World Movement for Democracy

World Movement for Democracy in Middle East and North Africa

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Middle East Network for Democracy - MEND

The Middle East Network for Democracy (MEND) is an emerging virtual network of groups and activists dedicated to promoting democracy in the Middle East and North Africa. MEND is currently developing its Web site, which will be an open medium for networking, sharing information, exchanging experiences, and furthering cooperation among participants. The Web site will be user friendly, functional and practical. It will include information on MEND's participating organizations, a wide range of project resource material, such as publications, manuals and links; links and information on funding sources; guidelines on project development, such as needs assessments and project evaluations; a calendar of events and training programs in the field of democracy work and links to other regional or global democracy networks and resources.

Although the challenges to consolidating the Network have been somewhat formidable, particularly given the situations of armed conflict in the region, MEND has made varied efforts over a four-year period through the efforts of organizations and democrats from the region participating in the World Movement for Democracy. More than 40 organizations from the Middle East and North Africa region met at the World Movement assemblies (in New Delhi, India, in February 1999, in São Paulo, Brazil, in November 2000, and Durban, South Africa, in February 2004), and at a regional preparatory meeting in Istanbul, Turkey, prior to the Second Assmebly in São Paulo. In all of these meetings, participants recognized the need for establishing a network that brings together nongovernmental organizations, activists, and scholars who share a commitment to participate in and benefit from building democracy in their respective societies and throughout the region. The consensus has been that a regional network will be more effective if it is loosely structured, flexible in its methods, open to those who share its democratic aspirations, participatory in its activities, and serves more as a facilitator than as a political alliance or front.