Global Knowledge Network On Voter Education - learning from each other
The Association of World Election Bodies (A–WEB) is an alliance of Election Management Bodies (EMBs) of different countries, structured to work together and learn from the experiences and best practices from one another. At present, the constituents of A-WEB include 115 EMBs from 109 countries as Members and 20 international organizations as the Associate Members. By facilitating an active exchange of expertise among its members, A-WEB strives to strengthen the capabilities of EMBs and contribute to the improvement of election management in each country.
The 4th General Assembly was organised during September 02-04, 2019 by the Election Commission of India in Bengaluru, India during which an International Conference on ‘Initiatives & Challenges of Social Media & Information Technology in Elections’ too was conducted. The conference witnessed the release of VoICE International, a quarterly global magazine for voter information, communication & education, which focuses on the global knowledge sharing among Election Management Bodies. VoICE International was declared as the magazine of the A-WEB.
VoICE International serves as a repository of information, data, education tools, research papers, creatives and best practices on voter education. The released issue of the magazine was based on theme ‘Best Practices, Innovations and Initiatives for Enhancing Voter Participation’. The next issue of the Voice International would focus on ‘Innovative Methods for Registration of all Categories of Voters.’
During the 4th General Assembly, Sunil Arora, Chief Election Commissioner of India was sworn in as the Chairman of the A-WEB. Election Commission of India has been very closely associated with the process of formation of A-WEB ever since its inception in 2011-12. ECI has been AWEB’s Executive Board Member since October 2013 when AWEB formally came into existence. India remained Executive Board member for two consecutive terms from 2013-15 and 2015-17. At the 2017 General Assembly held in Bucharest, India was unanimously elected as Vice-Chair of A-WEB for the term 2017-19 and now India has taken over as Chair for the 2019-21 term.