6th STUDY WEEK ON MACRO-ECONOMIC, TRADE AND INVESTMENT POLICIES

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS

STUDY WEEK ON MACRO-ECONOMIC, TRADE AND INVESTMENT POLICIES

OPEN FOR RESEARCHERS AND SPECIALIZED ACTIVISTS FROM THE ARAB REGION

Geneva, Switzerland – During the first week of November, 2018

The Arab NGO Network for Development (ANND) and the South Center launch the call for applications for their Annual Study Week, which offers an opportunity for researchers and specialized activists from the Arab region to deepen knowledge on key issues of development, trade, and investment through a rights-based approach.

During the study week, researchers will participate in interactive sessions and enriching discussions and debates on various themes including free trade, investment, climate change, debt, tax and global governance, among others. The discussions aim to contribute to the understanding of alternative development paradigms, as the need for a paradigm shift has been raised by civil society representatives and researchers in the Arab region in various occasions, recently in the context of the Agenda 2030 and the Sustainable Development Goals.  

Three decades ago, Arab states abandoned the state-led development paradigm based on fostering productive sectors and extensive social protection. Since then, they have adoped a growth paradigm ushered by International Financial Institutions and based on austerity measures, with an effort to attract foreign investment, regardless of goals or available sources, and without taking into account issues of social justice and marginalized groups. This has marked the full adoption of Arab States of neoliberal policies that have deepened the entanglement of the ruling elites with the business elites controlling rentier sectors that have been dominating Arab economies. These deep and structural transformations have deepened inequalities, dismantled social protection systems and caused regressive distribution rendering the Arab region the first in terms concentration of income globally .  This paradigm is a structural challenge impeding development in the Arab region and it is greatly linked to the global economic and financial structure, which has generated recurrent crisis, the last of which was in 2008. This global system has been giving primacy to financial systems on the expense of the real economy. Moreover, flows from the Global South to the Global North are more sizeable than the ones flowing in the opposite direction, which adds to the public debt and weakens investments, particularly in the Arab region. Additionally, the structure of the global trade system does not accommodate between needs and capabilities of the economies of developing states on the one hand, and the openness of their markets and their involvement in the global markets on the other.

In this context, efforts from civil society representatives to monitor the impacts of macro-economic, trade and investment policies are crucial and should be also strengthened with research and advocacy, calling for rights-based policy revisions. Yet, there is further need for capacity-building and awareness-raising on these issues in the region. The Study Week is an effort in this regard, and 2018 will see its sixth edition. Previous editions allowed great encounters with experts like Martin Khor-former Executive Director of the South Center, chief economist Yilmaz Akyüz, Richard Kozul-Wright Director of the Division on Globalization and Development Strategies at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, and engaged more than 50 researchers with whom ANND collaborates on various themes.

Applications will be accepted till August 31, 2018.

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY WEEK:

Enhancing civil society advocacy on economic policies in the region by building capacities and raising awareness on the elected priority-issues.

Working towards establishing a working group of civil society activists from various Arab countries cooperating with the Network on studying the different layers of developmental process in order to have a wider scope of the development solutions and priorities for the Arab societies, according to the expertise coming from different contexts

TARGET GROUP:

Countries:  All Arab countries.

Total number of participants: 15.

SELECTION CRITERIA

The selection of participants will be taken by a joint committee including members of ANND and the South Center based on the below-mentioned criteria

Professional standards

• A relevant academic degree in economics, law, political science, international relations and cooperation, development –or other related majors
• A minimum of 2 years of experience in a CSO or in an academic research center dealing with the abovementioned topics and the commitments to pursue work on these topics in the coming years.
• Previous experiences writing about or addressing any of these issues (providing track record on that: publication, conferences, courses...).
• Willingness to join a working group on these issues (which would cooperate with ANND members on research and advocacy work related to issues covered by the study week).

Personal attributes

• Young (preferably under 35), motivated, committed in CSOs.
• Good command of English language.
• Team work spirit –capacity of listening and proposing –open mindedness.