Office Accommodation
For short-term projects, office accommodation may only be required for a headquarters or administrative centre for the project. In such cases, using the facilities of existing independent organisations or sharing office facilities with other observer groups is a cost-effective solution. For longer-term projects, and where a regional structure for the observation requires local office facilities, the project may need its own accommodations.
In selecting office accommodations, the most important considerations are those of communications availability (existing or readily available fixed phone or data lines and/or clear radio or mobile phone transmission and reception within its area of supervision), security, and accessibility. Care should be taken that office accommodations are not shared with or rented from organisations whose activities may have a negative effect on perceptions of the independence of the observation project.
Personal Accommodation
Where domestic observers are operating outside their area of residence, and for international observers, personal accommodation strategies will be needed. These may rely on observers finding their own accommodations, though this is generally not appropriate for short-term projects. Where accommodations are scarce and for short-term observers or for international observers on arrival at their assignment, accommodations should be reserved in advance and its locations relayed to staff and their supervisors prior to starting their assignment.
Cost-effective accommodation options, such as billeting with local residents, and renting of observer group houses or apartments for longer-term projects, should be considered as alternatives to hotels. Security, access, and relative comfort are important factors in determining the appropriate accommodation styles and locations. Choice of accommodation style may also be important in influencing local perceptions of the status of the observer group.
Provisioning
In some situations, arrangements will also need to be made for providing food and other provisions to observers. This would be most likely for observers operating in remote or relatively undeveloped rural locations, or in post-conflict environments. In such situations, where larger groups of observers are operating in the same area, contracting of local resources to provide canteen facilities may be cost-effective. Otherwise, the provision of food, drink and basic amenities, such as cooking equipment, shelter, bedding, ablutions, and the like, to observer teams will often need to be factored into equipment acquisition, deployment, and transportation planning.
In all observation situations, observers are likely to be working very long, unbroken hours during voting day and the count. Organisation of food and drink for voting day observers, either through provision of ration packs or making arrangements for delivery of food and drink to observation sites, is a basic service to the well-being of observers that should be strongly considered.
