Evaluación

The national boundaries of the new state of BiH are those of the former republic. BiH has a state-level parliament (and two entity parliaments) and is divided by an inter- entity line into two largely self-governing political entities, the Bosniak-Croat Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH) and the Serb-dominated Republika Srpska (RS), based on the territories held by the warring parties at the time of the Dayton Accords. There is also a third, smaller area (population estimated at 34,000 in 2000), known as District Brcko, in the top North East corner of the state at a key crossing point between the two main parts (Eastern and Western) of RS and the larger Southern and smaller Northern parts of FBIH. A final agreement could not be reached on which of the two entities Brcko should belong. Under the Dayton Accords, Brcko officially belongs to both entities. However it is governed by neither and functions under a decentralized form of local government with an international administratorb. outside Dayton, Ohio. The negotiation process was led by Richard Holbrooke, the chief U.S. peace negotiator, and the US Secretary of State, Warren Christopher. The General Framework Agreement, including 11 annexes, was signed formally in Paris on 14 December 14, 1995. The signatories were Bosnian President Alija Izetbegović, Serbian President Slobodan Milošević, Croatian President Franjo Tudjman, and French President Jacques Chirac, U.S. President Bill Clinton, UK Prime Minister John Major, German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and Russian Prime Minister Victor Chernomyrdin.

a

Source: World Bank Statistics.

b

After the Dayton Agreement in 1995 the status of Brcko was left unsolved for a number of years. An arbitration tribunal worked on the issue and in 2000 a decision was made that Brcko District should be a special, separate, unit of BiH and not a part of either Entity (RS or FBiH). Brcko is governed by an international official with the status of Ambassador. Due in part to this special status it is one of the most prosperous areas in the country.

83

The internal boundaries of BiH are shown in Figure 5 below. The FBIH entity (displayed in green, blue and yellow based on an approximation of majority ethnicity in each canton) is subdivided into Cantons and the RS entity (given in pink) is subdivided into Regions. A further explanation of the administrative structure within these subdivisions is described in the next paragraphs.

Figure 5 Cantons and Regions in Bosnia and Herzegovina, 1999

Source: International Management Group, 1999

The Dayton Accords gave rise to a complex governance structure with multiple levels of administration that has persisted to date. There are four levels of administration in the FBiH, and three in the RS if the combined national administrative level is included. At the national level, a bicameral parliamentary assembly was established consisting of the House of Representativesa and the House of Peoples.b Each entity has its own president, government and parliament, and weak central institutions link the two. The

a _{The Predstavnički dom/Zastupnički dom has 42 members elected for a four year term by proportional}

representation.

b

84

FBiH entity was further sub-divided into ten Cantonsa each with their own elected governing body and these were further subdivided into 83 municipalities.b The RS did not have a cantonal sub-division, instead it has nominally seven regionsc and a total of 64 municipalities.d

Despite being established as a parliamentary democracy, the Dayton Accord named the High Representative (HR) in BiH e, as the highest political authority in the country and Chief Executive Officer for the international civilian presence in the country. Under the so-called Bonn Powers, the Office of the High Representative (OHR) has made nearly 900 decisions over thirteen years, including enacting laws and removing elected officials.

According to some, these decisions hold Bosnia together, while others argue that they have weakened the Bosnian body politic. The legitimacy of these powers has been repeatedly challenged, on the grounds that they are undemocratic and dictatorial, compelling the international community and the European Union (EU) to reconsider their use.(99) Foreign appointees, largely seconded from European and US governments, and local recruits staffed the OHR. The EU, which has had de facto control over international governance in BiH since 2006, has sought to close the OHR and terminate the Bonn Powers, while maintaining the presence of an EU Special

a

Bosansko-Podrinkski, Central Bosnia, Herzeg-Bosna, Herzegovina-Neretva, Posavina, Sarajevo, Tuzla-Podrinja, Una Sana, Western Herzegovina and Zenica-Doboj.

b _{As of 2010 there are fewer official municipalities in FBiH (there are now 74) through the merging of}

municipalities that had previously been sub-divided along ethnic lines.

c

The seven administrative regions in the RS are Banja Luka, Biljeljina, Doboj, Sokolac, Srbinje (Foca), Trebinje and Vlasenica. They do not have the same level of autonomy or local government as the cantons in the FBiH. They were, however, used for functions such as delineating water supply areas.

d

There are also three official cities in FBiH (Mostar, Sarajevo and Sarajevo-east) and one in the RS (Banja Luka). They are included here for the sake of brevity in the total numbers of municipalities.

e

Selected by the Peace Implementation Council, an international body charged with implementing the Dayton Accords and comprising 55 countries who have contributed in some way to the peace process.

85

Representative (EUSR) to guide BiH.(99) These efforts at constitutional reform have stalled.a

Most of the decision-making and budget holding was devolved to entity, cantonal or municipal level with a few key functions retained nationally. Indicative of the complexity of the post-Dayton structures is that in 2000, 182 government officials at national, entity and cantonal levels were Ministers. Table 5 below summarises the multiple accountabilities at each level of the administration in 2000 including for statistical services.

Table 5 The political and administrative structure of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2000

Federation of BiH (51% of territory)*

Republika Srpska

(49% of territory)* Statistical Services at each level

International oversight

Office of the High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina. District Governor of Brcko reports

to OHR

No formal data services but lobbies for national level data to be

produced

National i.e. Central government

level

Foreign Affairs, Army, International Trade.

Bodies at national level that have been growing slowly in power since

1995, including the BiH Statistical office which has no capacity to

collect data directly, merely compiles from the two entities

Entity level

All other line Ministries including health, education, and social

welfare.

All other line Ministries (including

health and social affairs, education)

The Federal Statistical office of FBiH and the RS Statistical office.

Cantonal level

Cantonal Government, each with ministries

including health, education and social

welfare

This level does not exist in the RS.

Nine cantonal statistical offices in FBIH.

Municipal

level n = 74 n = 63

Municipalities compile some basic data as do the four official cities Banja Luka, Mostar, Sarajevo and

East Sarajevo. These have city governments whose power is between that of a municipality and a

canton. Municipalities are further sub-divided into communities. *Both include the territory of District Brcko

a

86

The Governments of the FBiH and the RS are each responsible for internal affairs, environmental, economic, social and health sector policies, justice and taxation. This implies that BiH has three health care systems. Canton governments (in the FBiH) deal with health (through ten cantonal health ministries), education, culture, housing, public services, local land use and social welfare expenditure. The Council of Ministers of BiH has exclusive responsibility for foreign policy, defence, customs policy, monetary policy, immigration and asylum policies, air traffic control, payment of international financial obligations, inter-entity transport, communications and law enforcement. According to the Law on Ministries from March 2003, the Ministry of Civil Affairs of BiH is in charge of the overall coordination of health issues at the state level. Since the founding of the state of BiH, there has been international pressure to place more accountability at the central government level, with resistance particularly from the RS. Such ongoing tensions must be understood and accommodated in relation to all projects and in particular to statistical collection and reporting.

There are deeper tensions that underlay the structure and organization of the country. Institutional appointments are deeply politicized through all levels of management which profoundly affect the professionalism of the institutions. The key element of the (post Dayton) power structure is what, in the former Soviet Union, was called the ‘nomenklatura’ system. In a particular geographical area, a dominant elected political party, through its various bodies and committees controls all significant appointments, promotions, allocation of privileges and dismissals. This prerogative of selection covers all of the institutions of State, including the legislature and judiciary, as well as managerial positions in the economy. The all-pervasive infiltration of public institutions by party personnel keeps them subordinate to the party, which maintains loyalty and discipline by excluding dissenting voices from influential positions.(100)

Divisions persist for example in the city of Mostar in the FBiH. Time magazine reported in 2009: ‘The Serb community is largely gone and Muslims and Croats live on opposite sides of the city. The barrier between the two sides is more psychological than real. There are no fences or walls dividing the city's east from west, but the two communities, like much of Bosnia (sic.), live largely separate lives. Muslims and Croats go to different schools and eat in different restaurants. They even receive their mail through different postal services.’(101)

87

Developing a health information system and attempting to conduct a nationally representative survey in such circumstances was bound to be problematic. There are challenges in encouraging the various parts of the non-cohesive administrative and statistical structures to work together, a deep sensitivity around ethnicity and displacement and security issues.