You will be requested to complete different activities throughout
the module. These activities are
designed to help you achieve the learning objectives of the module and assess
your learning progress. Not all
activities are assessed, though all of them require
your active participation. The paragraphs that follow
provide you with an overview of the activities foreseen in this module.
2.1
Individual essay (scenario-based) / Assessed
Objective
To produce an improved bid for funding for a
proposed project.
Scenario
You are a senior
officer in the operations directorate of Secretariat of the EMB in your
country. In the previous year’s
budget, the EMB made an unsuccessful bid to the government to include in future election budgets funding for
the production of disposable cardboard ballot boxes, replacing the metal boxes which in the past have been stored
between elections. In reviewing the reason the bid failed, the head of the
directorate has concluded that the costs of the two alternatives – the status quo and the proposed new approach –
had not been comprehensively assessed. You have been asked to gather initial
information to enable that
to be done.
Task
1.
Prepare a list setting out all the main categories
of costs and potential savings which would be associated
with using disposable cardboard ballot boxes in future. (The costs and savings
in question do not have to be quantified at this stage:
the aim is to ensure that every
conceivable cost and saving is at least considered.)
2.
Prepare a similar
list setting out all the main categories of costs which
would be associated with continuing to use and
store metal boxes. (Again, costs need
not be quantified.)
3.
Prepare a short Word document,
of no more than 3 pages, detailing the lists
4.
Cite all references and assumptions on which your document is based.