In the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, calls for democracy have risen dramatically. Democracy groups and activists throughout the region, emboldened by the combination of Saddam Hussein’s downfall and increasing international support for genuine political reform, have intensified their demands, despite widespread concern about terrorism, security, postwar difficulties in Iraq and Afghanistan, further erosion of human rights in pursuit of the war on terror, and the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine. While some governments in the region allowed modest reform, most continue to restrain freedom, restrict NGOs, intimidate journalists, and silence democracy advocates. Highly publicized US initiatives in support of democracy in the MENA region have put NED at the forefront of the democracy struggle and heightened expectations for change.
NED responded to these challenges by expanding its democracy program and support to burgeoning civil society movements. Consistent with its strategy of the past decade, NED supported nascent democratic groups throughout the region working for freedom of expression and association, human and women’s rights and civic and political participation. Where there were signs of political opening and opportunity for citizen participation, as was the case in Morocco, Lebanon and Yemen, NED focused its support on projects encouraging women’s participation, independent media organizations, civic education and local governance. In countries with marginal freedom, such as Syria and Saudi Arabia, NED helped exiled groups and engaged human rights and democracy activists in regional programs. NED also expanded its program in the Persian Gulf, which has the most conservative and isolated countries in the region.
After the liberation of Iraq in April of 2003, NED was able to significantly expand its democracy programs there. With NED support, the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI), the International Republic Institute (IRI) and the Center of International Private Enterprise (CIPE) established offices in Iraq. Both NDI and IRI have embarked on ambitious programs to assist new independent political parties and nascent civil society organizations, while CIPE will continue its successful program to help develop vibrant business associations and economic journalists. In addition, NED support has allowed Iraqis to start awareness campaigns on constitutional issues, strengthen independent media, and offer civic education to different sectors of society throughout the country. NED grants have focused particularly on capacity building of civil society groups through both material support and technical training by experts of diverse backgrounds, including leaders of regional organizations and NGOs from Central and Eastern European countries with experience in promoting democracy in post communist nations. NED also supported programs of collaboration between its longtime grantees in northern Iraq and groups from liberated regions to help transfer valuable experience to where it is needed most.
In Afghanistan, NED reached out to nascent civil society organizations and rapidly increased assistance to build institutional capacity and networks that will support democratic developments on the ground. NED-supported programs have had impact in most of the regions and provinces in Afghanistan, and have affected diverse sectors, but of particular importance were several programs that supported empowerment of women and democratization of indigenous structures such as Maliks and shura councils throughout
Afghanistan. With NED support, the NDI, IRI and CIPE have established offices in Afghanistan and have played significant roles in developing nascent civil society organizations, independent political parties, and independent media.
In the West Bank/Gaza Strip, NED’s support to NGOs committed to long-term programs related to building
Palestinian democracy 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 the rule of law.
To bolster the campaign for human rights in the Middle East, NED continued to support local training programs, advocates, and regional monitoring groups. Endowment funding supported the Regional Program for Human Rights Activists, a group that monitors violations of due process and advocates for judicial independence and separation of powers in the Arab world. 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.
Women’s participation remains most critical to democracy building in the MENA region and NED continued its support for women’s rights and their role in public life in conservative countries such as Yemen and Bahrain, as well as in more
open countries, like Lebanon and Turkey. In Jordan, NED supported legal literacy, human rights and political awareness projects by three local women’s groups, Sisterhood is Global International, Women’s Organization to Combat Illiteracy and the Jordanian Women’s Union, as well as a project by a regional women’s group based in Jordan, The Arab Women’s Media Center, which focused their work on training women and youth to use the media in advocating for their rights.
In Lebanon, with authoritarian control of the central government, civic groups have been pressing for good governance and grassroots democracy at the local level. NED supported the Development and Municipality Studies Center in publishing and disseminating its newsletter on models of democratic and good governance, and the Lebanese Foundation for Permanent Civil Peace ran workshops to engage municipal leaders, civic organizations, and interested citizens to meet the challenges of local government.
NED also supported civic groups in Turkey in their work for constitutional and legal reforms. The Foundation for Anatolian Folklore and Culture receives assistance to expose legal barriers to freedom of expression and the Helsinki Citizens Assembly was supported to advocate for constitutional reform. NED also supported NDI to promote the enactment of meaningful ethics and anticorruption laws in the Turkish parliament.
Political awareness, voter education and citizen participation have been the focus of many NED-supported projects in the region. In Bahrain, which went through fundamental political reforms and held its first ever legislative and local elections in 2002, 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. With a grant from NED, the Civic Democratic Initiatives Support Foundation in Yemen worked to raise civic awareness and expand voter registration ahead of Yemen’s parliamentary elections. With Endowment funding, Citizenship Forum in Morocco developed
and implemented a broad civic education curriculum.
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