ElectLab Academy 2026: Action Plans to Strengthen Resilience of Citizen Election Observers

ElectLab Academy 2026: Action Plans to Strengthen Resilience of Citizen Election Observers

62 citizen election observers from 22 countries attended EPDE’s ElectLab Academy 2026 in Bergamo, Italy, from 13 to 18 July, for a week of training addressing organisational resilience, engaging youth as strategic actors, and train-the-trainer approaches to expertise transfer.

The ElectLab Academy has been EPDE’s recurring capacity-building and innovation hub format since 2016. Election observers come not only to learn from training courses, but also to learn from each other and support each other. 

This year’s programme responded to two main challenges: the rapidly changing and often restrictive environments citizen election observers operate in, and situations where traditional approaches to engagement, communication, and organisational development are no longer sufficient to ensure long-term relevance and resilience. 

From Distrust to Development

The Academy was structured around three tracks.

Under “Acting in Shrinking Spaces and Countering Distrust,” trainer Alex Shlyk and participants examined the roots of public distrust and reflected on the role of citizen election observation organisations in addressing it. Together, they explored strategies to strengthen these organisations’ relevance and reinforce the trust in elections and democratic processes.

Engaging Youth as Strategic Actors

In the “Youth Engagement in Electoral Contexts” training, participants highlighted that young people are strategic actors to increase the organisation’s relevance, outreach, and sustainability. The training focused on meaningful ways of engaging youth in elections and how to identify shared purposes and work together towards shared goals.  

Turning Experts into Trainers

Since knowledge and expertise in an organization or network are often concentrated in a limited number of people, transferring and multiplying that expertise supports resilience. In the “Training of Trainers” track, participants developed skills for translating knowledge and expertise into trainings that can be replicated within and across organisations. 

Participants concluded the Academy with action plans linking the training to their organisations’ specific contexts. Follow-up opportunities to support the implementation of these plans are currently being explored.

The ElectLab Academy 2026 takes place with financial support of the German Federal Foreign Office.