings held 21

No. of Radio messages aired 1,250

No. of Cable TV network promos aired for CNIC & voter registration

500

Youth OrganizationActivity Total Number of

Beneficiaries

CNICs registered 3,800 (F: 3,691, M: 109)

Sixty-four (64) community meetings held 431 (F: 66, M: 365)

Twenty-four (24) Awareness sessions held with religious leaders

31 (M: 31)

Eight (8) Awareness sessions with college students

139 (F:15, M: 124)

Forty (40) Awareness meetings with journalists

120 (M: 120)

No. of Stakeholder meetings held 40 (M: 240)

Twenty (20) Trainings/workshops/seminars held

398 (F: 54, M: 344)

Total number of people reached 4,959 (F: 3,826, M: 1,133)

Amount of IEC Material distributed 4,000

Takhleeq FoundationActivity Total Number of

Beneficiaries

CNICs registered 722 (F: 566, M: 156)

Four (4) TVEC and DVEC meetings 122 (F: 44, M: 68)

Ten (10) Advocacy Meetings with NADRA and 43 (F: 19, M: 24)


ECP

Thirty (30) Awareness & Mobilization Meetings

2,427 (F: 1,626, M: 801)

Twenty-one (21) Advocacy and Gender Sensitization Meetings

164 (F: 37, M: 127)

Seventy (70) Information Dissemination Meetings

2,575 (F: 2,184, M: 391)

Twenty (20) Voter Education Forums 2,393 (F: 1,176, M: 1,217)

Seven (7) Town Voter Education Committees 129 (F: 42, M: 87)

Four (4) Trainings with youth 105 (F: 32, M: 73)

Four (4) Awareness sessions held with religious & social leaders

95 (F: 13, M: 82)

Total number of people reached 8,775 (F: 5,739, M: 3,036)

Radio messages aired 1,200

Amount of IEC Material distributed 10,500

As part of its civic and voter literacy efforts, UNDP designed and produced two brochures for the ECP, one in English and another in Urdu. The first one is on the importance of voting, eligibility to vote, steps and documents required to obtain a CNIC, what is needed to vote, and how to register a vote. The second brochure highlights ECP’s initiatives. It includes ECP’s mandate and civic and voter education activities that ECP will conduct to increase turnout for the General Elections 2018 (such as DVECs, Gender and Disability Electoral Working Groups, Messages and Documentary and more), capacity building of ECP officers and introduction of electoral technologies by the ECP. For National Voters’ Day, UNDP developed 16 IEC material designs for the ECP. These designs included designs for flyers, stickers, standees and banners. In addition, ECP requested for streamers, badges, caps and pens to celebrate National Voters’ Day, which were produced and distributed. Indicator 4.3: No. of activities carried out by District Voter Education Committees

UNDP designed a curriculum along with a training manual on civic and voter education to train the chairpersons and members of the District Voter Education Committees (DVECs). The DVEC trainings continued from September to October


2016. UNDP and the ECP jointly conducted the trainings. The key objective of the trainings was to build the capacity of the ECP officials in the area of voter education and campaign management. Ten (10) batches of two-day Trainings were held for DECs, Election Officers and Provincial Voter Education Focal Persons in Multan, Karachi, Lahore, Quetta and Peshawar, in which 225 ECP officials participated. The participants of these trainings will later continue to train the DVEC members in their respective districts so the members can later carry out civic and voter education activities in their designated districts.

UNDP is also in process of developing an online Monitoring and Evaluation System to facilitate the ECP in monitoring the activities carried out at district level in a systematic way. The real-time monitoring of the activities at district, provincial and national level will lead to increased accountability and quality of the efforts of DVECs.

Indicator 4.4: Percentage reduction in number of unregistered women voters (through ECP data)

On 1st March, 2016, the CEC, Honourable Justice Sardar Muhammad Raza, launched the ‘Gender and Disability Electoral Working Group’ with an aim to include women and people with disabilities, in the electoral processes. The Gender Unit at the ECP, is managing the Gender and Disability Working Electoral Groups (GDEWG), with the support of UNDP. UNDP supported the Gender and Disability Electoral Working Group by developing the Terms of References (TORs) of the group, the member organizations, and the Co-Chair of the group.

The GDEWGs are in the process of being formed and oriented at the provincial level with a provincial focus. In 2016, UNDP along with the ECP Officials held a number of meetings with PECs, RECs, DECs and CSOs in Karachi, Sukkur, Jacobabad, Lahore, Peshawar and Quetta. The aim of the meetings was to extend collaboration of the ECP with CSOs on increasing women voter registration. Minutes of meetings were drafted and shared with the ECP for record and information purposes.

Moreover, for General Elections 2018, UNDP is working with the ECP and other partners of the ECP on drafting the national voter registration strategy to reduce the 12.17 million gender gap in registration.

6. Cross-Cutting Issues

Gender & Social Inclusion - project activities that directly or indirectly contributed to social inclusion and gender equality.

a) Aspiring Women Candidates


4,101 women from various political parties were trained in three provinces.

b) CNICs and Voter Education

56,950 women were directly engaged through programme initiatives designed to promote civic literacy among women in rural areas.

c) Gender and Disability Working Electoral Groups (GDEWG) Meetings

UNDP along with the ECP Officials held a number of meetings with PECs, RECs, DECs and CSOs in Karachi, Sukkur, Jacobabad, Lahore, Peshawar and Quetta.

Conflict Sensitivity - project activities that directly or indirectly influenced the issue of conflict and governance.

Civic education initiatives targeting women in rural areas were implemented through local community based organizations who possess a nuanced understanding of the prevailing cultural dynamics within a target area. This was critical to ensure the interventions are conflict sensitive.

Trainings for aspiring women candidates were held according to strict selection criteria and methodologies. This was to ensure that all trainings are multi-party, and also open to independents.

7. Key Challenges

It is difficult to take pictures of women participants in CNIC and voter registration activities due to presence of cultural restrictions in some target areas of Balochistan, Sindh and KP.

CSOs and trainers face some difficulties such as in performing activities and role plays during AWC trainings, where participants from various political parties sit together to attend the training.

Limited availability of NADRA Mobile Registration Vans and lack of cooperation from NADRA, affected the efforts to directly register CNICs for women.


8. Lessons Learnt

The demand driven approach for the technical interventions has proved to be essential for local ownership and institutional ‘buy-in’ for all aspects of technical assistance provided to the ECP as well as the legislative houses. This is critical to securing institutional ownership of planned interventions and generating sustainable outcomes that offer tangible evidence of value for money. This approach is also fundamental to the exit strategy for external assistance as demand-driven initiatives are more likely to be sustained after interventions have been concluded.

In addition to the above, UNDP’s institutional support to the ECP has helped UNDP in making a good progress toward the outputs. The institutional expertise in the subject matter has enabled the concerned project team to effectively connect with the stakeholders and implement the project activities thus contributing towards the progress.

A purely technical approach, devoid of political guidance/assessment, risks triggering blowback that can do much harm to the brand and reputation of implementing organizations, and their donor partners. Therefore, for each output, individual political strategy has been designed to ensure that optimum results are achieved for each output. These will be regularly reviewed and modified in accordance with political developments and regular political analysis. On the basis of lessons learned during Phase-1 of the GIS mapping of polling stations in the provincial capitals, ECP wrote letters and held meetings with Provincial Governments at the top level (Chief Ministers and Chief Secretaries) and requested their support in the form of transport, and security for ECP staff and easy access to the cantonment areas.

9. Monitoring and EvaluationThe progress of the project was monitored through the following:

i. Weekly Reports, Monthly Progress Dashboard and Quarterly Progress Reports (QPR)

These reports detailed the accomplishments, lessons learned/problems faced during the execution of the activities and the planned activities for the next month/quarter on weekly, monthly and quarterly basis. The weekly report highlights headline results and provides a summary of activities performed under each output. Weekly reports are prepared and shared with stakeholders every Thursday, whereas monthly progress dashboards are prepared by 12th of each month. QPRs are generated by the 15th of the month following the quarter ended,

ii. Field Monitoring Visits


UNDP deployed its own staff to the field to conduct spot checks on programme activities. The subsequent monitoring reports produced are shared with stakeholders along with quarterly reports. Weekly written progress reports from organizations hired by UNDP to support the implementation of activities are also used as a means to monitor and evaluate progress.

iii. Means of Verifications (MOVs)

UNDP has established and put into practice data gathering tools/mechanisms along with developing a comprehensive depository of all of Project’s Means of Verifications (MOVs). This assists in not only effective monitoring, authenticating and reporting of project’s progress but also serves the purpose of building a solid database of Project’s implementation. These MOVs include, but are not limited to, press clippings highlighting UNDP’s work, opinion pieces, training modules, registration and attendance sheets of trainings/events, handbooks for training participants, training evaluation reports, monitoring reports, pictures of activities, project completion reports, training reports, minutes of the meetings, and c opy of resolutions passed.

10. Risk Matrix

Risk Description Likelihood(High/Medium/Low)

Impact(High/Medium/Low)

How will these risks be managed?

Political Risk: Lack of political will among political leadership to introduce electoral reforms

M M A political engagement strategy is in place to stress upon the political leaders to implement electoral reforms

Political Risk: Traditionally ECP hesitates to engage political parties in electoral issues that may undermine efforts towards capacity building within political

L L UNDP will continue pushing ECP to engage political parties proactively


parties on electoral laws and process

Political Risk: Resistance from some senior officials to work towards a more stable, professional and independent Secretariat

L L Political advocacy with Secretariat(s) focusing on incentives and advantages.Ensure ownership of Strategic Planning process to create shared goals and commitments and environment for change. Regular dialogues with senior officials and political leaders on project progress.

Security and Safety Risk: Some areas of Pakistan have UNDSSsecurity restrictions; hence implementation of some project activities, e.g. stakeholders/public consultation might be delayed.

M M The security risk for international staff is there but those restricted areas activities can be managed by the national staff of the project. Often CSOs are engaged through sub-grants to implement activities in high-risk security regions.

Security and Safety Risk: Security Environment

M L Prior to each work activity outside Islamabad security conditions are assessed.

Regulatory Risk: Delays in

L M Developing relations with other


Approval at the ECP

senior officials at ECP to fast-track the approval process.

Performance Risk: Delay in start of certain activities due to area/subject specific technical experts

L L JDs advertised/circulated with ample time at hand through UNDP website and other parliamentary /HR networks and national employment networks/academia

Performance Risk: Delivery against project commitments in terms of time and budget might be an issue while implementing

L M Ensure appropriate planning/phasing of activities, and maintain emphasis of quality of service delivery, results‐ oriented approach.


Annex 1: DVEC Training Assessment Report

Evaluation of Test Results of DVEC Training

September 20th to October 22nd, 2016

A Pre-workshop assessment (Annex-I) was conducted at the beginning of the workshop to give the training team a better understanding of participants’ background, experiences and skills in the technical areas of the workshop. This was followed by a Post- workshop assessment containing the same set of questions as in the pre-workshop assessment. It was designed to understand the level of the knowledge gained by participants after attending this workshop. This entire exercise aimed at ensuring that similar training sessions in future are planned according to the participants’ learning needs.

The major topics tested in the assessments were:

i) Civic and voter educationii) Concept and functions of DVECiii) Members and stakeholders of DVECiv) IEC Material for DVECv) Activities of DVECvi) Contents included in CVE for DVEC Activities

Following were the results of knowledge enhanced due to the information imparted at the workshop:

Topic Pre-Workshop Correct Answer

Post- Workshop Correct Answer

Civic and voter education 53% 63%

Voter Education 47% 88%

Concept of DVEC 76% 81%

Function of DVEC 100% 100%

Members of DVEC 88% 100%

Topics included in Voter Education Presentation

100% 75%

IEC Material for CVE 82% 81%

Public Service Announcements 59% 44%

Planning of DVEC Activities 59% 50%


Stakeholders of Voter Education 71% 94%

Total Average 74% 78%

Topics with outstanding incremental level of knowledge gained:

a) Voter Education – Increase of 41%

b) Stakeholders of Voter Education- Increase of 23%

c) Members of DVEC- Increase of 12%

Overall, results demonstrated a positive trend, with an average increase of 4% for each topic. However, two topics: Topics included in Voter Education and Public Services Announcements showed weak results. This may be attributed to the usage of difficult terminologies during the relevant sessions which may have prompted the participants to select wrong answers just after spotting any terminology used during the session. Further capacity building programs on the subject of Public Service Announcements and Topics to be incu are recommended.

Recommendations for similar future evaluations:

i) If possible, tests should be translated in Urdu by the facilitator to help the participants understand the questions.

ii) Difficult terminologies and abbreviations should be explained to the participants during the Pre-and Post-Test.

iii) Effort should be made to take the Post-Test a little before the end of the workshop to ensure full presence and attention from the participants.


Following is the graphical representation of results:


1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

53%47%

76%

100%

88%

100%

82%

59% 59%

71%63%

88%81%

100% 100%

75%81%

44%50%

94%

Pre-Training Vs Post Training

Pre-Training Post-Training

Question No.

% C

orre

ct A

nsw

ers


1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

53%47%

76%

100%88%

100%

82%

59% 59%71%

47%53%

24%

0%12%

0%

18%

41% 41%29%

Pre-Training Assessment Result

% Correct Answers % Wrong Answers

Question No.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

63%

88%81%

100% 100%

75%81%

44%50%

94%

38%

13%19%

0% 0%

25%19%

56%50%

6%

Post-Training Assessment Result

% Correct Answers % Wrong Answers

Question No.

Annex: I ELECTION COMMISSION OF PAKISTAN

TRAINING ON DISTRICT VOTER EDUCATION COMMITTEES (DVEC)

PRE-TRAINING ASSESSMENT

This pre-training assessment is designed to give the training team a better understanding of your background, experiences and skills in the technical content areas of the training. This will help us ensure that trainings are tailored according to your needs.

This is NOT a test and you will not be graded on your performance. Please complete all questions to the best of your understanding.

Training Location: ______________________ Training Date: ____________________________

Name: ___________________________ Designation/BPS: _______________________________

Gender: ________________________ Academic Qualification: ___________________________

Please select/tick the correct answer.

1) Following are the topics covered by Civic & Voter Education except:

A) Relationship between elections and democracy

B) Conditions necessary for democratic elections

C) How polling schemes are developed

2) Which of the following is not true about Voter Information?

A) It is a subset of Voter Education

B) It informs the voters about voting mechanisms

C) It is carried out in the period after elections


3) Briefly explain the concept of DVECs?

A) To involve other stakeholders in VE activities

B) To strengthen local resources in VE awareness

C) All of the above

4) One of the functions of the DVEC include:

D) Help in boundary delimitation process

E) Help in setting GIS polling schemes

F) Help facilitate dialogue between DECs and multiple stakeholders

5) Who can be the member of DVEC?

A) A representative of Social Welfare Department

B) A representative of Education Department

C) Both

6) One of the topics for Presentation on Voter Education to eligible voters include:

A) Secrecy of the vote

B) Boundary Delimitation

C) Party Political Finance

7) IEC material for Civic& Voter Education includes:

A) Documentary explaining vote casting process

B) Brochures

C) Both

8) Public Service Announcements may be aired:


A) Before the Elections

B) After the Elections

C) Both

9) Who will plan the district voter education activities?

A) District Election Commissioners

B) Members of the District Education Committees

C) Both

10) Which of the non-traditional stakeholders may be involved to promote voter education?

A) Mobile companies

B) Utility services providers

C) Both

What is the one thing that you expect to learn the most during this training? [You may refer to the agenda]

________________________________________________________________________________

Thank you for taking out time to participate in our survey. We truly value your opinions and information you have provided. Your responses are vital in helping UNDP to provide workshops that meet the highest standards of excellence.

TEAM UNDP


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