Chapter 3: Complaints Adjudication Training for Election Management Bodies and Political Parties Introduction Multiple steps are necessary to ensure the existence of an efficient, comprehensive, and functional election complaints adjudication system (as discussed in Chapter 2: Legal Frameworks for Effective Election Complaints Adjudication Systems). The legislative body must create a suitable legal framework for resolving election complaints that meets domestic and international standards. The executive branch must be forthright in its willingness to enforce the various provisions. Lastly, stakeholders that are expected to be guided by the system must have the requisite knowledge to follow its mandates. This chapter will focus on the creation of training programs that will prepare the members of electoral management bodies (EMBs) and political parties to effectively implement and utilize a country’s complaints adjudication processes. This chapter will be presented in three parts, followed by a conclusion and recommendations for development practitioners seeking to assist countries with complaints adjudication programs. The first part will cover some fundamental principles and concepts that are equally applicable in the development of any effective training program. The importance of establishing training objectives, selecting the most suitable training methodologies and performing training evaluations are covered in this initial section. The second part will focus on approaches and challenges of developing a training program on election complaints adjudication for EMBs. The third part will offer suggestions regarding the development of a similar training program for political parties. General Principles for Effective Training A. Overview The following principles are fundamental to developing effective training programs, regardless of the nature of participants and skills to be covered. i. Training must be competency-based The overall goal of a training program is for participants to gain the ability to effectively and fairly resolve electoral complaints according to the proce- 133