EODS, building EU election observation capacity

Election Observation and Democratic Support (EODS) is the capacity building project for EU Election Observation. It is funded by the European Commission and started in January 2013. EODS has three main areas of support:

• strengthening the EU Election Observation Mission methodology
• training election observation specialists in EU methodology election principles 
• sharing this methodology with regional organisations and networks

Methodology

Training

Cooperation

Election Observation and Democratic Support (EODS) follows the principles of the Declaration of Principles for International Election Observation Commemorated at the United Nations in October 2005.

With the objective of strengthening the integrity of election observation, the first Network for Enhanced Electoral and Democratic Support (NEEDS) project was launched in 2001, followed by NEEDS II and NEEDS III, the latter finishing at the end of 2012. Based upon the success of this programme and the continuing need for capacity building and promoting standards in the electoral field, the Service for Foreign Policy Instruments (FPI) of the European Commission (EC) launched a tender to enable the continuation of the programme under the new name 'Election Observation and Democratic Support (EODS).

The implementation of the EODS project was awarded to a consortium led by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ). Other members of the Consortium implemented NEEDS I and II; they bring the experience and lessons learned gained from these projects.