
About the Project
We are a working group of national think tanks and independent media outlets, working across the Arab region with a wide network of like-minded institutions and various stakeholders.
This consortium was established in mid-2020 with the aim to promote social justice during and after the COVID-19 pandemic in the Arab region – and particularly in Tunisia, Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon – by examining the existing social protection systems, producing knowledge on who is being excluded from the current systems, and advocating for reforms to include marginalized groups. Our approach to social justice is a rights-based approach that integrates the concepts of sustainable development, leaving-no-one-behind, and gender justice.
We aim to achieve our objective of inclusive and effective social protection by engaging concerned communities in the decision-making processes while providing stakeholders with the critical research needed to inform and consolidate their efforts.
What role can different stakeholders, including women and the most vulnerable/marginalized social groups themselves, play in the decision-making processes, implementation and monitoring of policies and programs related to social protection?
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We envision effective and inclusive social protection systems in the Arab region which foster redistribution, instead of merely resource mobilization, and reduce multidimensional inequality within countries, through the implementation of socio-economic policies and programs that are mindful of the importance of social justice, gender responsiveness, and the sensitivity to the different forms of vulnerability and marginalization. We are aware of the challenge of achieving our goal in the region while dealing with a highly volatile political and economic landscape.
We understand social protection as a continuous pattern of programs and especially policies for longer term social justice, poverty and vulnerability reduction, as well as sustainable development, which makes the concept embedded in all socio-economic public policies. As such, we attempt to bridge the dire need for immediate response with long-term and sustainable priorities.

The Arab Reform Initiative is an independent Arab think tank working with expert partners in the Middle East and North Africa and beyond to articulate a home-grown agenda for democratic change. It conducts research and policy analysis and provides a platform for inspirational voices based on the principles of diversity, impartiality, gender equality and social justice.
View website
The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights has been working since 2002 to strengthen and protect basic rights and freedoms in Egypt, through research, advocacy and supporting litigation in the fields of civil liberties, economic and social rights, and criminal justice.
View website
The Phenix Center for Economics & Informatics Studies is a non-governmental organization dedicated to independent policy research and measuring public opinions on impactful current and emerging issues in areas of economics, society, and its legislative environment in Jordan. The Center was founded in Amman, Jordan in 2003 under the registration number 142203.
View websiteGiven the economic crises in the Arab region and the States’ limited fiscal capacity, what types of social protections can be devised that are inclusive in scope and coverage and that build effectively on existing measures by both State and non-State actors?
What different types of actions or programs can be undertaken by both State and non-State actors to improve socio-economic indicators but also mitigate subjective feelings of vulnerability and exclusion?
We are an independent consortium of think tanks and media outlets contributing the best of our knowledge, expertise and capacities, and working collaboratively with like-minded experts, institutions and actors to turn the COVID-19 pandemic, which has exposed, to a great extent, inequalities and the lack of access to basic services in the Arab region, into an opportunity to suggest long-term reforms in the Arab social protection systems. Guided by principles of human rights, social justice, citizenship, civic engagement, democratic accountability, and inclusive and sustainable development, we aim to thoroughly map, document and analyze the responses to the pandemic, better understand their impact on social justice, and devise solutions for more efficient, inclusive and sustainable social protection systems. By doing so, we hope to contribute to rethinking the prevailing social contracts. We work towards our aim through research, which seeks to produce knowledge from the ground based on well- established and ethical research methods, to provide a deep and comprehensive assessment of vulnerabilities and how programs and policies (or lack therefore) exacerbate these vulnerabilities and – by extension – poverty, as well as of the cross-cutting gender dimension to this issue, and to suggest the needed pragmatic reforms and convey them to the decision- making level through the available advocacy and lobbying channels.
We aim, in two-year time, to upscale our work from the four target/pilot countries to cover more Arab countries, which allows us to account for all priority areas in the region and generate generalizable knowledge and solutions despite the challenge of fluctuating contexts. Our comparative approach also falls under our vision for a new Arab regional order where cooperation and integration are key.

Daraj is an independent digital media platform created by experienced journalists. Our goal is to offer Arabic speakers an alternative kind of journalism, free from political funding and influence, which controls other mainstream Arab media institutions.
View website
Inkyfada is an independent, nonprofit media group founded in 2014 by a team of journalists, developers, and graphic designers with the goal of supporting the public interest through innovative journalistic content.
View website
Mada Masr is an Egypt-based media organization interested in producing intelligent and engaging journalism, and more generally in re-examining the role of media in relation to its public.
View website
The Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights (FTDES by its French acronym), is a non-governmental, non-partisan, organization operating independently from any political or religious institutions. The FTDES was established in 2011 to defend peoples’ economic and social rights at the national and international levels. It works on several themes including labor rights, women’s rights, environmental rights, migrants’ rights, and social movements via an elaborate organizational scheme based on departmental coordination, advocacy, fieldwork, and research. The FTDES is member of various international networks. It has a central office in Tunis (HQ), local branches in three governorates, and members and partners in all regions of Tunisia.
View websiteWe are a working group of national think tanks and independent media outlets, working across the Arab region with a wide network of like-minded institutions and various stakeholders.
This consortium was established in mid-2020 with the aim to promote social justice during and after the COVID-19 pandemic in the Arab region – and particularly in Tunisia, Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon – by examining the existing social protection systems, producing knowledge on who is being excluded from the current systems, and advocating for reforms to include marginalized groups. Our approach to social justice is a rights-based approach that integrates the concepts of sustainable development, leaving-no-one-behind, and gender justice.
We aim to achieve our objective of inclusive and effective social protection by engaging concerned communities in the decision-making processes while providing stakeholders with the critical research needed to inform and consolidate their efforts.
Given the economic crises in the Arab region and the States’ limited fiscal capacity, what types of social protections can be devised that are inclusive in scope and coverage and that build effectively on existing measures by both State and non-State actors?
What role can different stakeholders, including women and the most vulnerable/marginalized social groups themselves, play in the decision-making processes, implementation and monitoring of policies and programs related to social protection?
What different types of actions or programs can be undertaken by both State and non-State actors to improve socio-economic indicators but also mitigate subjective feelings of vulnerability and exclusion?

We are an independent consortium of think tanks and media outlets contributing the best of our knowledge, expertise and capacities, and working collaboratively with like-minded experts, institutions and actors to turn the COVID-19 pandemic, which has exposed, to a great extent, inequalities and the lack of access to basic services in the Arab region, into an opportunity to suggest long-term reforms in the Arab social protection systems. Guided by principles of human rights, social justice, citizenship, civic engagement, democratic accountability, and inclusive and sustainable development, we aim to thoroughly map, document and analyze the responses to the pandemic, better understand their impact on social justice, and devise solutions for more efficient, inclusive and sustainable social protection systems. By doing so, we hope to contribute to rethinking the prevailing social contracts. We work towards our aim through research, which seeks to produce knowledge from the ground based on well- established and ethical research methods, to provide a deep and comprehensive assessment of vulnerabilities and how programs and policies (or lack therefore) exacerbate these vulnerabilities and – by extension – poverty, as well as of the cross-cutting gender dimension to this issue, and to suggest the needed pragmatic reforms and convey them to the decision- making level through the available advocacy and lobbying channels.
We envision effective and inclusive social protection systems in the Arab region which foster redistribution, instead of merely resource mobilization, and reduce multidimensional inequality within countries, through the implementation of socio-economic policies and programs that are mindful of the importance of social justice, gender responsiveness, and the sensitivity to the different forms of vulnerability and marginalization. We are aware of the challenge of achieving our goal in the region while dealing with a highly volatile political and economic landscape.
We aim, in two-year time, to upscale our work from the four target/pilot countries to cover more Arab countries, which allows us to account for all priority areas in the region and generate generalizable knowledge and solutions despite the challenge of fluctuating contexts. Our comparative approach also falls under our vision for a new Arab regional order where cooperation and integration are key.
We understand social protection as a continuous pattern of programs and especially policies for longer term social justice, poverty and vulnerability reduction, as well as sustainable development, which makes the concept embedded in all socio-economic public policies. As such, we attempt to bridge the dire need for immediate response with long-term and sustainable priorities.

The Arab Reform Initiative is an independent Arab think tank working with expert partners in the Middle East and North Africa and beyond to articulate a home-grown agenda for democratic change. It conducts research and policy analysis and provides a platform for inspirational voices based on the principles of diversity, impartiality, gender equality and social justice.
View website
Daraj is an independent digital media platform created by experienced journalists. Our goal is to offer Arabic speakers an alternative kind of journalism, free from political funding and influence, which controls other mainstream Arab media institutions.
View website
The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights has been working since 2002 to strengthen and protect basic rights and freedoms in Egypt, through research, advocacy and supporting litigation in the fields of civil liberties, economic and social rights, and criminal justice.
View website
Inkyfada is an independent, nonprofit media group founded in 2014 by a team of journalists, developers, and graphic designers with the goal of supporting the public interest through innovative journalistic content.
View website
Mada Masr is an Egypt-based media organization interested in producing intelligent and engaging journalism, and more generally in re-examining the role of media in relation to its public.
View website
The Phenix Center for Economics & Informatics Studies is a non-governmental organization dedicated to independent policy research and measuring public opinions on impactful current and emerging issues in areas of economics, society, and its legislative environment in Jordan. The Center was founded in Amman, Jordan in 2003 under the registration number 142203.
View website
The Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights (FTDES by its French acronym), is a non-governmental, non-partisan, organization operating independently from any political or religious institutions. The FTDES was established in 2011 to defend peoples’ economic and social rights at the national and international levels. It works on several themes including labor rights, women’s rights, environmental rights, migrants’ rights, and social movements via an elaborate organizational scheme based on departmental coordination, advocacy, fieldwork, and research. The FTDES is member of various international networks. It has a central office in Tunis (HQ), local branches in three governorates, and members and partners in all regions of Tunisia.
View websiteFouad Fouad
Ghada Abdel Tawab
Haneen Sayed
Hoda El Sadda
Maha Chuayb
Mahdi Eleuch
Marie Noelle Abi Yaghi
Marthy Chen
Oussama Safa
Rana Jawad
Samar Dudin
Stefano Prato
Ziad Abdel Samad
Ziad Bahaa Eldin