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The Gender and Citizenship Initiative was launched in December 2001 with UNDP's publication of a concept paper on Gender and Citizenship in the Arab World (see publications, gender under http://www.undp-pogar.org) and initiating a policy dialogue around it with key partners in the region. In March 2002 the second phase of the Gender & Citizenship Initiative was launched with the production of four background papers within the framework of the initial concept paper. These were discussed in an expert group meeting which was organized in Morocco in July, 2002.
The Gender & Citizenship initiative is cost shared in a partnership between the UNDP Bureau For Arab States' Regional Governance Programme (http://www.undp.org/rbas/ and http://www.undp-pogar.org) and the International Development Research Center (IDRC) in Canada. The overall budget for this initiative is US$ 591,776 and the principle coordinator for this initiative is Ms Heba El-Kholy, Programme Advisor, UNDP RBAS (heba.el-kholy@undp.org).
The Arab Human Development Report 2002 (AHDR) identified Women's empowerment as one of three key deficits in the Arab world (http://www.undp.org/rbas/ahdr/ or http://www.undp.org/rbas/ahdr/arabic.html). In a direct contribution towards addressing this deficit, the main objectives of POGAR's Gender and Citizenship initiative are:
(a) to support research-informed policy debate and dialogue on women's citizenship in selected countries in the Arab region,
(b) to raise public and media awareness about the scale and implications of gender inequalities inherent in key legislation,
(c) to build the capacity of Arab women's NGOs in networking and advocacy to lobby for policy changes and
(d) to build partnerships between women's NGOs and parliamentarians.
In addition to the four background papers covering three aspects of citizenship (family laws, social protection laws and nationality & election laws) and the subsequent expert meeting mentioned above, some of the findings were also presented at a roundtable during the Fourth Mediterranean Development Forum (MDF4) in Amman in October 2002 . The full papers are being published in a summary/synthesis paper in hard copy and as separate papers on POGAR's website (see POGAR publications - gender).
The initiative is planned to last until the end of 2004. During this phase it will focus on two specific entry points related to citizenship in the Arab world: Nationality legislation, and Identity Cards. The initiative is being implemented in collaboration with key women's organizations in the Arab world:
Association for the Development and Enhancement of Women (ADEW), Egypt
Centre of Arab Women for Training and Research (CAWTAR), Tunisia
The Machreq/Maghreb Gender Linking and Information Project (Mac/Mag GLIP), Lebanon
Maroc 2020, Morocco
Association Démocratique des Femmes du Maroc (ADFM), Morocco
Syrian Women League, Syria
Association des Femmes Tunisiennes pour la Recherche et le Développement (AFTURD), Tunisia
NGOs Forum for Women and Development (NGOsFWID), Egypt
Jordan National Commission for Women (JNCW), Jordan
ZENID, Jordan
Women Affairs Support Center (WASC), Yemen
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The Gender & Citizenship initiative is cost shared in a partnership between the UNDP Bureau For Arab States' Regional Governance Programme (RBAS and POGAR) and the International Development Research Center (IDRC) in Canada.
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Some of the main activities planned for 2003/4:
(a). to conduct a conceptual study on the specifics of the concept of citizenship in the Arab World with a special focus on nationality laws, seeking to debunk myths about the perceived Islamic origin of these laws as opposed to their secular (colonial) origin;
(b). to conduct an empirical study on the size, scope, varying perceptions and implications of the problems relating to both nationality legislation and identity cards in selected Arab countries;
(c). to organize multi-stakeholder workshops for the dissemination of research results and engagement of key policy actors at the regional as well as national level;
(d). to organize training workshops to sensitize the media based on research results and to further disseminate them to the public at large;
(e). to produce one film on nationality legislation aimed at the general public to be broadcasted on TV throughout the Arab world;
(f). to enhance the ICT capacity of participating CSOs, primarily through enhancing their websites (in Arabic) so that they can share information and disseminate research results more readily and build a wider platform for advocacy.
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