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Grants>>2002 Program Highlights: Middle East & North Africa
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Middle East and North Africa Grantee in the Spotlight: Badlisy Cultural Center
NED's support of civic NGOs in Afghanistan, which began a decade ago, refocused and intensified over the past year following the expulsion of the Taliban regime and the beginning of the country's transition to democracy. In addition to funding a program focused on developing the capacity and abilities of local civic education and human rights organizations, NED also provided critical support to the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI) to establish a field presence in Afghanistan and to provide ongoing assistance in the political transition process; and for the International Republican Institute (IRI) to strengthen local NGOs working in the areas of media and civic education. NED expanded its support in northern Iraq, providing critical funding to nascent civic groups that serve as models for advancing citizen participation throughout the country. The American Society for Kurds conducted workshops in Sulaymania and Erbil for women, journalists, and NGO activists, in advocating for legislative reforms in press law and municipal administration. The MARE Foundation trained fifty Iraqi journalists in human rights, press freedom, and the role of independent media in advancing democracy, providing the impetus for the creation of a press association in Iraq. The Badlisy Cultural Center trained teachers, educators, and Imams on human rights. And the Iraq Institute for Democracy trained trainers on civic and democracy education and ran workshops in three northern cities on democracy-building in Iraq. Morocco's 2002 legislative elections-characterized by transparency and surprising levels of participation-were an important focal point of NED's support in North Africa. With Endowment funding, Citizenship Forum developed and implemented a broad civic education curriculum, and the Democratic Association of Moroccan Women designed activities towards strengthening women's participation as voters and candidates. NDI and IRI worked to enhance electoral press coverage and strengthen local polling capacity respectively. In the context of the ongoing political, economic, and now humanitarian crisis in the West Bank/Gaza Strip, and the absence of any negotiation framework or peace process, NED's support of NGOs committed to long-term programs that are related to building Palestinian democracy, and that have constituencies for these activities, remained critical. NED provided funding to NGOs that engage a broad cross-section of the Palestinian population, including women and youth, on human rights awareness, institution building, nonviolent approaches to conflict resolution, and civic education on the need for political reform and rule of law. The Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE) used Endowment funding to continue its work with the Palestinian Businessman's Association on economic reform and corporate governance. NED expanded its program in the Gulf, which has the most conservative and isolated countries in the region. In Yemen, NED expanded its support to include programs that strengthen the country's nascent civil society. With a grant from NED, the Civic Democratic Initiative Support Foundation worked to raise civic awareness and expand voter registration ahead of Yemen's parliamentary elections. The Human Rights Information and Training Center received NED funding to design a series of seminars to strengthen human rights awareness among citizens of Yemen and the entire Gulf region. Bahrain, which went through fundamental political reforms and held its first ever legislative and local elections in 2002, offered a hopeful model for other Gulf nations and provided new opportunities for democracy. In response, NED supported NDI in organizing voter-education and candidate-training activities, with a particular focus on Bahraini women and on building a coalition of local civic organizations. MENA Grantee in the Spotlight: Badlisy Cultural Center TThe people of Iraq have experienced thirty years of brutal dictatorship, major wars, bloody coups, street battles against the Baath regime, and a decade of UN sanctions. In this culture of violence, the social fabric of Iraqi society is quickly unraveling. And a new generation of Iraqis is being raised in isolation from the world, with no real understanding of civil society and nonviolent social discourse. One exception to this bleak picture is the Kurdish region in northern Iraq, where people are finding opportunities to develop and exemplify civic life. The Badlisy Cultural Center (BCC), based in Northern Iraq, uses innovative cultural tools-such as mobile theatre and art exhibitions-to promote human rights and civic education to a wide array of Iraqi citizens, including children, teachers, clergy, and government officials. The BCC also provides teacher trainings, human rights curriculum development, and human rights training for Imams (local religious leaders) to raise public awareness about human rights and to create a public forum for debate of these issues. Bukhtiyar Abdullah, the executive director of the BCC, says that receptivity to change in the region increases when the information driving the change flows from religious leaders. "The religious leaders have had a great effect on people on the subjects of human rights," Abdullah says, "especially women's and children rights." A NED grantee since 2001, the BCC was founded in 2000. It has been receiving such positive feedback, and demand throughout parts of the north for additional programs, that even the staff has been a little surprised. "We never anticipated such an overwhelming response both from the general public and officials in welcoming our initiatives," says Abdullah. "Other groups now are coming to us to learn from our experience." This year, the BCC used a portion of a $39,000 grant from NED to write, produce, and stage two theatrical productions. The first play, "Elections," drew attention to election issues such as participation, fairness, and manipulation and was performed in fifty middle and high schools in the Sulaymania province. The second play, "Back to School," addressed student concerns about violence and intolerance in schools. The play was designed to encourage the participation of students and other volunteers from the more than one hundred primary schools in the Sulaymania province where it was performed. Both plays were filmed and publicly screened in fifteen villages throughout the three provinces of northern Iraq: Erbil, Dahok, and Sulaymania. In addition, NED funding helped the BCC staff to visit these three provinces to conduct teacher training in human rights, to solicit the civic participation of Imams through human rights workshops designed to address issues from an Islamic perspective, and to develop a support network for NGOs in the region. As part of the latter initiative, the BCC began producing and distributing a monthly Arabic- and Kurdish-language newsletter that promotes civic initiatives and volunteer work. The newsletter is distributed largely to college students and youth organizations. "In a region characterized by pessimism and negative expectations, this is a positive story," says NED's Senior Program Officer for the Middle East and Northern Africa, Dr. Laith Kubba. "That this is happening in Iraq demonstrates that, with some help, people can emerge out of a culture of violence to build a democracy." |
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