Under the sponsorship of the Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), IFES has developed a strategy for election support to selected countries in the Middle East and North Africa from 2004 to 2007.

This project focused on the following countries where parliamentary and municipal elections are expected: Algeria, Jordan, Morocco, Oman and Yemen. In each country, technical needs study missions were conducted.

With this project, IFES aims to determine whether regional trends in election assistance can be identified. To this end, IFES' experts met with government officials, election administrators, political party representatives, scholars and civil society actors in order to determine whether election support is desired, and if so, what kind of technical assistance is needed. As part of this process, IFES also sought to identify areas where countries from the Middle East and North Africa could benefit from each other's electoral experience.

In the five countries studied, IFES' studies explored all aspects of the electoral process, including its administration, the legal framework for elections, and the role played by nongovernmental actors, both in the electoral process and in the development of voter education initiatives.

After each mission, IFES produced a final country report. Once all missions were complete, IFES developed a regional strategy for election support, providing one roadmap that identifies electoral needs that can be effectively addressed through a regional initiative that is structured to complement any country-specific assistance.