In the third and final part of our series spotlighting TIMEP’s top performing content in 2022, we look back at our most popular virtual and in-person events. We pride ourselves on centering unheard perspectives and local voices from the MENA region in these solutions-oriented conversations so that you and audience members around the world can hear from those who have first-hand experience working on the relevant issue.
In 2022, the convenings you found most engaging tackled diverse topics ranging from climate policy across the region ahead of COP 27 to Egyptian activist Sanaa Seif’s reflections on her brother Alaa Abdel Fattah’s You Have Not Yet Been Defeated to the dynamics of resistance committees and the opposition movement in Sudan after a year under military rule.
1. Sudan’s Military Coup: One Year On
In October 2022, near the one-year anniversary of the military coup in Sudan, TIMEP hosted a conversation featuring Hamid Khalafallah (TIMEP), Kholood Khair (Insight Strategy Partners), Osman Abdallah, and Emma DiNaploli (REDRESS) and moderated by journalist and political analyst Mat Nashed.
Panelists examined questions such as: How has Sudanese civil society and the opposition been organizing against the military on the ground over the past year? What can international actors do to effectively strengthen Sudan’s pro-democracy movements? Importantly, how can current and future international mediation processes be reimagined and restructured to forge a path to civilian rule in Sudan?
2. Discussion and Book Talk with Egyptian Activist Sanaa Seif
TIMEP, the Project on Middle East Democracy (POMED), and The Freedom Initiative (FI) are honored to have co-hosted an in-person panel discussion featuring Sanaa Seif earlier this year. Sanaa presented insights from the book You Have Not Yet Been Defeated, written by her brother Alaa Abdel Fattah. Alaa’s book, You Have Not Yet Been Defeated, was published in the United States on April 19th and Sanaa went on a short book tour in the United States to raise awareness about her brother’s case and discuss conditions inside Egypt’s prisons. You Have Not Yet Been Defeated is a moving collection of Alaa’s speeches, essays, and letters, translated by a collective, which recount the spirit of revolution as well as the repression that has followed since.
3. Governance and Growth: The Role of IFIs in the MENA Region
In April, ahead of the IMF and World Bank Spring Meetings, TIMEP hosted a panel on the role of international financial institutions (IFIs) in the MENA region, particularly Egypt, Lebanon, and Tunisia. The panel featured TIMEP Policy Fellow Timothy Kaldas, Sarah Saadoun (HRW), Nabil Abdo (Oxfam), and Hamza Meddeb (Carnegie), and was moderated by Reuters Levant Bureau Chief Maya Gebeily. Panelists considered a range of questions, including: how do governance problems affect inclusive growth, private sector growth, GDP growth, and economic sustainability? What political conditions are necessary for inclusive and comprehensive economic reform? And finally, how can IFIs meaningfully establish conditionality to promote positive governance among creditor regimes across the MENA region?
4. Mobilizing for Justice: The Pursuit of Accountability in Lebanon
In September, TIMEP hosted an in-person reception and moderated discussion in Washington, DC that convened together three remarkable women who are working to bring about accountability for decades of systematic corruption and abuses in Lebanon using diverse tactics and strategies in each of their respective fields. We were pleased to host: Zena Wakim, president of the board of Accountability Now, which brought the first-ever case in U.S. court involving the Beirut Port explosion; Tania Daou Alam, a lawyer who works alongside victim and family-led movements inside Lebanon for justice and whose husband was killed during the explosion; and Monika Borgmann, documentarian and widow of the late Lebanese activist and political commentator Lokman Slim, in a conversation moderated by TIMEP’s Mai El-Sadany.
5. COP Comes to MENA: Examining Climate Change in the Region
In August, TIMEP hosted a conversation with Malak Altaeb (TIMEP), Sarine Karajerjian (ARI), Sammy Kayed (Environment Academy), and Zeina Moneer, moderated by Reuters Levant Bureau Chief Maya Gebeily with opening remarks by TIMEP’s Achref Chibani about the top climate change issues affecting MENA to mark the launch of TIMEP’s “COP Comes to MENA” climate change project.
Panelists examined questions such as: What are the biggest challenges facing the region in terms of climate change; what political, social, and economic impact do these issues have, including for vulnerable communities; and what should be on the COP 27 agenda? How are organizations, initiatives, and activists on the ground advocating for new strategies, interventions, and policies to adapt to and mitigate climate challenges? And what will it mean to hold COP 27 in a country where civil society advocates and citizens do not have the space to organize and express themselves freely, amid the continued commission of serious and ongoing human rights abuses?
When you join us for these events, keep up with our panelists after the fact, and show your support for TIMEP’s ongoing efforts to amplify their voices by making a donation, you enrich the conversations themselves, as well as bolster our mission to ensure that advocates and experts like them are heard, that their work is strengthened, and that they as individuals are protected.
You can still make a tax-deductible gift to TIMEP before the end of the year to help us carve out these platforms and shape the global policy agenda. Donate now.