UNDP, UN Election Support Programme, Afghanistan 2018-2022

Two elections were conducted during the period 2017 to 2022: parliamentary elections took place in 2018 in 33 out of the 34 provinces in Afghanistan, and presidential elections took place in 2019. Voter registration took place in 2018 and 2019 with the purpose of decreasing fraud and irregularities experienced in previous electoral processes. Preparations for provincial council and district council elections were underway at the time of the Taliban take-over. A key achievement of the project, as validated by the mid term review, was the development of public outreach campaigns in general, and the development the of social media capacities of IEC and ECC in particular. An Asia Foundation Survey carried out ahead of the presidential elections determined that 80.9% of Afghans (76.1% of women and 85.7% of men) were aware of the presidential elections taking place. Ahead of election day, immense efforts and coordination was put towards ensuring that 87% of polling stations in the country stayed open on election day. An improvement from previous elections was that that sensitive election material reached Kabul in 8 days, compared to 10-15 days in previous elections, as a result of better coordination of security and logistics. Another key coordination success was the increased collaboration between IEC and ECC to, amongst other things, synchronize their calendars.

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has submitted a proposal for support to "the UN Electoral Support Project (UNESP) 2017-2019", being the international community's programming vehicle to support the coming elections in Afghanistan, including the parliamentary elections announced for 20 October 2018, as well as the presidential and provincial elections on 20 April 2019.  The UNDP approach to supporting the electoral process in Afghanistan is derived from the "electoral cycle approach", wherein support to the elections should be process- rather than event-driven. This approach is in line with Sida's approach of supporting longer-term democratisation processes rather than just an electoral event. The assistance has evolved over time, allowing the Afghan government to take greater ownership both financially, as the commitment from the government has grown over time, and perhaps, more importantly, institutionally as the electoral institutions - although still weak - have continued developing their capacity. Sida has been supporting the elections in Afghanistan since 2012 through the ELECT II 2012 – 2013, and ELECT II 2014-2015. The current project, UNESP (UN Electoral Support Project), is a successor of the ELECT II (Enhancing Legal and Electoral Capacity for Tomorrow) and is a pool funding mechanism with donor support from EU, USAID, Japan, Germany, Norway, UK and Denmark. The Project has two overall objectives for holding credible elections and for minimizing institutional and financial challenges: 1) to build the capacity of the Afghan electoral institutions (Independent Election Commission, IEC, and the Electoral Complaints Commission, ECC) to implement elections in line with the national electoral framework and Afghanistan's international commitments; 2) to allow a programming mechanism for the international community to partially finance elections as per the request of the Government of Afghanistan.     UNESP will have a significantly smaller "footprint", both technically and financially, than the previous UN election assistance projects. UNESP will support the two electoral institutions - the Independent Election Commission and the Election Complaints Commission - but also the Afghan civil society's civic and voter education and observations efforts to enhance the quality and quantity of participation in the electoral process.