Program Justification

In line with the World Bank's mission, the Fourth Mediterranean Development Forum (MDF4) provides people from the Middle East and North Africa Region (MENA) with the opportunity to share knowledge, build capacity, and forge partnerships in the public and private sectors. MDF4 is being organized through an MDF partnership, beginning in 1997, comprised of the MENA region think tanks, United Nations Development Program (UNDP), and the World Bank Institute (WBI). The partnership promotes activities supporting policy dialogue and culminates in a large Forum at the regional level approximately every two years (MDF1 in May of 1997, MDF2 in September of 1998, MDF3 in March 2000 and MDF4 in April 2002).

The next MDF4 (April, 2002), supported jointly by WBI, UNDP and MENA, is shaping as a more action oriented forum, promoting communities of practices and networking, while still promoting a very open dialogue on key and frontier development issues in the MENA region between all key actors of all countries. MDF4 should be also an ideal platform to re-assess the demand for training in the MENA region, further identify the learning programs to be offered in the MENA region, as well as the local and regional partners who need to prepare and deliver them. MDF4 themes (promoting trade and investment, employment and unemployment, decentralization and local government management, bridging the digital divide) and its cross cutting issues (Empowerment of civil society, gender issues, role of media, and corporate governance) are all part of the 14 priority themes for WBI. One WBI thematic leader and MENA staff jointly support each of those MDF4 themes and cross cutting themes. MDF4 is viewed by many of them as a launching pad for learning activities in the MENA region.

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The MDF partnership's key comparative advantages are:

1. Organizing a forum (the only one of this type in the region) for the government and private sector, civil society, academicians and media, to share ideas and experiences on sectoral and crosscutting issues critical to the region.

2. Building the capacity of the MENA region think tanks, in a region where they are particularly weak, by relying on regional partners and networks.

MDF promotes good quality policy oriented research through the rigorous review process of papers prior to and during the Forum. MDF also provides outreach of research to an audience of all sectors of society through the Forum, and by publishing research and making it available on the web. Therefore, MDF allows for greater impact of research on policy making.

Through media coverage and prominent participants attending the Forum, the latter brings visibility to key but sensitive or cutting edge issues in the region, providing momentum for breakthroughs on these issues in some countries. In fact, the selection of the host country of MDF is based on the country's willingness and openness to address progressive issues. MDF4, to be held in Amman, Jordan, will address critical regional issues such as civil society and gender empowerment, governance, bridging the digital divide and knowledge for development, and creating demand for knowledge and policy dialogue.

Strong demand for the Forum has been expressed by participants through outside evaluations and focus groups on site and an on-line evaluation following the conference. Also, the MENA region governments and think tanks actively compete to host MDF, which also attracts the interest of many donors.

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Objectives

The partnership's objectives include

Empowering civil society, the research community and the private sector to participate in shaping public policy.

Making a substantial contribution to the policy debate in key areas of regional interest.

Improving the quality and quantity of research on economic and social policy issues in the MENA region.

Creating vibrant networks of development "activists" in the region.

The MDF fosters discussions among the development community in the MENA region on priorities for the future. It brings international and regional experts to bear upon this discussion. It empowers regional think tanks by building their capacity and strengthens links and networks among the region's think tanks, NGOs, private sector, and government. In between Forums, various seminars and dissemination workshops are held with a focus on increasing the exposure and quality of research as well as the quality of an inclusive dialogue.

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Design and Contents

MDF will take place in April 2002 in Amman, Jordan. The Forum will be used as an opportunity to highlight training activities, seminars, and networks that were promoted during the last MDF, while serving as a platform to facilitate networking and follow-up activities in the region.

To maximize participant interaction, MDF4 will be organized around three plenary sessions, four parallel thematic workshops, and special sessions for crosscutting issues, which will be held over a three-day period. A number of side meetings and networking events will also be held throughout the Forum. The draft format of MDF4 is outlined below:

Draft Schedule of The Fourth Mediterranean Development Forum

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Themes have been identified for the 4 workshops

Workshop 1: Fostering Digital Inclusion.
Workshop 2: Employment and Unemployment
Workshop 3: Empowering Local Governments
Workshop 4: Trade and Investment.

Four cross cutting issues will be strongly mainstreamed in all the sub-themes above but will also be featured in side

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sessions

1) Empowerment of Civil Society.
2) Empowerment of women.
3) Corporate Governance.
4) Role of Media

For MDF4, efforts will focus particularly on shifting away further from traditional lectures, followed by short debates to more interactive round table discussions that are engaging and open to all participants.

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Exit Strategy

A key aspect of MDF is the capacity building of the MDF partners through the implementation and management of the Forum. With each MDF, the partners have taken an increasing larger role in the management of the Forum. The partnership of MENA region think tanks was created at MDF1. The World Bank was responsible for organizing the Forum.

While slightly enlarging the partnership, in preparation for MDF2, a WBI Task Manager worked with a regional partner to prepare and deliver each workshop. Partners were responsible for identifying potential participants who were screened by the World Bank. Partners also raised limited funds from the private sector. By MDF3, partners were independently responsible for preparing and delivering workshops. Partners were partially responsible for logistics and administration of the Forum and raised limited funds from the private sector.

For MDF4, partners will be fully responsible for the content and management of workshops and will be increasingly responsible for fundraising locally. In addition, partners will play a large role in managing on-site logistics. Key elements of this exit strategy include building the capacity of regional think tanks and enlarging and diversifying MDF membership.

The goal is to reach full ownership of MDF by regional partners to ensure sustainability.

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Audience/Participants

In an attempt to ensure the high quality of participants, selection of participants will be done through a competitive application process and limited to a maximum of 500 participants. Partial cost - recovery (with a modest fee per participant) is likely to be introduced for the first time.

Participants will include the region's civil society, think tanks, universities, NGOs, and journalists (about 30% of total participants); government representatives (about 30% of participants) and the private sector (about 30%). Particular effort will be made to attract private sector participants and good quality media. Participants will also include well-targeted influential international experts.

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Targeted Region
The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Region.

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Partners

The MDF partnership began in 1997 and comprises the below listed partners.

Full Partners

- Arab Planning Institute (API) - Kuwait / Regional
- Center for Palestine Research and Studies (CPRS) - West Bank & Gaza
- Economic Research Forum for the Arab Countries, Iran, and Turkey (ERF) - Egypt
- Egyptian Center for Economic Studies (ECES) - Egypt
- Institut Arabe des Chefs D' Entreprises - Tunisia
- Lebanese Center for Policy Studies - Lebanon
- Maroc 2020 - Morocco
- Syrian Consulting Bureau for Development and Investment - Syria
- Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation (TESEV) - Turkey
- Al-Urdun Al-Jadid Research Center (UJRC) - Jordan

Associate Partners:

- Young Entrepreneurs Association (YEA) - Jordan
- CAWTAR (Center of Arab Women for Training and Research )- centre régional base a Tunis a fait la demande pour devenir un partenaire associé.

New associate partners will be identified soon in several other countries, such as Algeria, Iran, Yemen and the Gulf Countries.

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