Institute for War & Peace Reporting (or IWPR for short, http://iwpr.net/) is an international media development charity, established in 1991. It runs major programmes in Afghanistan, the Caucasus, Central Asia, Iran, Iraq, the Balkans, Congo DRC, Tunisia and Uganda. IWPR programmes provide intensive hands-on training, extensive reporting and publishing experience to build the capacity of local media. Many of the resulting stories and outputs are shown on the organisation's website as news reports, radio archives and video shorts.
IWPR was founded in the autumn of 1991 under the name Yugofax. Started by American Anthony Borden, Britons Ben Cohen and Vanessa Quick as well as Serbian journalist Miloš Vasić. Yugofax was initially a newsletter that focused on the troubling developments throughout the Balkans from a liberal perspective.
As the Balkan conflict soon developed into an all out war, Yugofax newsletter changed its name to Balkan War Report.
Eventually, in late 1995, after the Dayton Peace Accord was signed thus ending the war in Bosnia, the newsletter expanded its area of focus to other global trouble spots (initially mainly focusing on ex-Soviet republics) and adjusted its name to simply War Report.
In 1998, the newsletter changed its name again, this time to Institute for War & Peace Reporting and registered as a non-governmental organization.
IWPR is an international network of three partner not-for-profit organisations. They are governed by Boards of Trustees of senior journalists, peace-building and human rights experts, regional specialists, and business and NGO professionals. An International Council links the Boards; the International Chairman is Sir David Bell, chairman of The Financial Times. The Institute is registered as a charity in the United Kingdom, as an Section 501(c)(3) not for profit in the United States, and as a charitable foundation in The Netherlands.