The Middle East and North Africa region has been absent form stocktaking exercises on social accountability initiatives (SAI), an umbrella term to designate citizen-led tools aimed at socio-political change. We argue that this sidelining is unwarranted, given the proliferation of participatory governance initiatives, civic associations and popular mobilisation in Arab societies after 2011. Whereas the struggle for improved accountability in the Arab world remains under-researched, analysis of authoritarian regime tactics has proliferated. The fact is, however, that many Arab societies have experimented with mechanisms to apply political pressure on corrupt elites while international donors have launched diverse SAIs, including community score cards and participatory and gender-responsive budgeting initiatives. In this chapter, we first identify this double gap: not only has the literature on SAIs overlooked the MENA region but scholarship on the Middle East has largely failed to recognise initiatives launched across the region over the past decade as SAIs. Then, we aim to address the blind spot of Arab SAI’s as pathways towards improved governance. Finally, we present an overview of extant literature and introduce a set of four research questions to better understand what social accountability means for people on the ground. These questions focus on the various meanings of social accountability (musā’ala vs muhāsaba), its modes of mobilisation, the responses from authorities to such initiatives and their overall outcomes.
MULTIFILE
As the revolutions across the Arab world that came to a head in 2011 devolved into civil war and military coup, representation and history acquired a renewed and contested urgency. The capacities of the internet have enabled sharing and archiving in an unprecedented fashion. Yet, at the same time, these facilities institute a globally dispersed reinforcement and recalibration of power, turning memory and knowledge into commodified and copyrighted goods. In The Arab Archive: Mediated Memories and Digital Flows, activists, artists, filmmakers, producers, and scholars examine which images of struggle have been created, bought, sold, repurposed, denounced, and expunged. As a whole, these cultural productions constitute an archive whose formats are as diverse as digital repositories looked after by activists, found footage art documentaries, Facebook archive pages, art exhibits, doctoral research projects, and ‘controversial’ or ‘violent’ protest videos that are abruptly removed from YouTube at the click of a mouse by sub-contracted employees thousands of kilometers from where they were uploaded. The Arab Archive investigates the local, regional, and international forces that determine what materials, and therefore which pasts, we can access and remember, and, conversely, which pasts get erased and forgotten.
MULTIFILE
Used by millions on a daily basis Web 2 and social media have become part of our lives; Facebook arguably developed into the largest online group worldwide with some 800 million users - or one seventh of the world's population. (Facebook, 2011) This paper reviews social media and provides a general overview of the same from the perspective of an independent documentary filmmaker. The paper investigates use of social media during the Arab Spring and Wall Street Movement (Occupy, 2011) and compares social- with traditional media. Using the example of the documentary 'God, Church, Pills & Condoms' (F Kohle, A Cuevas, 2011) the tools social media offers are examined and their applications are discussed. Web 2 is the accumulative sum of print, radio, TV and film, offering an ever-increasing amount of content. What are the implications and challenges for Documentary filmmakers? How can documentary filmmakers explore the full potential of social media? Does social media really offer an alternative to traditional content commissioning, content development and distribution as well as fund raising? The paper concludes by examining future trends for social media and potential applications in documentary filmmaking.
LINK
Used by millions on a daily basis Web 2 and social media have become part of our lives; Facebook arguably developed into the largest online group worldwide with some 800 million users - or one seventh of the world's population. (Facebook, 2011) This paper reviews social media and provides a general overview of the same from the perspective of an independent documentary filmmaker. The paper investigates use of social media during the Arab Spring and Wall Street Movement (Occupy, 2011) and compares social- with traditional media. Using the example of the documentary 'God, Church, Pills & Condoms' (F Kohle, A Cuevas, 2011) the tools social media offers are examined and their applications are discussed. Web 2 is the accumulative sum of print, radio, TV and film, offering an ever-increasing amount of content. What are the implications and challenges for Documentary filmmakers? How can documentary filmmakers explore the full potential of social media? Does social media really offer an alternative to traditional content commissioning, content development and distribution as well as fund raising? The paper concludes by examining future trends for social media and potential applications in documentary filmmaking.
DOCUMENT
"The World of the [open] innovator" described the background of the revolution we are in in innovation and what the consequences are for innovation, changing towards design driven open innovation. We reframed innovation to meet new needs and values of companies and organizations in our work field. We do not take this light-hearted. We know the field of innovation and used our experience and conversation with stakeholders to come up with the insight of The [open] Innovator. What strengthened us were reactions from companies and organization we asked to cocreate or participate. There seemed to be an instant recognition and appeal to our vision and approach. But we also realize that we are in the stage of prototyping and we need you, as our lead users to be critical, yet to trust us. You, being an [open] innovator, will do great wonders, because you will be taught to deal with this uncertainty and dig in new, unknown situations or problems. You will learn the tools for research, for communication, for visualization. You will become a cooperative, open-minded problem solver. You will be able - with all the skills and tools we will provide you - to make the difference. But we need you to reflect upon your progress and needs; help us to get an insight in to your uncertainties, values and unmet needs, to enable us to improve our thinking and teaching. However, innovation can only be learned by doing! Start cracking, start experimenting, start having fun. Welcome to the future, that has just started.
DOCUMENT
![The World of the [open] innovator](https://publinova-harvester-content-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/thumbnails/files/previews/pdf/20250506150122198446.042ed686-762c-429d-ba80-1c82380cb051-thumbnail-400x300.png)
In this chapter, we first summarise the findings from the country chapters on the multiple meanings of SA, documenting terms, translations and contrasting understandings between citizens and public officials. Second, we highlight how civil mobilisation tends to be cyclical over time and is often mediated by brokers. Strategies to spur stakeholders into action rely on a delicate balance of both collaboration and confrontation. Third, we examine the responses from authorities to SAIs, finding that reactions are uneven and that all civic innovators fear appropriation or co-optation by officials. Fourth, we assess overall outcomes of Arab SAIs and highlight that the transformative potential of SAIs exists especially at municipal level, if four conditions for success are present (trust, proximity, endorsement, evaluation). We also point out that the actual outcomes of SAIs in Arab societies have, so far, been limited due to design deficiencies (emphasising short-term objectives and limited context sensitivity) or because of officials’ resistance in active or passive forms. We characterise SAIs as a discursive action format that is best understood with a relational approach to power. In a final section, we formulate recommendations for activists, officials and donors on how to make SAIs more effective.
MULTIFILE
This chapter offers a working definition of social accountability as any citizen-led action beyond elections that aims to enhance the accountability of state actors. We view social accountability as a broad array of predominantly bottom-up initiatives, aimed at improving the quality of governance (especially oversight and responsiveness) through active citizen participation. We also trace the evolution of SA as a concept in the literature over the past decades and, then, discuss some influential theoretic approaches to SAIs, pointing out strengths and weaknesses of each model. Finally, we suggest organising Arab SAIs into one of three categories: (1) transparency; (2) advocacy; or (3) participatory governance and we review each of these existing action formats by discussing their main strengths and flaws.
MULTIFILE
This paper will explore how a portfolio approach to teaching and learning can help the educator incorporate unique forms of reflective practice into his or her daily work. By being able to express ideas more clearly to himself, the educator can better promote the relational construction of knowledge in his educational communities. This paper, as part of a larger body of research asks, how can a portfolio approach to teaching and learning help the educator develop unique forms of reflective practice that will help him express his ideas more clearly, first to himself and then secondly to his educational communities? Research methodology is primarily participatory action research and includes an autoethnographic review of the author's work, reviews, interviews, observations, and focus groups with student teachers and professional teachers in the United Arab Emirates. The research concludes that in consideration of McLuhan's (1964) notion that the "medium is the message," the interactions that arise through the use of new media tools can lead us to relational, co-constructed ideas that are not those simply passed on from other texts. By making our thinking visible, the portfolio approach allows the educator to capture the contextual relationship between the author, the audience or community, and the knowledge being created.
DOCUMENT
De ontwikkelingen in de Arabische regio gaan momenteel erg snel, waardoor sommige informatie in dit rapport bij het lezen mogelijk al is achterhaald door de actualiteit. De AIV meent dat de politieke omwentelingen in de Arabische regio belangrijke kansen bieden voor een betere, meer op rechtsstaat en democratie gerichte omgang van westerse landen met autocratische regimes die verantwoordelijk zijn voor ernstige schendingen van mensenrechten. Weliswaar nopen zwaarwegende geopolitieke belangen tot het onderhouden van diplomatieke betrekkingen met autocratische regimes, maar dialoog en (beperkte) samenwerking op regeringsniveau mogen niet ten koste gaan van de ondersteuning van hervormingsgezinden en het maatschappelijk middenveld in die landen. Teveel hebben westerse regeringen zich in het verleden geïdentificeerd met autoritaire regimes, op basis van de onjuist gebleken veronderstelling dat dergelijke regimes voor politieke stabiliteit zouden kunnen zorgen. Ook nu is er het gevaar dat het beleid van westerse landen wordt beheerst door een taxatie van de overlevingskansen van een autocratisch regime, los van de vraag wat in het belang is van respectering van de rechten van de mens en de democratische en sociaaleconomische aspiraties van de bevolking. De AIV is van oordeel dat de Nederlandse regering zich niet moet laten gijzelen door de angst dat radicale islamitische groeperingen een greep naar de macht doen. De kans daarop neemt eerder toe dan af door een politiek van – al dan niet heimelijke – steun aan regimes die blijvend vervreemd zijn geraakt van de legitieme eisen van de burgers in de Arabische samenlevingen. De AIV concludeert dat de recente ontwikkelingen in Tunesië, Egypte en andere Arabische landen het belang onderstrepen van een gerichte versterking van het maatschappelijk middenveld (politieke partijen, maatschappelijke organisaties en vakbonden). De opbouw van een krachtig maatschappelijk middenveld vergt een lange adem, maar sorteert uiteindelijk het meeste effect bij het bevorderen van vrijheid, gerechtigheid en democratie. De AIV merkt op dat zowel Nederland als de EU reeds beschikken over passende beleidsinstrumenten ter versterking van de civil society. Echter, vooral de EU heeft in het recente verleden verzuimd de instrumenten uit het Europees Nabuurschapsbeleid (ENB) op de juiste wijze toe te passen. Zo heeft de Unie in de politieke dialoog met zuidelijke buurstaten onvoldoende nadruk gelegd op de onvolkomenheden (of zelfs afwezigheid) van de rechtsstaat en de ontwikkeling van een onafhankelijke particuliere sector die gevrijwaard is van politieke beïnvloeding. De opkomst van hervormingsbewegingen in verschillende Arabische landen verschaft de EU nieuwe kansen. Nederland beschikt met het Mensenrechtenfonds en het Fonds Ontwikkeling Pluriformiteit en Participatie in islamitische landen over passende bilaterale hulpinstrumenten waarmee een stem gegeven kan worden aan maatschappelijke organisaties die het huidige transitieproces in de Arabische regio kunnen dragen. De AIV meent echter dat investeringen in additionele expertise en analysecapaciteit noodzakelijk zijn om de regering goed te kunnen adviseren over mogelijke Nederlandse bijdragen aan versterking van de civil society in de Arabische regio. Voldoende analysecapaciteit op ambassades in de regio en nauwere samenwerking van de regering met (Nederlandse) NGO’s, instellingen voor capaciteitsopbouw van politieke partijen en de vakbeweging zijn het meest doelmatig om in deze behoefte aan expertise en analysecapaciteit te voorzien [tot besluit - conclusie van een rapport uitgebracht door commissie onder voorzitterschap van F. Korthals Altes]
DOCUMENT
