Program Focused Training Project Managers and Data Entry Operators Training Report

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had launched a campaign to minimize the gender-gap on the electoral rolls ahead of the 2018 General Elections, yielding significant results with the registration of 4.3 million women. However, there is still a deficit of 12.49 million women as compared to men on the electoral rolls. The project aimed to increase the acquisition of National Identity Cards (NICs) and voter registration of women, enhance acceptance of and commitment to women's voting rights, and increase electoral participation of women voters. The project was funded by Grant Cycle 14 of the Trust for Democratic Education and Accountability – Free and Fair Election Network (TDEA-FAFEN). A two-day training of Project Managers (PMs) and Data Entry Operators (DEOs) was held in Islamabad from April 9-10, 2019. The training sessions were designed to train the PMs and DEOs regarding TDEA's methodology for electoral process and reforms' observation. The sessions included interactive discussions, group work, quizzes, and power-point presentations. Pre-test and post-test were conducted to gauge the improvement in knowledge of the participants. The facilitators discussed and explained the checklists thoroughly. The training evaluation showed that the participants found the training to be overall good, with 90% of participants scoring the training as good. The activities and exercises helped the participants in learning, with 93% of participants scoring positively. The training sessions covered various topics, including women's national identity card and voter registration, identification of unregistered voters and census block, district-level meetings to identify unregistered voters, coordination and communication, process for acquiring MRV, responsibilities of project staff, mobilization plan, and project reporting. The training also included a pre-test and post-test to gauge the improvement in knowledge of the participants. The project will continue the women NIC and voter registration work in KP (including ex-FATA agencies) ahead of the elections due in July 2019 and upcoming local government elections. The field activities will be complemented by a multi-media campaign through which CVP intends to reach up to five million citizens for highlighting the issue of under-registration of women.