Earlier this week I had a chance to hear six recent college graduates/graduate students (see bios here) present brief summaries of policy recommendations formed at youth conferences in Rabat (Morocco), Cairo (Egypt), and Amman (Jordan). The event was organized by Americans for Informed Democracy (AID) and The Project on Middle East Democracy (POMED).
Why young people’s views on reform? Youth constitute a majority of the Middle East population and, leaving universities, many young people find themselves at the crossroads – unable to get jobs in the public or private sectors.
One issue that people consistently highlighted was the idea of cultural exchange. Two representatives spoke from the experience of each conference, all three of which included cultural exchange as a needed policy target area. Person-to-person opportunities were cited as very effective but not nearly frequent enough, possibly hampered by logistics and definitely hampered by lack of funding. One point touched on cultural exchange as a way for youth in MENA to gain cultural self-awareness in the global context, as well as cultivating the notion of civic duty.
Developing independent media was another issue present in many discussions. The Rabat and Cairo representatives emphasized the need for more funding of media development programs, including journalist training, website management training, and advocating for media protection rights. The Amman representatives noted that censoring and other government interference remains a major obstacle to democratic development. The Rabat representatives also provided an interesting context to the emerging Moroccan blog world: “The most popular blogs are written in French; the most radical are written in Arabic; the most liberal are written in English.”
During the question-and-answer session, one audience member brought up corporate governance as an element of democracy, with one representative from the Cairo conference noting that it is not talked about very much but perhaps it is something they should revisit the next time around; while one representative from the Rabat conference added that ethics are important to Middle Eastern culture, so that transparency and accountability can best flow through that channel into the private sector. This is a great capture of the linkages between private and public sector governance indeed.
Published Date: July 30, 2008