‘Democracy in the Arab World’

On 25–26 March 2004, experts, practitioners and members of different agencies working in the Arab world, along with representatives of Arab governments, policy research centres and civil society institutions, met in The Hague, Netherlands, to discuss democratization in the region. The meeting, hosted by the Dutch government, in its capacity as Chair of the IDEA Council, aimed to increase understanding of the prospects for, and the challenges to, democracy building in the Arab world. It also sought to situate the work of IDEA and other programmes to support democracy in the region, and to gain insight on how best to strengthen cooperation in future. IDEA presented an overview of democracy assistance in the Arab world and a synthesis report of the IDEA 2003–04 project in the Arab world, as well as a paper on plans and proposals for further work by IDEA.

IDEA Board and Council members participated in the meeting, together with representatives of the UK Department for International Development (DFID), the European Commission (EIDHR), the UK Foreign Policy Centre, the Friedrich Naumann Foundation, the Institute for Multiparty Democracy (IMD), the National Democratic Institute (NDI), and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Also present was IDEA’s partner organization in the region, the Arab NGO Network for Development (ANND).

Conference papers:
Opening Statement by Mr Jan Berteling, Chairman of the IDEA Council
Democracy Assistance Trends in the Arab Region
IDEA's Democracy in the Arab World Project: Synthesis Report
Plans and proposals for further work by IDEA