MEPI Awards $5 Million in Grants to Five Organizations

Released by the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs
May 7, 2004

The Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI) has awarded new grants totaling nearly $5 million to five organizations to support local reform efforts in the Middle East and North Africa. MEPI selected the grant recipients from the first round of the MEPI Standing Program Announcement (SPA) and the Middle East Entrepreneur Training (MEET US) program Request for Applications. The grants were finalized today at the Department of State. MEPI invites additional proposals for consideration within MEPI’s on-going grant process.

These grants will support MEPI partnerships with private sector, non-governmental organizations, civil society elements, community based organizations, and governments in the Middle East and North Africa. The programs will be initiated in Jordan, Morocco, and Yemen. The grants are to be used to support political, economic, educational, and women’s empowerment reforms relevant to the unique circumstances of each society.

The grant organizations will work with their Middle Eastern partners on the following projects:

American Near East Refugee Aid
This program will assist women in civil society through local grassroots organizations in Jordan. It will focus on the role of small to medium-sized women’s community based organizations to enable them to participate more effectively in the process of women’s empowerment, political dialogue, and democratic reform.

Catholic Relief Services
This will strengthen democratic processes in two Moroccan communities. Models of effective cooperation will be developed -- especially to break down social and cultural barriers against women’s participation -- between civil society actors and local government. Key elements include a media outreach effort, specific development projects, and training to reinforce capacities for all participants.

CHF International
This program in Yemen aims to build business aptitude and provide economic opportunities for at-risk youth, especially young women, by developing skills, business ideas and career paths. This program will consist of two parts, the first focused on developing a training curricula and programs to hone young people’s work skills and the second, creating a business education center to serve as a research and meeting facility for the youth.

Nortel Networks Kidz Online
This program introduces Arab girls, young women, and the men in their lives to the potential they have to fuel their education and desire to join the workforce. Delivered by broadband internet, this interactive television channel will open new opportunities through a unique peer-to-peer communication process by showcasing how others have overcome the barriers to women’s full participation in society. It will be produced on location throughout the Middle East and will be initially targeted for distribution in formal educational settings throughout Jordan in partnership with the Jordanian government’s Education Initiative, and though television broadcast in Jordan, Qatar, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates.

The Foundation for Enterprise Development (FED)
In partnership with American-Mideast Educational and Training Services (AMIDEAST) and San Diego State University, the Foundation will manage the Middle East Entrepreneur Training (MEET US). They will carry out a regional, 15-country, program aimed at strengthening entrepreneurship and developing professional skills of young business leaders though peer-to-peer learning, networking and alumni follow-up.

MEPI Invites Additional Proposals
The next closing for the MEPI Standing Program Announcement is August 15, 2004. For more information about MEPI and opportunities to partner with MEPI please see the MEPI website: www.mepi.state.gov

Background:
MEPI supports four areas of positive changes already occurring in the Middle East: economic, political, and educational reform, and increased opportunity for all people of the region, especially women and youth.

The encouragement of coordinated reforms across these four thematic pillars makes MEPI the Administration’s primary diplomatic policy and development mechanism to implement the President’s new forward strategy for freedom in the Middle East.

By combining U.S. diplomatic and programmatic support for reform efforts in the region, MEPI funding encourages the growing indigenous transformation process, and sends a clear message of sustained U.S. commitment to the region.

By promoting positive change, MEPI helps to combat extremism and terror, a critical element of the global U.S. agenda.

Since MEPI’s launch in November 2002, the Administration has committed $129 million to more than 70 regional and country specific programs.

[end]