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2018-11-01
Ford Foundation Middle East and North Africa Regional Office;
The Ford Foundation's International Fellowship Program (IFP), launched in 2001, enabled hundreds of bright and ambitious young people around the globe to complete their graduate studies and become enterprising leaders of civil society organizations in their home countries. After the program came to an end in 2013, there was a growing gap between the number of Egyptian students who wished to complete their graduate studies abroad and the supply of fellowships that would make it possible for them to do so. Government-sponsored study abroad opportunities sought to address some of the disparities between supply and demand, but their impact was modest. Meanwhile, the burgeoning Egyptian philanthropy sector and private foundations sought to make a substantial difference, driven by their strong interest in developing the leadership capacity of young Egyptians. As a philanthropy with a long track record in Egypt, including many years of engaging with higher education there, the Ford Foundation saw this changing landscape as an opportune moment for reflection and analysis. This report, Mapping the Landscape: Scholarships and Fellowships in Egypt, is an effort to understand the main players and trends of funding programs for Egyptians today—with an eye to the future.
2018-05-15
Ford Foundation;
From the 1970s to the present, the Ford Foundation's investment in fellowship and research grant programs in the Middle East and North Africa has expanded access to high-level academic and professional opportunities, particularly for marginalized groups. How effective have these efforts been in advancing progress toward broader goals, such as network building, expanding the pool of social justice leaders, leveling the playing field for disadvantaged populations, and laying the groundwork for more equitable public policies? In this report, program officer Moushira Elgeziri reviews four major programs, outlines their successes and shortfalls, and distills a set of lessons that can inform the design of current and future awards programs. The report underscores the importance of defining target populations and disciplinary scope, while remaining receptive—and responsive—to constituency needs as they arise. It points to potential missteps for programs attempting to become less dependent on primary funders. And it stresses the need to develop ways to gauge the more intangible and less immediate impacts these programs have on individuals and their communities.
2019-04-02
Stars Foundation;
Funding for adolescent girls has been gaining traction in recent years. While feminist funders have traditionally focused on women and young people, there has been a drive to put more flexible funding in the hands of girl-led and girl-centered organisations. This evaluation reviews and assesses the With and For Girls Collective, the With and For Girls Award and the awards journey with a view to drawing out lessons from the Collective's experience to help encourage funders to increase flexible funding and other resources to girl-led and girl-centered organisations globally.
2019-09-16
GrantCraft;
This GrantCraft case study, developed for Candid's scholarshipsforchange.org portal, explores Al Ghurair Foundation for Education's STEM Scholars Program. The scholarship aims to increase access for underserved populations to high-quality education throughout the Middle East & North Africa region. Two years into its journey, the Scholars program strategy has made measurable progress on three student outcomes: expanding underserved youth's access to education, improving their college and career readiness, and increasing skills development; as well as three community outcomes: cultivating a new cadre of young leaders, empowering youth to rewrite the Arab story, and encouraging scholars to take part in regional philanthropy.
2016-01-01
IGI Global;
This chapter offers a thorough analysis of the internal conditions in the MENA countries on the eve of the Arab Spring, as well as causes and consequences of the Arab Revolutions. The chapter also offers ananalysis of similar historical World System reconfigurations starting with the 16th century Reformation.The analysis is based on the theory (developed by the authors) of the periodical catch-ups experienced by the political component of the World System that tends to lag behind the World System economic component. Thus, we show that the asynchrony of development of various functional subsystems of the World System is a cause of the synchrony of major political changes. In other words, within the globalization process, political transformations tend to lag far behind economic transformations. And such lags cannot constantly increase, the gaps are eventually bridged, but in not quite a smooth way. The chapter also suggests an explanation why the current catch-up of the World System political component started in the MENA region.
2007-01-01
RAND Corporation;
Examines regional, multilateral track two dialogues focused on arms control and other cooperative security measures in the Middle East and South Asia. Assesses regional security trajectories in both regions and makes suggestions for improvement.
2017-06-02
International Alert;
This study examines the impact of fragility and conflict on gender justice and women's rights in the MENA, as a part of an Oxfam project entitled 'Promoting the Needs of Women in Conflict in the Middle East and North Africa' funded through the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office. It specifically aims to understand how conflict and fragility in four different contexts - Egypt, Iraq, the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Yemen - have impacted the realization of gender equality and gender justice in the past several years of political and social upheaval.
2011-08-01
Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School;
Digital communication has become a more perilous activity, particularly for activists, political dissidents, and independent media. The recent surge in digital activism that has helped to shape the Arab spring has been met with stiff resistance by governments in the region intent on reducing the impact of digital organizing and independent media. No longer content with Internet filtering, many governments in the Middle East and around the world are using a variety of technological and offline strategies to go after online media and digital activists. In Tunisia, before and during the January 2011 protest movement that led to a change in government there, Internet service providers were apparently logging usernames and passwords to hack into and dismantle online organizing and information sharing among protesters. In early June 2011, Google reported a phishing attack targeted at military and human rights activists to gain access to their Gmail accounts. In Syria, a well organized effort known as the Syrian Electronic Army has been carrying out attacks to disable and compromise web sites that are critical of the Syrian regime. These stories are only a few selected from the set that have become public, and an unknown number of attacks go unnoticed and unreported. Many of these attacks are impossible to attribute to specific actors and may involve a mix of private sector and governmental actors, blurring the lines between cyber attacks and government surveillance. In such an environment, maintaining online security is a growing challenge.In this report we describe the results of a survey of 98 bloggers in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) carried out in May 2011 in order to study bloggers' perceptions of online risk and the actions they take to address digital communications security, including both Internet and cell phone use. The survey was implemented in the wake of the Arab spring and documents a proliferation of online security problems among the respondents. In the survey, we address the respondents' perceptions of online risk, their knowledge of digital security practices, and their reported online security practices. The survey results indicate that there is much room for improving online security practices, even among this sample of respondents who are likely to have relatively high technical knowledge and experience.
2016-02-16
Oxfam GB;
Political upheaval, instability and conflict have been on the rise in the Middle East and North Africa following the uprisings that swept the region in 2011. Women and girls face particular challenges to their basic human rights. This factsheet gives an overview of the status of women in the region, focusing on two key themes: violence against women and girls in conflict, and women's political participation and leadership. It highlights the different manifestations of gender-based threats and risks that women face, including increased sexual violence, forced and early marriage, and rape in the context of conflict. The factsheet also discusses the implementation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 (Women, Peace and Security) and the extent of progress towards its goals in the Middle East and North Africa, looking at the limited number of women in decision making and peace processes.
2008-05-31
Association for Women's Rights in Development (AWID);
This directory of funders was compiled by AWID and the GFW, as a resource guide for women's rights organizations in the Middle East and North Africa. Please note that it is not a complete list, but a work in progress. Please note that by publishing this information AWID and GFW are not endorsing any of these as possible funders, but simply sharing information. The directory includes organizations that have confirmed their information and given permission to be included. If you have any changes to your organization's listing or any recommended additions, please contact Zawadi Nyong'o at menameeting@awid.org. The directory will be available for download on the AWID website at www.awid.org. Please feel free to disseminate this information widely with your partners in your country or region.
2010-11-03
Oxfam International;
Foreign Ministers are due to meet in Naples to discuss the next steps in the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership on December 2 and 3. The vision behind the free trade zone is to bring greater stability and prosperity to the whole region. However, the EU stands to gain most from the deal at a time when poverty in the Middle East and North Africa is rising. Almost a quarter of the population earns just $2 per day. Arab economies need better safeguards if poor people's livelihoods, particularly in agriculture, are to be protected. Oxfam believes that true partnership requires a more equitable trading relationship that can benefit both the EU and Arab countries.
2015-11-12
Oxfam GB;
This evaluation is presented as part of the Effectiveness Review Series 2014/15, selected for review under the women's empowerment thematic area. This report documents the findings of a quasi-experimental impact evaluation carried out in December 2014 that sought to assess the impact of project activities, implemented at individual and community level, on women's empowerment. This project was carried out in three countries: Lebanon, Jordan, and Iraq; the evaluation focuses on the project component in Lebanon only. While there is no unique set of women's empowerment characteristics that are applicable to all contexts, this evaluation identified a set of empowerment characteristics which are considered to be important in this particular context, even if not all are necessarily directly linked to the project activities.The main objective of this project was to contribute to improving the status and lives of women and girls in the Middle East and North Africa region by improving the quality of legal services for poor and vulnerable women. Key activities included providing awareness raising sessions for women and community leaders such as political parties, religious leaders and municipal employers; training and engaging women and men for raising awareness; offering free legal consultations to women; and raising awareness around women's rights among lawyers and judges.For more information, the data for this effectiveness review is available through the UK Data Service. Read more about the Oxfam Effectiveness Reviews.
