Middle East and North Africa
We are an open Haus for innovation and a global liberal think-tank, with the aim of enhancing the values and goals of freedom worldwide. With our activities and publications, we encourage and support individuals in exercising their right of political participation. Our offices in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) work within the frame of freedom and human rights in their national context. Our office is based in Amman, Jordan. FNF MENA has three main programs that encourage inter-country cooperation: MENA-NET | MENA-EU | MENA-GEOPOL. We advise and motivate relevant stakeholders and shape and promote solutions that are based on enhancing individual freedom and responsibility.
News
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Tunis Innovation in Politics 2021
Tunis Innovation in Politics Forum (TIP) is a two-day event that aims at exposing ground-breaking political work, gathering bright minds from the field, and making use of their experience to identify innovative approaches to Politics, as a study or as a practice.
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iValues Awards Ceremony
The Friedrich Naumann Foundation Middle East & North Africa continues to support the active and growing civil society and community of innovators and entrepreneurs across the MENA region. FNF acknowledges their determination and courage in engendering positive change – regardless of the challenges that are facing the region on the security, political, and economic levels. As such they have developed a new initiative called the “iValues: Rethink Politics in MENA"
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Reflections on the First Shura Council Elections in Qatar
On October 2, 2021, Qatar held its first Shura Council (SC) elections, a new milestone in broadening the political representation and strengthening the governmental institutions in the gas-rich Gulf country. The Qatari constitution approved in a 2003 referendum calls for the elections of the legislative branch of the government, the Shura Council.
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Take Me By The Hand
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Innovate to Investigate
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Iran 1400 Brief: Beyond the Headlines
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MENA on the Map
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Political rebranding through environmental reforms in Saudi Arabia?
During a work call in March, while giving a presentation on the situation of crude and other commodities’ movement in the Middle East and North Africa region, a news flash on the television screen near me read: ”Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince, Mohammad Bin Salman [often dubbed MbS by international media] announced that the kingdom aims to plant billions of trees over the coming decades to increase the global area covered by existing trees.”
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ZENTRUM for political change.
Lebanon now more than ever, is in desperate need of administrative reform and a significant increase in policy making to pave the way for a true change and boost the positive impact of young politicians.
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Questions looming over Morocco’s role as a climate champion
Morocco presents itself as a pioneer in climate policy, from the ban on plastic bags to designing the world's largest solar power plant. The kingdom is also the focus of European hopes to produce green electricity from the desert in the future. However, Morocco's image as a climate champion is increasingly cracked.
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Tunisia at the Crossroads - Why Tunisia’s power shift should be a cause for concern
Tunisian president Kais Saied has assumed sole power in the country and now represents the executive, the legislative and the judiciary unified in one person. Tunisians are celebrating his power grab. Observers in the region and in Europe are awaiting his next steps. The country is at a dangerous pathway.
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One year after the disastrous explosion
August 4th marks the commemoration of the catastrophic Beirut blast, which killed more than 200 people, injured more than 6,000, and destroyed large parts of city. Many people have not been able to come to terms to what has happened. This comes as no surprise since for many, everyday life has become a never-ending nightmare: the lack of medicine, the long queues in front of gas stations, or the collapse of
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Julia Vinnen's Internship with FNF MENA
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Idea, Innovation, and Impact
Through the iValues Awards, we seek to transform values into actions and projects that will help improve politics and policy making in the MENA region. We dissected politics into two main categories: politics as practice and politics as a theory. Through different formats, we created a space to discuss the impact of innovation on our day-to-day interaction with policies and politics and to explore the potential of new methodologies in shaping our behavior towards
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Jordan’s Momentum for Economic Reforms
There is no doubt for the international community and the Jordanian authorities that 2021 was to be yet another challenging year for the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and Jordanians. 2020 saw the coronavirus pose one of many exogenous shocks to the Kingdom, after a decade of socioeconomic strains ranging from an influx of Syrian refugees, closure of physical borders with some neighboring countries due to security concerns, and threats to energy supplies.
