Middle East and North Africa Transition Fund

https://www.menatransitionfund.org/overview

In May 2011, the G8 launched the Deauville Partnership as a response to the historical changes underway in several countries in the Middle East and North Africa region. The Deauville Partnership was launched as a long-term, global initiative that provides Arab countries in transition with a framework based on technical support to: (i) strengthen governance for transparent, accountable governments; and (ii) provide an economic framework for sustainable and inclusive growth.

To support the countries in transition to formulate policies and programs and implement reforms, the Deauville Partnership set up the MENA Transition Fund.

The Transition Fund demonstrates a joint commitment by G8 members, Gulf and regional partners, and international and regional financial institutions to support the efforts of the people and governments of the Partnership countries as they overhaul their economic systems to promote more accountable governance, broad-based, sustainable growth, and greater employment opportunities for youth and women.

The Transition Fund has been designed to be rapid, flexible, and responsive so that Partnership countries can quickly call on it in support of a combination of diagnostic analyses, technical advice, and implementation of targeted policy initiatives. Through the Transition Fund, a modest amount of official finance can catalyze much larger changes that will help enable transitions to new, sustainable economic models.

The Transition Fund is a broad-based partnership providing grants for technical cooperation to help transition countries strengthen their governance, social and economic institutions by developing and implementing home-grown and country-owned reforms.

Consistent with its knowledge-sharing and transformational objectives, the Transition Fund emphasizes funding for technical cooperation proposals that leverage and complement support from other partners where relevant, in particular, bilateral donors, academic institutions and policy research institutions, regional and international organizations, industry and labor associations, and other civil society organizations.

South-South partnerships are encouraged (i.e. those between developing/transition countries) including from outside the MENA region, as well as institutions with regional experience focusing on technical cooperation or knowledge sharing.

The Transition Fund focuses on cross-cutting, multi-year projects as well as projects with short-term impacts that are country-owned.

France abandons Haftar, attacks Wagner

After having been one of the European countries to provide the greatest diplomatic and logistic support, and remaining silent regarding the thousands of deaths and massacres committed by its troops, France has finally abandoned General Khalifa Haftar. But isn’t it too late? And why now? French President Emmanuel Macron, who has bet on Haftar to defend the interests of his country and its oil companies in Libya, is now on the verge of losing his last cards.

What Role for the Multinational Joint Task Force in Fighting Boko Haram?

What’s new? Lake Chad basin countries – Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria – have made welcome efforts to coordinate against Boko Haram militants through a Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF). But their inconsistent commitment to the force, funding problems and disjointed planning have hindered its effectiveness. Jihadists often regroup when troops withdraw.

Trump Wants to Label Antifa a Terrorist Organization. What About the KKK?

Some say Ku Klux was chosen as the name for the U.S. white supremacist organization because it mimics the sound of a rifle being cocked, though other evidence points to the appeal of the Greek word kyklos, which means circle. That was essentially the goal of the defeated Confederate soldiers who formed the Ku Klux Klan in 1865—to encircle or kill Black Americans. As the klan grew in power, it made its intentions publicly clear: promoting Confederate jingoism; pushing back on Reconstruction-era rights; performing terrorist raids to intimidate; destroying property, especially churches; assaulting; taunting; lynching; hanging; and dragging the bodies of Black men behind cars. These acts were carried out to promote white supremacy and also for gaining political power.