Information Technology Mission: May - September 1996, Bosnia and Herzegovina

IFES IN BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

Beginning in October 1995, at the request of the U.S. Department of State, IFES offered legal assistance to the drafters of the Dayton Accords during a series of meetings in Washington, D.C. prior to the actual discussions in Dayton, Ohio. Immediately following this assistance, an IFES Executive Vice President Jeff Fischer participated as a member of two ODIHR-led (Office of Democratic Institutions and Human Rights) Election Assessment Missions in December 1995 and January 1996. In February 1996, again at the request of the Department of State, IFES deployed a two-person team to Sarajevo for one month to provide technical assistance to the newly instituted Provisional Election Commission (PEC).

Beginning in February 1996, IFES formally launched three USAID-funded on-site projects which assisted with preparations for the September 14 National Elections. In support of the OSCE, an IFES Technical Assistance Advisory team, which included election specialists with various technical skills ranging from election administration to election commodity procurement, arrived in Sarajevo in June 1996. Beginning in July 1996, an IFES Voter Education Office was opened in Zenica to implement an interactive voter education and outreach project utilizing a series of workshops and training exercises throughout the region. This presence has continued in preparation for the September 13/14 Municipal Elections in 1997.

This report discusses in detail the USAID-funded project which was the most technologically complex of the IFES projects - an Information Technology Mission whose work began in May 1996 as the OSCE began to realize the importance and necessity of an Information Technology capability within the Sarajevo headquarters.