MENA Regional

American Center for International Labor Solidarity

$133,451
To enhance the skills of new leaders within teachers unions in Yemen and Palestine by developing quality services for members, including a professional skills development program. The Solidarity Center will work with the American Federation of Teachers on a capacity-building program in Yemen and Palestine that will represent a first step in helping teachers unions lay the foundation for strong democratic institutions. Teachers will then be able to carry the practical lessons of democracy into their nations’ classrooms.

$71,600
To evaluate the impact of Solidarity Center programs in order to establish and build upon best practices promoting freedom of association and trade union rights in the Middle East. The program will assess the impact of Solidarity Center programs on the promotion of worker and trade union rights in the region. Resulting strategic priorities will guide future program efforts to assist trade unions in their struggle for economic and political rights.

$47,045
To build the capacity of trade union rights monitors in Jordan and Bahrain to identify and report on violations of International Labour Organization (ILO) conventions and to improve the capacity of labor federations in Kuwait and Yemen to report on violations of worker rights. The Solidarity Center and the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) will train monitors in reporting on the full range of ILO conventions. ITUC will also train monitors from Kuwait and Yemen to begin producing their own reports.

Arab Institute for Human Rights (AIHR)

$120,000
To build the capacity of human rights organizations in the Gulf and Levant regions. AIHR will hold two seven-day training workshops. The first workshop, in Dubai, will consist of a general orientation in the field of human rights, including concepts and terminology, access to international bodies and mechanisms, and techniques in monitoring and reporting human rights violations. The second workshop, in Turkey, and will encompass more advanced concepts of human rights monitoring, evaluation, and reporting.

Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE)

$679,984
To address the political reform challenges in the Middle East and North Africa. CIPE will provide a platform for market-oriented reformers in the region on how to frame and advance policy reforms. CIPE will support a regional editorial board and the publication of Economic Reform Journal in Arabic and French, Corporate Governance Trends newsletter, and Feature Service articles in Arabic and French. CIPE’s program also includes a knowledge-sharing economic reform roundtable for key partners in the region.

$155,001
To promote and implement better governance in banks throughout the Middle East and North Africa region. CIPE will develop and disseminate corporate governance guidelines for Arab banks, draft and disseminate a corporate governance toolkit, hold a series of consultative roundtable discussions in five countries in the region to get feedback on the toolkits and the guidelines, and hold a forum to promote the final draft of the toolkits and the guidelines.

$126,658
To enhance the quality and reach of CIPE print and online platforms linking political and economic reforms. CIPE will generate information that is locally produced, widely accessible, and of high quality to engage reformers and providethem with the tools that can contribute to political oversight in the region.

Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy (CSID)

$170,000
To provide a platform for Islamist and secularist democrats to address mutual concerns about democracy and Islam and raise awareness on the compatibility of Islam with universal human rights, pluralism and democracy. CSID will work with a network of democrats in the region to publish and distribute 10 issues of the monthly newsletter, Democracy Monitor, in Arabic and English on reform in the region, conduct democracy workshops in Saudi Arabia and Tunisia, and develop and maintain its bilingual website.

$35,000
To raise awareness on the compatibility of Islam with universal human rights, pluralism, and democracy, and to provide a platform for democrats, both Islamists and secularists, to address mutual concerns about democracy and Islam. CSID will conduct three three-day workshops on its civil education module in tightly-controlled countries, Algeria, Libya and Tunisia.

The Gulf & Middle East Association for Civil Society (GMEACS)

$87,000
To build the institutional capacity of a regional human rights network, raise awareness among victims of human rights violations on effective measures in confronting their governments, and to build international support for local NGOs and human rights activists. GMEACS will set up and equip a coordination office in London, launch a tri-lingual website on human rights violations in Gulf countries, distribute a tri-lingual annual report, and raise awareness of human rights conditions in repressive Gulf countries.

International Forum for Islamic Dialogue (IFID)

$178,400
To build a core group of educators among Muslim youth who will disseminate enlightened views relating to Islam, democracy, pluralism and universal rights and establish a network of liberal Islamic thinkers. IFID will continue to develop the Muslim Civic Participation project, a generic civic curriculum which conceptualizes and articulates a reformist, pluralist, humanist and modernist Islamic discourse on public life and train trainers in Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Morocco, and the United Kingdom to implement its use.

International Republican Institute (IRI)

$700,000
To provide women in the Arab region with valuable skills necessary to succeed as community leaders, civil servants and elected officials. IRI and the Academy for Women and Civil Society in the Middle East will provide a single space in which women leaders with various capacities and levels of experience may enhance their individual skills sets by learning from the experiences of their peers in other countries in the Middle East and North Africa region.

National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI)

$260,000
To facilitate networking by reform-minded democrats in the Middle East and North Africa by providing access to high-quality training materials, timely information on relevant political developments, and opportunities to engage and share directly with regional counterparts. NDI will maintain and enhance its Arabic-language Aswat portal and support a regional advisory board which nurtures networking efforts. A conference to encourage the use of new media technologies towards reform efforts will also be held.

$80,000
To facilitate the efforts of a network of reform-minded Muslim democrats. NDI will provide access to high-quality training materials, timely information on political developments, and opportunities to engage and share with regional counterparts through its unique Internet-based platform, Aswat. NDI will also work to ensure the long-term sustainability and usability of the portal. A regional conference in Amman would unite activists interested in election monitoring technology.

Reporters Without Borders (Reporters Sans Frontieres) (RSF)

$37,500
To broaden the free flow of news and information about violations of free expression, encourage civil society demands for press law reform, promote the adoption of legislation that complies with international standards, and to support the development of independent local media organizations. RSF will work with local groups to monitor press freedom violations in the region, post the information weekly on its website, produce a four-language annual report, and grant financial aid to imprisoned and threatened journalists.

Search for Common Ground (SFCG)

$63,000
To build regional networks among reformers and raise their public profile. SFCG will solicit, translate, publish, and disseminate 40 articles from writers from underrepresented Gulf Arab states. SFCG will publish the articles on its website, distribute them through its listserv, and republish them in over 10 local newspapers across the region. In addition SFCG will aim to produce 6 Point/Counterpoint articles, 12 writers total, as a pilot project in 2008.