History
From 1992 to 1995 Peter Erben worked for the European Union Monitoring Mission (ECMM) as a political analyst during its effort to observe, report and mitigate on the conflicts as they swept the Balkans.
In 1996 Peter Erben joined the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in Bosnia and Herzegovina. While at the OSCE he participated in managing the first four post-conflict elections, ending up as the Chief of Staff for the mission. With this experience, Peter Erben set out on a career focused on the management of elections and became one of a few international experts entrusted with directing elections for other nations.
In 2000, on behalf of the OSCE and the UN, he co-directed the first post-conflict election in Kosovo and became the Chief Electoral Officer of Kosovo for the second election in 2001.
In 2005 Peter Erben was appointed as the Chief Electoral Officer of Afghanistan for its first parliamentary elections, by the UN and President Hamid Karzai. In both Kosovo and Afghanistan Peter Erben was, as the Chief Electoral Officer, a member of the Election Commission.
Peter Erben also directed the Afghan out-of-country election in Pakistan and Iran in 2004, and the Iraq out-of-country worldwide election in 2005 which included countries such as Australia, France, the US, Syria, Iran and the United Arab Emirates. Together the above electoral operations engaged a total of over 250,000 staff at their peak with combined budgets of over $300 million.
When not managing elections Peter Erben uses his experience to assist other nations in establishing and strengthening their electoral institutions. He acted as a senior adviser to election commissions and managed large donor assistance programs for the European Commission and the International Foundation for Election Systems (IFES) in places such as the Palestinian Territories, Nepal, Pakistan, Myanmar and Indonesia.
In between the above, longer, posts Mr. Erben has been on shorter assignments throughout the world, leading missions to Lebanon, the Philippines, Iraq, Georgia, Bangladesh, Libya, and other countries.
Today, Peter Erben is also the Senior Global Electoral Adviser responsible for providing support on substantive matters to IFES’ offices worldwide.
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