The MENA region has been dealing with waves of refugee crises for decades. Addressing urban and protracted refugee crises in the region contributed to triggering reflection on the global governance of refugee protection. The Global Compact on Refugees now sets out the parameters for stronger solidarity and responsibility-sharing, based on multi-stakeholder partnerships, inclusive and comprehensive solutions, and stronger emphasis on host community support and engagement as the new way forward.
This paper explores how the current dynamics in the energy market sector affect, and are affected by, the interactions between the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region and the global order. In particular, it aims to answer the overarching question: “Is MENA peripheral to or embedded in global dynamics in relation to energy?” To do so, the paper builds on the methodology and concept paper issued by the MENARA consortium in November 2017 and particularly seeks to address the research questions identified in the paper. After presenting an overview of the main global and regional energy trends, the paper analyses the current relationships between the key global energy players and the MENA countries at policy, industry and market levels. It discusses the role of critical actors that have an influence on the MENA energy landscape, and identifies the main hotspots for discussion.
Food security in the MENA region will become one of the key issues of the 21st century. If insufficiently addressed, it may lead to severe social, environmental, economic and political consequences. Given high population growth across the region and the fact that water could be a bottleneck for agricultural production, the region will have to reform its agricultural sector toward resource-efficient, high-value crop farming systems. Europe can play a key role by promoting trade between the MENA and Europe, by increasing investment in the MENA region for food and water security and by strengthening policy institutions to manage every drop of water in the most efficient manner.
Author United Nations Environment Programme – Mediterranean Action Plan – Plan Bleu
Introduction Over the last decades, human-induced pressures have increasingly affected the Mediterranean region. Population growth and unsustainable production and consumption patterns have led to environmental degradation. Despite some progress, economic growth continues to increase resource consumption and carbon emissions. Land- and sea-use change, in particular on the coast, are detrimental to the environment. Exploitation of resources and organisms, pollution and climate change are projected to exacerbate pre-existing fragilities in the Mediterranean, leading to “multiple stresses and systemic failures” (IPCC, 20141), putting health and livelihoods at risk. Progress has been achieved in policy responses and actions to manage the Mediterranean more sustainably. Results are positive compared to scenarios with no intervention. However, these results have not been sufficient to reduce the most significant pressures on the environment and to safeguard the Mediterranean for present and future generations while meeting human development needs. Current trends do not allow achievement of Good Environmental Status (GES) of the Mediterranean Sea by 2020. In line with worldwide trends, “global goals for 2030 and beyond may only be achieved through transformative changes across economic, social, political and technological factors” (IPBES, 20192). Urgent and collective efforts for transformative change are required to safeguard the Mediterranean environment, while simultaneously fostering human development, taking into account differences between Mediterranean countries. Mediterranean countries have committed to achieve GES of the Mediterranean Sea and coast and more largely the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) under the United Nations 2030 Agenda. A fundamental reorganization of economic and social systems, including changes in paradigms and values, is required to achieve these commitments.
The COVID-19 pandemic not only conditions the Mediterranean region’s evolution, but also affects all areas of its society, across the board. That’s why the Yearbook devotes its Dossier to analysing the perspectives of Euromed relations in times of the coronavirus through the prisms of different themes while the articles of the Panorama section (short articles on the most relevant themes in the Mediterranean area) offer a transversal vision of the effects of the pandemic on regions, countries and strategic sectors.
The Keys section focuses on popular mobilizations that have taken place in the MENA region, climate change in the Mediterranean, Europe’s relations with Africa, the status quo of the conflicts in the region and their geopolitical context.
Finally, the Yearbook offers chronologies, statistics and maps, which provide a wealth of information and serve as the perfect complement to the analysis offered in the articles.
This report offers a “map” of the diverse situations of women in the post-2011 MENA region. It shows that there have been tremendous achievements and improvements in the lives of women in health and education but less progress in employment; and that legal inequalities remain widespread, as do limitations on women’s participation in politics and civil society. The report analyses the impact of recent events, particularly the conflicts, but also the political opportunities that came about as a result of the 2011 Arab uprisings. It also touches on the situation of LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) individuals, and specifically their mobilization and changing attitudes towards their rights. The report ends by focusing on Western gender policy in the region. It argues for an approach that balances the ethical demands of individual and collective rights, and for a liberal position that respects and supports women’s and LGBT rights without being overly prescriptive about the values and choices that should govern the lives of individuals.
Authors: Vittorio Daniele e Paolo Malanima (University Magna Graecia of Catanzaro)
Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to analyse the trends of economic, social and political inequality among the Mediterranean countries in the period 1950-2015. After the examination of the inequalities in GDP per capita among and within nations, we present a human development index (HDI) that includes a measure of democratic achievements. The main result is that inequalities in income, after the rise from the 1950s onwards, declined from the start of the twenty-first century. Inequalities in HDI, instead, constantly diminished in the period under examination, while a process of democratization occurred. On the whole, despite the convergence among Mediterranean countries, economic inequalities are much deeper than those in social and political indicators.
Le portail des données opérationnelles (ODP) a été créé en 2011 pour permettre au HCR de se charger de la responsabilité institutionnelle de fournir une plate-forme de partage d’informations et de données pour faciliter la coordination des urgences de réfugiés. Ceci a été réalisé en utilisant des «vues de situation» indépendantes couvrant les urgences majeures telles que la situation en Syrie ou l’urgence en République centrafricaine et la région méditerranéenne, entre autres.
In this important new work, Margaret Meriwether and Judith Tucker synthesize and make accessible the results of the extensive research on women and gender done over the last twenty years. Using new theoretical approaches and methodologies as well as nontraditional sources, scholars studying women and gender issues in Middle Eastern societies have made great progress in shedding light on these complex subjects. A Social History of Women and Gender in the Modern Middle East provides an overview of this scholarship on women and gender in the nineteenth- and twentieth-century Middle East.The book is organized along thematic lines that reflect major focuses of research in this area, gender and work, gender and the state, gender and law, gender and religion, and feminist movements, and each chapter is written by a scholar who has done original research on the topic. Although structured around the individual author’s own work, the chapters also include overviews and assessments of other research, highlights of ongoing debates and key issues, and comparisons across regions of the Middle East. An insightful introduction centers the various chapters around key theoretical, methodological, and historical issues and makes connections with other areas of social historical research on the Middle East and with research on gender and women’s history in other parts of the world.Although there are many studies available on women and gender, A Social History of Women and Gender in the Modern Middle East provides a breadth of coverage and assessment of the field that is not found elsewhere.
