Middle East and North Africa:
Regional Organizations

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Regional Youth Funding in the Middle East and North Africa

LEAGUE OF ARAB STATES

http://www.arableagueonline.org/

The League of Arab States (also known as the Arab League) is a voluntary association of independent countries whose population is mainly Arabic speaking. It seeks to strengthen ties among the member states, coordinate policies, and promote common interests. It was founded in 1945 with states joining progressively over time. Its membership now extends to 22 states. It is involved in political, economic, cultural, and social programs designed to promote the interests of member states. It has served as a forum for member states to coordinate their policy positions and deliberate on matters of common concern, settling some Arab disputes and limiting conflicts. It has played an important role in shaping school curricula, and preserving manuscripts and Arab cultural heritage. It also encourages measures against crime and drug abuse, and deals with labor issues (particularly among the emigrant Arab workforce) and with issues of intellectual property and information and communication technology promotion.

The League of Arab States emphasizes the role, strengthening, and empowerment of Arab youth, and endorses young people as a principal factor in the development of the Arab region. For this purpose, a League of Arab States Youth Forum is held annually. The objectives of the forum are:

  • exchanging knowledge, successful stories, ideas, and suggestions concerned with the various dimensions of dialogue among social groups with different cultures;
  • crystallizing suggestions and mechanisms for enhancing the role of Arab and European youth in fostering intercultural dialogue within the Arab region and activating Euro-Arab cultural dialogue. Also to support exchange, partnership, and joint actions between Arab and European youth leading to intercultural interaction and complementarily;
  • identifying youth ideas and suggestions to enhance the role of the League of Arab States and its organizations in holding a continuous and creative intercultural and inter-religious dialogue at the Arab, Mediterranean, and international levels;
  • proposing elements for a youth joint vision initiated from what is known as a “transnational cultural” approach one that enhances intercultural dialogue and complementarily values and ensures the sustainability of common interests and values for all nations, and limits discrimination, prejudice, and the false conflict among civilizations.

The 2008 League of Arab States Youth Forum was devoted to the theme of “Youth and Intercultural Dialogue.” Detailed information on the program is available at http://www.lasyouthforum.org.

No information is available in the public domain concerning the League’s budget allocations for youth-related programming.

ARAB LEAGUE EDUCATIONAL, CULTURAL AND SCIENTIFIC ORGANIZATION (ALECSO)

http://www.alecso.org.tn

ALECSO is a specialized agency, with headquarters in Tunis. The organization, which works within the Arab League, focuses on enhancing and coordinating educational and cultural activities in the Arab world. It was established in 1970. ALECSO is a resource center for the Arab world in matters of education, culture, sciences, and communication.

ALECSO’s work is guided by an action plan for the period 2005–10. The plan’s priorities include improving literacy in the Arab world, closing the technological and digital gap between the Arab countries and developed countries, enhancing educational systems using modern techniques in teaching and learning, coping with the negative effects of globalization on Arab societies, supporting dialogue between Arab culture and other cultures, developing scientific research, preserving historical heritage, and disseminating Arab culture to the international level. All of these priorities recognize young people as a key constituency and a key beneficiary, but no information is available in the public domain concerning the actual investment made in young people by this agency of the Arab League.

EURO-MED YOUTH PROGRAM

http://www.enpi-info.eu/indexmed.php?lang_id=450

The Euro-Med Youth Program is a regional program set up within the framework of the third chapter of the Barcelona Process titled “Partnership in Social, Cultural and Human Affairs.” It aims at stimulating and encouraging a mutual comprehension among youth in the Euro-Mediterranean region, fighting stereotypes and prejudices and enhancing the sense of solidarity among youth by promoting active citizenship. It also seeks to contribute to the development of youth policies in the Mediterranean Partner Countries. It supports concrete actions implemented by organizations on the ground following calls for proposals, focusing on three types of actions: Youth Exchanges, Voluntary Service and training and networking. The current phase (IV), for 2010 – 2013, follows on from the Euromed Youth III program carried out from 2005-2009. Its geographical scope comprises the 27 EU member states and Mediterranean partner countries: Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Occupied Palestinian Territory, Syria and Tunisia.

Applicants and project leaders from the Mediterranean partner countries apply directly for grants to their own national youth authorities, which are now responsible for grant awarding and the overall management of the program.

Grants are awarded for the following activities:

  • Support measures also follow the 2+2 formula (young people from two EU member states and two Mediterranean partner countries). Projects include job-shadowing, contact-making seminars, study visits, and training courses.
  • Voluntary Service consists in an unpaid, full-time, and nonprofit-making transnational voluntary activity for the benefit of the community. It involves young people from at least one EU member state and one Mediterranean partner country.
  • Youth Exchange projects bring together young people from at least four different countries (two EU member states and two Mediterranean partner countries), providing them with an opportunity to discuss various themes and learn about each other’s country, culture, and language.

ISLAMIC EDUCATIONAL, SCIENTIFIC AND CULTURAL ORGANIZATION (ISESCO)

http://www.isesco.org.ma

ISESCO was established at the Ninth Islamic Conference of Foreign Ministers (held in Dakar, Senegal, April 24–28, 1978) and is based in Riyad. Its programs focus on four interlinked areas relevant to young people: developing member states’ human resources in education, sciences, culture, and communication; highlighting the Islamic civilization’s active part in knowledge fields; redressing the image of Islam and Muslims in the West; and affording the member states access to the information and knowledge society. UNESCO’s partner in the region, ISESCO annually awards prizes for excellence in the areas of education, sciences, and culture and communication. Information about the prizes and past winners is available at http://www.isesco.org.ma/english/prizes/prizes.php.

SALTO EURO-MED RESOURCE CENTER

http://www.salto-youth.net/euromed

SALTO-YOUTH stands for Support, Advanced Learning and Training Opportunities within the Youth in Action program. It is a network of eight resource centers that focus on European priority areas within the youth field. It provides youth work and training resources, and organizes training and contact-making activities to support organizations and national agencies within the frame of the European Commission’s Youth in Action (YiA) program and beyond. SALTO-YOUTH, started in 2000, is part of the European Commission’s Training Strategy within the Youth in Action program and works in synergy with other partners in the field. One of the eight centers is the SALTO Euro-Med Resource Center that supports cooperation between European and Mediterranean countries. Its main activities include:

Dissemination of good practices: The center compiles and disseminates educational good practices in training and youth work to create a common memory. It coordinates an online toolbox offering users access to different training tools and documents, collects educational training course reports, publishes the Meet in Euro-Med magazine biannually, and organizes a tool fair every year to give youth actors the chance to share their good practices and increase their knowledge of newly developed educational tools.

Partnerships: The center works in close partnership with several European and Mediterranean institutions, including the Council of Europe’s European Youth Centers, the European Commission and Council of Europe’s “Training for European Youth Activity Leaders,” and the European Commission and Council of Europe’s “Euro-Med Cooperation in Training.”

Support to networks: The center supports the network of national agencies, Euro-Med youth units, and multipliers of the YiA program with information about educational good practices in youth work, newsletters, and magazines.

Training opportunities and events: The center works with national agencies to propose innovative thematic training courses on Euro-Med Youth priorities. These include the fight against racism, the place of women in society, and minority rights, and allow participants to integrate these priorities into their own projects.