J.1 Revised Statement of Objectives SEI.pdf

Statement of Objectives for Support to Electoral Integrity in Bosnia and Herzegovina

1. Introduction

This Statement of Objectives (SOO) is for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in Bosnia and Herzegovina (herein referred to as USAID/BiH), to provide the top-level objectives of this acquisition, and is provided in the Request for Proposals

(RFP).

2. Scope

The United States Agency for International Development in Bosnia and Herzegovina (USAID) intends to award a 48-month contract for an activity entitled USAID/BiH Support to Electoral Integrity in Bosnia and Herzegovina (SEI).

This SOO describes the objectives of an activity that will support election integrity for municipal and national elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The activity seeks to improve the administration of elections, strengthen the capacity of the Central Election Commission (CEC), municipal election commissions (MECs), and polling station committees (PSCs) to oversee and conduct elections, and strengthen civil oversight of elections. This SOO does not state how the work is to be accomplished but provides potential offerors with the flexibility to develop creative, cost-effective, and innovative approaches to meet the stated objectives and results.

Based on this SOO, offerors will submit a Performance Work Statement (PWS) which describes a strategic approach to achieve the objectives of the activity. The PWS must enable USAID/BiH to assess the performance of the work against specific, clear, and measurable results (i.e. in terms of quality, quantity, timeliness, etc.), and show the method of assessing Contractor performance against the required results. See Section L for specific instructions on the PWS submission.

Elections in BiH are rife with allegations of widespread fraud, discrepancies, and irregularities, while ultimately being declared free and fair. The prosecution of alleged wrongdoers takes time and often results in the accused not being held accountable. However, incremental progress has been seen in reducing some areas susceptible to fraud (e.g., the CEC’s online voter registration system for overseas voters has reduced the number of people misusing voter identification to vote in absentia). The Performance Work Statement must incorporate sustainable interventions that can be adopted by key stakeholders. The contractor must continuously seek ways to incorporate feasible, innovative, evidence-based approaches in support of this program’s purpose and objectives.

Geographic scope: The contractor should identify municipalities across BiH to implement proposed interventions, particularly those that will benefit from reduced fraud as well as serve as models for replication.

3. Purpose

The overall purpose of SEI is to improve the integrity of elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). Interventions will address the deficit of effective and accountable electoral administration at the BiH State and municipal and/or city level and support increased citizen oversight in election processes.

The proposed activity will contribute to achieving Country Development Cooperation Strategy (CDCS) Development Objective (DO) 1, Government Accountability to Citizens Strengthened.

More specifically, future programming will advance CDCS DO 1 Intermediate Result (IR) 1.1, Impact of Inclusive Citizen Engagement Improved and CDCS DO 1 IR 1.2 Governance Effectiveness in Targeted Areas Strengthened. USAID will strive for more democratic and transparent decision making in election administration and thus, enhance BiH government response to citizen demand for free, fair elections. By upholding the integrity of elections, the future activity will help restore citizen confidence in institutions and the BiH state.

The contract will build on past USAID work in election integrity and coordinate with efforts of other international donors in supporting the overall functional capacity of BiH election stakeholders and processes.

Theory of Change

If USAID improves the BiH electoral administration, and if civil oversight of elections is strengthened, then the integrity of elections of BIH will be improved.

4. Background

Country context

BiH has remained mired in static political deadlock since the Balkan wars of the 1990s. Short of dramatic intervention by the international community (IC), this state of affairs is likely to continue indefinitely. However, influence on BiH political progress by outside influence, including the IC and USAID has limits. Only incremental change is possible given entrenched challenges to functional governance. Citizens are increasingly frustrated with the stagnation of BiH relative to neighboring countries in the region, and this social energy may shape development objectives positively or negatively. Motivating positive political citizen engagement is difficult and prone to failure due to deep-rooted ethnic divisions. Trust in basic government functions such as elections is low and appears to be declining. These circumstances create vulnerability for further backsliding but also, an opportunity to foster democratic resilience and renewal.

Elections and political processes are fraught with challenges and manipulation by vested interests. Political parties still stand astride the entire BiH governance, economic, and social system. With little alternation of power at any level, deep and durable positive reform is exceedingly difficult, while stasis and increasingly regression appears set to accelerate. Ruling ethno-nationalists have ever greater incentives to increase their power and thwart progress with decreasing ability of independent institutions to provide checks and balances. The outlook for the next five years is depressing, with risks of severe backsliding on basic democratic norms (particularly in the Republika Srpska). Despite these challenges, opposition political forces are active and have a window of opportunity to effect moderate change following the 2022 general elections. The opposition may leverage their gains in subnational forums (particularly in municipalities and in some cantons). Although these levels of governance are relatively less powerful, in many ways, they have considerable relevance for the average citizen.

Within this larger dynamic, the legal framework for elections operates fairly well, but is in need of fundamental changes. For example, the CEC functions adequately, but has insufficient resources and is subject to extreme political pressure. Lower level election institutions are less functional and subject to substantial manipulation by the ruling political parties. For example, USAID has identified PSCs as primary obstacles to transparent and accountable elections at the local level. PSCs administer voting and ballot counting. Municipal and city assemblies, dominated by the ruling ethno-nationalist parties, nominate PSC members. After CEC approval, parties often trade member seats to gain control of PSCs and commit voting misrepresentation or fraud in favor of their candidates on election day. At the same time, other BiH election actors–such as prosecutors, law enforcement, the judiciary, civil society, and political parties–do not carry out their observation or other election administration support roles fully. Some of this work is unlikely without dramatic intervention by the IC. More incremental changes to election administration through technical assistance are worth USAID investment though, provided the IC and BiH stakeholders work to fulfill their obligations.

Problem Statement - Electoral processes challenges

Despite repeated attempts in 2021 and 2022 by high-level USG and EU officials to broker an agreement amongst BiH’s main ethno-nationalist parties on reforms in the country’ electoral system, these talks failed. Moreover, BiH has yet to reform its electoral law to comply with rulings of the European Court of Human Rights and BiH Constitutional Court to implement even basic mandates for elections to be more inclusive. To address democratic backsliding, the Office of the High Representative (OHR) used vested powers to introduce mandatory amendments to the BiH Election Law and the Constitution of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH).

This decision ensured the integrity of the electoral process, including changes to the functioning of the houses of FBiH Parliament and election of FBiH leadership. Notably, the OHR announced them in an unanticipated fashion – on the evening of October 2, 2022 – as results came in from the country’s general elections.

Observations from the 2022 elections confirmed that BiH is still vulnerable to manipulation of the electoral process. Reports point to a number of irregularities, electoral fraud and engineering among political actors which diminished the credibility of the election administration and thus citizens’ trust and confidence in the election process and newly elected leaders. The country’s Central Election Commission (CEC) did not have a budget for the 2022 elections approved, which had loopholes that some political parties exploit to both undermine the CEC’s capacity to oversee and investigate election fraud, and challenge even legitimate voting practices that impede parties’ desired outcomes. Support for technical interventions will improve the credibility of both the election process and the CEC and help renew citizens’ trust in democratic processes. Further, Polling Station Committees (PSCs) are suspected for being under political party influence who might manipulate elections through vote buying, corrupt practices, buying of resources, etc. All of these conditions lend itself to the potential of wide-spread fraud and manipulation. The risk for fraud and manipulation threatens the integrity of the election process.

The observation of election processes is also vital to secure a more credible electoral administration in BiH and the impartiality of the legal framework for elections. To challenge and address potential fraud, observers both domestic and international, are needed to closely monitor and report on all aspects of the conduct of the elections, including issues related to the legal framework for the elections, the performance of the election administration, the coverage of the campaign by the media, and election-day procedures.

BiH elections are administered by a vertical three-tiered structure led by the Central Election Commission (CEC), comprising 143 Municipal Election Commissions (MECs) and 5,903 Polling Station Commissions (PSCs). Despite delays caused by late disbursement of required funds and a critical lack of human resources, the CEC administered the 2022 elections efficiently and within the legal deadlines. Nonetheless, public trust in Polling Station Commissions (PSCs) remained low due to their alleged political affiliation, and the CEC lacked time and resources to develop effective mechanisms to monitor and implement the new legal provisions.

This Activity will use the momentum after BiH was awarded the European Union (EU) Candidate status within the EU accession process in December 2022, and this might accelerate strengthening capacity of the country’s institutions and democratic processes. More specifically the electoral area in BiH was marked by the July 2022, high-level international negotiations for electoral reform in BiH which failed. To address democratic backsliding, the Office of the High Representative (OHR) used vested powers to introduce mandatory amendments to the BiH Election Law and the Constitution of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH). This decision ensured the integrity of the electoral process, including changes to the functioning of the houses of FBiH Parliament and election of FBiH leadership. In addition, this activity will use the momentum of the new BiH government anticipated to be formed in early 2023, and the announced need for electoral reforms that may take place during 2023. Further, there will be two election cycles during the implementation of this activity: the 2024 Municipal election and the 2026 General election. The pre-election period in BiH will be used to improve the integrity of elections in BiH.

5. Performance objectives

The overall purpose of the SEI is to improve the integrity of elections in BiH. The activity is built around two key objectives:

1. Electoral administration improved.

2. Civil oversight of elections strengthened.

Objective One: Electoral administration improved

BiH electoral institutions are increasingly effective and transparent in election administration and other operations related to electoral processes.

USAID will prioritize activities that strengthen the capacity, accountability, and transparency of electoral institutions (CEC, MEC, PSC). USAID also seeks to strengthen communication between these institutions and ministries, parliaments, and the general public.

Enhanced linkages and coordination among CEC, MEC, and/or PSC and solidify their independence and impartiality.

USAID seeks to strengthen vertical mechanisms of communication and coordination between the CEC, MECs, and PSCs. USAID prioritizes reducing to the maximum extent possible corruption and unfair practices in the appointing of PSC members and election administrators. Finally, USAID seeks to improve coordination between election institutions and civil society organizations, members of the public, and journalists. USAID defines ‘independence and impartiality’ as these organizations making decisions that are not the result of pressure or intervention from political parties; that decisions are based on data (e.g., actual votes cast/counted at a polling station), in the best interest of all citizens of BiH (e.g., not based on ethnicity, political party affiliation, etc.), and maintain the overall integrity of a free and fair election based on international standards.

Objective Two: Civic participation and civil oversight of the electoral process strengthened.

USAID prioritizes genuine public participation in the election processes and systems so citizens have a free and fair electoral process. USAID seeks to support civil society organizations (CSOs) to conduct election monitoring and further advance the objective of increasing citizens’ faith in the election process.

Illustrative Indicators and Targets

● Number of observed polling stations reporting irregularities

● Number of election dispute resolution standards and procedures defined

● DR.2.4-4: Number of anti-corruption measures proposed, adopted or implemented due to

USG assistance, to include laws, policies, or procedures

6. Operating Considerations, Parameters, Constraints, and Cross-Cutting Requirements

The following operating considerations must be considered in developing a technical approach and performance work statement:

● Develop strategic plans for electoral administrative institutions that include effective communications approaches with key stakeholders (e.g., the public, political parties, the media).

● Improve budget planning, oversight, and accountability for electoral administrative institutions.

● Strengthen capacity and effectiveness of election dispute resolution process.

● Increase civil society ability to provide regular and consistent information to the general public on key issues of interest leading up to elections (e.g., polling data).

● In anticipation for municipal elections scheduled for October 2024, and in coordination with EU efforts, pilot the use of technology at polling stations (ballot scanners, etc) to secure the integrity of ballots, vote counting, and communication of vote tallies to the

CEC. (+/-$500,000)

● Direct funding ($750,000) to support civil society organization(s) conduct election monitoring as part of this activity, and deploy non-partisan election monitors to help decrease the likelihood of corruption and increase the possibility for investigations into illegal activity during municipal elections in 2024 and national elections in 2026.

● Maximize social and behavioral change among voters through behavioral science approaches to address the individual, social, and/or structural factors related to election administration at the CEC, MEC, or PSC level. To improve election administration, the offeror must address individual, social, and/or structural factors among electoral stakeholders using social and behavioral science approaches.

Women and youth engagement in the election process: Evidence exists indicating that male voting preferences were fraudulent within party lists and happened during the vote counting at the polling stations by party members of the polling boards. It is important to ensure the elections are monitored by impartial observers of civil society organizations (CSOs) to register and report such malicious party made interventions in preferences at the polling stations. The reduction of election fraud will reduce barriers female candidates face during the election process. As for youth engagement it should be even wider than women engagement and this because the youth should lead further democratic development in the country. Youth should be educated on the electoral process and taking part in conducting and observing elections. This will enable a new generation of politicians and voters who will honor values of free and fair elections.

Innovation and technology: The Election Integrity Activity should consider collaboration with other donors and partners to assist the CEC, MECs, and/or PSCs with further digitization related to the electoral process including holistic management of cybersecurity.

Adaptability: USAID recognizes that incremental improvements in elections are the most likely to become adopted as well as showcase to citizens that election integrity is progressing. This election integrity activity will span two election cycles: one municipal in 2024 and a national/presidential in 2026. Both elections hold great importance for the country. Attempts should be made to ‘test’ approaches during the 2024 municipal elections that can be improved and implemented during the 2026 presidential elections.

Coordination and Collaboration: The CEC receives funding and support from several international donors including USAID, the EU, OSCE, the UK Embassy, among others.

Additionally, the EU will begin a pilot program to test the use of biometric readers at polling stations. The election integrity activity should make effort possible to ensure that USAID support collaborates with these efforts and all approaches are coordinated with other international community donors.

Relationship to Other Activities: USAID’s Local Governance Activity will work to improve the functionality of local governance in 25 municipalities. This support may affect municipal election commissions. If there is overlap in where USAID’s election integrity activity works with that of the Local Governance Activity, then efforts should must be made to ensure that the approaches are coordinated and, when possible, enhanced to maximize the effectiveness of both activities. In addition to LGAA, the contractor may be called upon to coordinate efforts with other USAID activities to maximize impact of all activities in meeting CDCS goals.

Sustainability: This activity will prioritize interventions that can be adopted and sustained by the CEC, MECs, PSCs, and other key electoral stakeholders. The international community strongly believes that the BiH Government should support, fund, and manage its own elections. USAID recognizes that the electoral institutions still need assistance to achieve incremental changes that improve the integrity of elections. At the same time, USG funding for election support is limited and time-based. Interventions need to be sustainable to ensure that electoral institutions continue to improve their processes.