Speeches Shim
Last updated: July 12, 2021
During a visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2018, USAID Deputy Assistance Administrator Gretchen Birkle met with students, professors, war victims, and peace activists to discuss the intersection of religion and politics and its effect on the country’s development at the Sarajevo offices of Catholic Relief Services, a partner in USAID’s PRO-Future project.
Gathering students from three different high schools from three countries – two of which were at war in the nineties – is a complicated feat in itself, but to gather them to hear multiple personal accounts from that war might be a first in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) and this region. Yet USAID’s PRO-Future project – developer and promoter of its ‘Platform for Peace’ – did just that.
Like many independent media in the Western Balkans, online news portal Vijesti has fought to keep up with new and emerging trends in the digital media market. But this USAID media partner is learning how to survive in this harsh digital media market—and it shows.
Not a day goes by in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) in which ethnic and religious divisions – the foundation and a remnant of the 1992-95 war – are not seen, heard, used for political gain, or otherwise felt firsthand. That in itself makes the Bosnian government’s adoption of the Platform for Peace all the more remarkable.
In Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), brave, independent journalists are one of the last lines of defense against the rampant corruption that robs citizens of quality lives. Political elites, driven exclusively by narrow party and personal interests, are characterized by the general absence of responsibility or concern for the best interests of the public.
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