AIMS-GLD-Arab Barometer Conference on Linking Public Opinion and Political Action
May 30–June 1, 2015
For more information, visit event website.
Presentation of CEMAT/UNDEF and Local Governance Performance Index Tunisian Public Opinion Surveys
April 28, 2015
Tunis, Tunisia
Ellen Lust (Director of GLD and Professor of Political Science, Yale University) and Dhafer Malouche (Professor of Statistics, ESSAI, University of Carthage) presented the results of two recent public opinion polls in Tunisia in a public event organized and sponsored by CEMAT and the UNDEF on April 28, 2015. You can access the UNDEF launch presentation (Arabic/English) as well as presentations on: (1) Regional Youth Issues in Arabic; (2) Regional Youth Issues in English; (3) Transitional Justice Issues in Arabic; and (4) Transitional Justice Issues in English. The event received widespread attention; the media coverage is collated here. Some outlets misrepresented the survey results; a response clarifying some of the misinformation can be found here.
GLD Second Annual Conference: Service Provision in a Changing Arab World
April 9-10, 2015
Yale University – New Haven, CT
Sterling Memorial Library
This conference addressed the theme of governance and service provision, emphasizing factors that explain variability at the local level. Bringing together a multidisciplinary group of scholars and practitioners, discussions centered on obstacles and opportunities to providing public services in the face of instability across the region. The conference aimed to advance theoretically based, policy relevant research and discussion that can advance instruments for assessing and advancing governance and service delivery at the local level. For more information, read Prince Moulay Hicham Ben Abdallah of Morocco’s introductory remarks and the full summary of the conference.
GLD Inaugural Conference: Mapping Local Governance
May 1-2, 2014
Yale University – New Haven, CT
Greenberg Conference Center
The conference aimed to reconsider the state-oriented, center-focused approach to governance in the Middle East and North Africa in an attempt to improve both policymaking and scholarship. The conference gathered policymakers and scholars to reconsider the variation in local governance, both within and across countries in the Arab world. For scholars, the interdisciplinary conference aimed to advance new theoretical and empirical understandings of state and non-state interactions, defining research and design solutions that assume a central place for local governance in the Middle East and North Africa. For policymakers, it aimed to consider relevant tools for mapping local governance, and to examine the implications of such variation on policy implementation and outcomes. Full Summary
“Municipalities and Local Democratic Governance in Arab Countries in Transition”
December 17-19, 2013
Tunis, Tunisia
Hotel Golden Tulip – Mechtel
This Regional Workshop, in partnership with UNDP Regional Centre for Arab States, UNDP Tunisia, The Arab Institute for Human Rights, and Yale University’s Program on Governance and Local Development, brought together key experts and practitioners working on municipalities and local governance in transitional context, both in the Arab region and outside, to work towards achieving the following objectives: To discuss the lessons learnt from other region’s experiences of local governance and decentralization and how these experiences could benefit to Arab countries in transition; To identify and highlight the key regional and national level initiatives, in the Arab region, aimed at promoting good local governance, and strengthening municipalities and local governments; To share and enhance the knowledge about the key issues and challenges related to strengthening municipalities and local governance in Arab countries in transition; To discuss the specific challenges related to local election and reach a common understanding around the best ways to enhance participation and representation of women and youth; To reach a better understanding of how and under which conditions decentralization and strengthening local government could improve service delivery and enhance local economic development; To identify the needs in terms of knowledge and capacity building in order to strengthen democratic local governance and participatory democracy.