FPC, IRRI & Civility

9th-10th November 2005, Brussels

The Civility Programme at the Foreign Policy Centre, in conjunction with the Royal Institute for International Relations (IRRI-KIIB), organised a two day conference in Brussels to assess the merits and record of international initiatives for encouraging reform in the Arab world. The G8 Broader Middle East Initiative, the Middle East Partnership Initiative as well as the Barcelona Process were the subjects of the conference.

The Conference brought together representatives of Arab civil society from across the region with policy makers and academics from Europe and the US. The debate was informed by the very specific experiences and circumstances of the individual countries in the Arab world as well as the assumptions and frameworks adopted by policymakers when formulating reform initiatives.

Building on the conference discussions, the Civility Programme arrived at a set of policy recommendations for improving and advancing the debate and policy on reform. The recommendations follow from considerations of how initiatives can better reflect and reinforce the perspectives and agendas of local civil society actors and their expressed preference for a holistic approach to reform; one that redresses overwhelming external party focus on economic as opposed to political reform.

Download 'Reform Initiatives in the MENA Region' (200 kilobyte PDF; need help viewing PDFs?)