Discussions » National Dialogues

Despite challenges posed by the pandemic, the opaqueness of policy spaces and the limitations of civic spaces in Arab region countries, including restrictions to movement, Hub partners organised and hosted a series of national dialogues between 2020 and 2022.

Hub custodian Arab Reform Initiative supported its four founding research partners as they convened national dialogues in their primary countries of operation.

Hub partner Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights hosted dialogues in Egypt. They focused on:

  • the rights of workers in times of crisis in light of the rising trend of informal and precarious work
  • the bias of the fiscal and monetary policies adopted by the State during COVID-19 towards the business sector at the expense of social spending and the health sector (read the event brief in Arabic)
  • the roll-out of the COVID-19 vaccine through more comprehensive information surrounding current vaccination rates with a focus on the elderly and the most vulnerable
  • the current transformation in the Egyptian health sector (read the event brief in Arabic).

Hub partner The Phenix Center for Economic and Informatics Studies hosted dialogues in Jordan. They focused on identifying gaps in the social security system in relation to:

  • women
  • the elderly
  • people with disabilities
  • other vulnerable social groups
  • the general public.

Hub partner Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights hosted five dialogues in Tunisia. Each held in a different Tunisian governorate, they all focused on the forms of invisible vulnerabilities among women and forms of economic resistance they developed for themselves before and during the pandemic. The results of these dialogues, which brought together marginalized women for exchanges, were then aggregated and presented at a national conference.

Hub partner The Policy Initiative hosted dialogues in Lebanon. They focused on:

The outcome reports of these two dialogues reflect the extent to which these convenings fill a gap in policy discussions and shed light on specific parameters that need us to delve deep in examining them in order to help the concerned social groups.