Areas of Work

Based on the work we have carried out on this field, and ongoing projects and partnerships, we envisage these main areas of work within this project:

1. Professional training courses - CES
   Advanced training courses aimed at practitioners, working in specific and technical fields, particularly on elections and democracy. These courses will be carried out in CES Lisbon and Coimbra, with the possibility of creating online courses. This will hopefully help to overcome the lack of specialised training. These include the Electoral Observation Training Course, a pioneer initiative within CES, but also specific training courses regarding the Portuguese electoral system and forthcoming elections. Training on demand is also a possibility, at these multiple levels.
2. Teaching institutions, especially at the national level
   We envisage also cooperation with other teaching institutions, which can host our training courses, or through the development of joint initiatives, combining expertise and areas of work. Initiatives forthcoming will be developed with several universities, with an interdisciplinary approach. We envisage also the possibility of specific sessions for teaching institutions, especially at the national level. Awareness on democracy and elections, and specialised knowledge is lacking in general, and this will contribute to raise awareness on these issues. This will also allow combining areas of expertise, resulting in combined initiatives.
3. CES vai à Escola
   Session: “What is Democracy and how can I participate?”
   These sessions will address a young audience, which will include future and young voters. We will draw upon our previous experience, working with these audiences, and design sessions to raise awareness on Democracy and elections, in a dynamic and interactive way. This will hopefully contribute to a better understanding of the democratic system, among a population that has low levels of participation. This will also provide useful knowledge on this particular group, in order to better design and target initiatives for this audience.
4. Internationalisation
   In this area we aim at looking at a broader picture, namely the international perspective regarding elections, Democracy and human rights. We aim at building strategic partnerships with institutions working in this field, as International IDEA, and develop joint work in the future. Recent experiences with The Hague University of Applied Sciences, and their specific programme for the Constitutional Court are an example of this. We also aim at strategic partnerships with electoral institutions, where we can provide training and support, by combining work on the electoral field. The development of a series of training curricula, to be available on demand, would also be a strong outcome of the project.
5. Training and support on demand
   Within the areas of the project, we have the capacity of organising tailor-made training and support actions, upon request, in order to meet the needs of specific entities. Please contact us for more detail.