NACE News August 2017

„Welcome to the first News of NACE – Networking Arab Civic Education“

The idea of developing NACE started in connection with the framework of NECE – Networking European Citizenship Education www.nece.eu . NECE is a platform which helped Europeanise Civic Education and promoted civic education (CE) from South to North, from the Balkans to Ukraine, in a decade. Every year NECE brings together hundreds of practitioners and academics, governmental organisations and representatives of civil society from all over Europe and since 2012 from the southern Mediterranean to discuss, exchange, but mostly expose and develop approaches that help solving the pressing issues of the day, giving civil society a strong role in this process.

Within this framework a Focus Group was set up to support the establishment of a sustainable and long-term forum of exchange, knowledge transfer and cooperation between stakeholders of civic education and civil society from North African states in transition and European countries. Consequently, and evolving organically with the group´s consultations, we decided that we wanted to establish NACE as a sister platform of NECE on the south side of the Mediterranean. In the Arab Region, there are some practices related to CE that have a long history that could be built upon and further developed. Like all green fields, the core need lies essentially in the shortage of infrastructures: information is bottlenecked, actors are regionally disconnected from one another and cross-sectorial interconnections remain weak.

NACE wants to break up the isolation of projects and stakeholders in CE to create a knowledge Hub for CE in the region which empowers the different stakeholders (non-formal and informal CE, governmental and non-governmental) to support capacity development environments, to form a strong community of CE and to create synergies between projects and programmes. During the recent incubation phase, NACE is governed by a steering committee of 8 persons supported by an advisory board of academics and practitioners from governmental and nongovernmental institutions. On two CEC-Civic Education Conferences organized by the Goethe-Institut in Cairo together with partners, we collected the requirements of stakeholders and discovered that, amongst others, there was a strong demand for networking activities. We will look back at the results of the conferences in this edition.

After this update, NACE is planning a newsletter that will be published on an irregular basis, we will support networking by presenting institutions, projects, initiatives and publications in the MENA region and across the Mediterranean. We will let you know about upcoming Events on Civic Education and we will inform you about our own activities and publications.

If you have any feedback, suggestion please do not hesitate to contact us. Furthermore, if you want us to spread some activities and events, please just tell us. We consider ourselves as a learning organization so please give us feedback on this issue and help us step by step to improve this newsletter concerning your needs.

Yours sincerely

Moez Ali (Tunisia), Shahdan Arram (Egypt), Nelly Corbel (Egypt/France), Jacob Erle (Denmark), Petra Grüne (Germany), ElHossien Mahmoud (Egypt), Mona Shahien (Egypt), Louisa Slavkova (Bulgaria)

The NACE Steering Committee

ABOUT NACE

NACE at a glance

VISION:

NACE provides spaces for exchanges on knowledge and tools in order to advocate Civic Education in the Arab Region. By inspiring and engaging a variety of stakeholders to actively participate in constant renewals of the social contract, NACE places the responsibility on itself to contribute to cohesion and communality on local, national and international levels.

MISSION:

NACE is a platform that connects and enhances the diverse initiatives of Civic Education in the Arab Region.

GOALS:

VOICES ABOUT NACE

NACE Member Nelly Corbel:

My engagement in NACE took its root in my participation in NECE, which inspired all of us, southern colleagues, thirsty for advancing civic education in a transitioning environment. Back in 2012, NECE for the first time, brought on board a number of participants from the South Mediterranean, which I had the pleasure to be part of. These vibrant times which followed the Arab Spring were full of hopes and fears with developments happening every day. I vividly remember when a disturbing presidential decree was issued in Egypt on the second day of the conference. This news took over the attention of the Southern delegation who was passionately debating the consequences of this decree. Unlike most conference organizers I have come across, NECE offered to shift the schedule to integrate an information session on the topic and bring these sides, but critical debates from the coffee break to the plenary. From this day, NECE became a home for many of us, who found in it a safe and understanding space to focus on civic education, an invaluable resource for civic actors working under difficult conditions. Many of the Southern participants met for the first time during this conference and were able to discuss in peace important topics impacting their work, which led to a number of partnerships between Arab countries and to the idea of building NACE together.

In the last 5 years working with NACE and NECE in various capacities, I have come to appreciate its different facets and its methods for evolution. NACE thrived to develop its own model while keeping a similar ethos, which I would describe as: A participatory and diverse platform for collective reflection around civic education issues beyond borders, in order to build cooperations around opportunities and challenges in the field.

Since 2012 and the establishment of a working focus group, NACE was always a goal, keeping the above ethos while establishing a southern sister network. Building an emerging sector can be paralleled to building a new village. For the new village to function, one needs to build from the ground a number of infrastructures on which the upcoming constructions can rely on for a smooth functioning. Therefore, the working group rolled up their sleeves to start building these infrastructures, getting as many on board as possible. After endless research meetings, number of projects, heated debated, a conference and countless convenings, NACE -an idea- finally become a possibility in 2015. Since then, our group of volunteers, driven by the deeply ingrained belief civic education was the road to peace and development, worked towards launching NACE at the second civic education conference in 2016, which took place in Tunisia. Now NACE is strong of a vibrant Advisory Board and Steering Committee conducting research and project. A dream slowly coming to a reality.

The road ahead of us is still long and only through our collective engagement, bringing colleagues from the region together around the cause of civic education for a diverse, peaceful and economically dynamic society will we thrive.”

Nelly Corbel

(Global Civic Consulting)

Youssef Tlili / Tunisian Ministry of Education:

The quality of a citizen is acquired by the individual under dictatorships at the cost of struggles, sometimes violent, sometimes bloody, but ultimately it is the cornerstone of every political system that triumphs by imposing its will to be a citizen.

But this instinctive ambition to be a citizen must be reinforced, even maintained, sculpted even in that which makes the human being a free being, his character, for the quality of citizen far from being natural, is acquired.

And it is in this spirit that it is very important that the efforts of the Democrats and the free people combine in the hope of spreading the democratic culture by raising awareness of their rights and duties and the necessary interactions with their environments, the mechanisms involved.

Whether in the form of a state organ or, above all, associations, the preservation of freedom is the only way to sustain the effort to be and remain a citizen, and perhaps civic education Speakers already mentioned is one of the best ways to achieve this.

For that, I can only congratulate you on the effort you are making, by combining your efforts, your experience, your means, your knowledge and your know-how in this formidable adventure, the Arab network of Civic education, to disseminate, strengthen, raise awareness, make known to the men and women of this region of the world, our shared values of freedom, democracy, peace, equality and justice.

I can only wish for success in this endeavor, for success depends only on the will and the commitment of those who believe in it.”

Youssef Tlili

Chargé de Mission of the Tunisian Minister of Education, President of the Ahmed Tlili Foundation for democratic culture

CALLS

Coordinator

Job Title: Program Manager
Location: Tunis, Tunisia (UTIL)
Duration: 12 months, full time (expected start date: 1 October 2017)
Reporting to: NACE’s Steering Committee (SC) (a body of 9 members, meeting once a month)

Background:

Networking Arab Civic Education (NACE) is an emerging pan-Arabic network of stakeholders in civic education from the region. Its primary aims are to:
– Promote the development of civic culture and of the civic education sector in the Arab world
– Provide a platfrom for exchange among stakeholders in civic education in the region and across the Mediterranean
– Lead the conversation about solving pressing societal problems, using civic education research and practice

NACE is initiated and supported by a number of organizations in Europe and North Africa like the German Federal Agency for Civic Education, the Goethe-Institut, and the Danish-Egyptian Institute. During the incubation phase the network is located as a project within UTIL, Tunisia.

The primary responsibilities of the Program Manager are as follows

Management:

– Coordinate the SC monthly meetings: scheduling and minutes;
– Support the work of the SC and Advisory Board of NACE by maintaining the documentation up to date and other tasks as needed;
– Manage the day-to-day activities of the network’s projects and report back to the SC;
– Manage interns, volunteers and consultants;
– Maintain a database of partners and stakeholders;

Advocacy:

– Overall oversight and management of networking activities of NACE like conferences, workshops and meetings (incl. logistics);
– Organize targeted public events and other advocacy formats;

Fundraising:

– Research and draft proposals;
– Support the SC in stewardship;

Communication

– Draft and edit a variety of content, i.e. website, newsletter, official letters on behalf of the Steering Committee, short opinion papers, etc.
– Promote the network through traditional and social media;
– Maintain the website up to date;
– Draft and format the quarterly newsletter;

Personal Specification:

– Bachelor’s degree in communication, public policy, social sciences, international relations or relevant field (Master’s degree is an asset);
– Fluent in Arabic and English both orally and in writing is a must (French is an asset);
– High proficiency in social network strategy, event organization, website and database management;
– Extensive knowledge of NGO and advocacy work in the Arab region ;
– Experience in civil society, with a preference for someone with an experience working across nationalities, cultural backgrounds and international organizations (civic education background is a plus);
– Flexible, proactive, and able to multi-task;
– Well-organized, with a keen eye for details;
– Ability to work independently and as part of a multinational team.

Compensation:

Salary based on regional and professional conditions. Successful candidates will acquire valuable work experience in a major, multinational research and advocacy network and the opportunity to work in a challenging, fast-paced environment with a diverse and international team.

To Apply:

Please send a one page cover letter and an A4 CV/resume (2 pages
max) to Moez Ali, Director of UTIL contact@util.tn
Closing date for application is: 1 September 2017

Applications and Interview:
Due to the large volume of candidates applying for positions within NACE we will only be able to respond the applicants who have been shortlisted. If you have not heard from us within 7 days of the closing date, you have not been successful.

LOOKING BACK: ACTIVITIES OF NACE & ITS PARTNERS

CEC : 2013/2016

The dialoguing platform, inspired by NECE, was launched in Alexandria in December 2013 with the first Civic Education Conference (CEC), which was initiated and organized by the Goethe-Institut Cairo and Partners. Over 200 participants from a variety of fields and countries joined the discussion to draft some 60 recommendations providing a basis for a road map to develop the sector. From May 13-15, 2016 the second Civic Education Conference took place in Tunisia. Building on the first conference, it focused on assessing the development of the sector, built on the 60
recommendations, and updated them in an effort to align to the current context – ensuring relevance through a participatory approach. The conference was worked around four topics:

Arts and Culture
Rule of Law
Equality and Diversity
Educating for Engagement

The conference especially explored outreach, terminology, policies, and stakeholders’ engagement. Plenaries offered a number of impulses to present questions of common concerns.

Please find further information about the CEC-Conferences under the following link:
http://www.goethe.de/cec

NACE PARTNERS‘ MEETING 2017

The first NACE Partners’ Meeting took place in May 2017 in Tunis. During the conjunction of several organizations with NACE and its partners, there were raised topics like How can we pitch Civic Education on the Agenda of international organizations and what could be NACE’s role in it? What should be the key priorities of NACE? How does Civic Education contribute to capturing the complexity of the societies we live in and overcome polarization? NACE should be a service provider for philanthropists as an advisory consultant in the region and promote critical thinking. Civic Education is the tool to deal with complexities. While dealing with these current issues, there were also some ideas for the future of NACE as a network. Taking everything into account, the invited audience carved out that the media representation should be promoted and the first steps of institutionalization of NACE should be advanced.

‚CITZENSHIP EDUCATION INTERNATIONAL‘ – CONFERENCE
The Haus am Maiberg, a German organization for civic education, organized a workshop with the title “Citizenship Education International” in Heppenheim, Germany on 19th to 20th June 2017. 41 participants discussed political education in ten different countries. Rana Gaber, Sandy Kebir and Wissem Missaoui contributed their perspectives on civic education in their countries of origin and also presented NACE during the meeting. The participants from Azerbaijan, Georgia, Germany, Italy, Poland and Russia welcomed the idea and emphasized the need for international networking. Furthermore, everyone was interested in getting to know more about civic education in the individual countries and hoped to gain a better understanding for civic education processes by international exchange.

SOFIA PLATFORM & UNDP ORGANIZE WORKSHOP

From 13-17 June 2017, the Sofia Platform organized a study tour and workshop in Sofia, Bulgaria, for a group of 11 Parliamentarians and representatives of non- governmental organizations to explore models of diversity protection and antidiscrimination legislations in Eastern Europe, specifically in Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia and Croatia. The study tour and workshop were part of the broader United Nations Development Program (UNDP) support for institutional
reform and good governance in Iraq in line with government priorities and Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 16 on building Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions and SDG 10 on Reduced Inequalities. The group included seven members of the Human Rights, Legal, Endowment and Civil Society Organizations Committees of the Council of Representatives (CoR). The Sofia Platform and the UNDP organized this learning activity under its Strengthening Participatory and Accountable Governance
(SPAG) Project. Under SPAG, UNDP has been supporting Iraq’s Council of Representatives in modernizing its internal procedures, in order to empower its oversight role over legislative processes and strengthen participatory and accountable governance in line with national reform plans.

NACE MEETS NICE

A model for empowering citizens in Sub-Saharan Africa? NICE – the National Initiative for Civic Education from Lilongwe, Malawi – has been present as a facilitator of civic education for more than 15 years. It emerged in cooperation with a civil society initiative in the light of the 1999 general elections and received guidance of the German Technical Cooperation (GTZ) and its Malawi-German Program for Democracy and Decentralization (MGPDD). Since then, it has developed into a public trust with more than 8,000 trained volunteers in the communities, 200 professional civic educators and 31 district offices. The board of NICE consists of six elected members and three government secretaries. NICE’s goals comprise the education of high quality civic education and the empowerment of the Malawian citizens, which in turn help to ensure good governance by politicians. With their expertise,
they could be a valuable partner for civic education across the African continent. As a grassroots organization, NICE can offer some helpful insight on how to reach citizens at the local or community level and is experienced in working closely with policy-makers on a national scale. On Wednesday, July 26, 2017, representatives of NACE met up with two members of NICE in Bonn, Germany. Petra Grüne and Sascha Scheier from the Federal Agency for Civic Education (bpb) had an interesting discussion with Ollen Mwalubunju and Amos Tizora about common issues, the exchange of good practices and possibilities for networking beyond national boundaries. For the future, the aim
is to explore further opportunities for collaboration with NICE.

For further information NICE can also be found online at www.nice.mw or via Facebook @NicePublicTrust

UPCOMING MEETINGS

SECOND CONFERENCE ON NETWORKING AND DIALOGUE IN TUNIS: THE NORTH AFRICAN-GERMAN DIALOGUE GOES ON!

Since the beginning of the Arab Spring, youth exchanges between North Africa and Germany have strongly developed. A network of partners came into existence who met for the first time in a conference organized by IJAB in Bonn/Germany on “The effect of international youth exchanges on the development of democracy and civil society”. The request for continuing the dialogue that was expressed by the participants from Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt and Germany will now be met. Two years after the Bonn conference, a second meeting is going to take place. Made possible by financial support from the German Federal Foreign Office, a Conference on Networking and Dialogue will be organized by a North African-German team and be held in Tunis from 15 – 18 December 2017. The conference aims to bring together all active stakeholders for exchange and networking, to deepen the dialogue and to widen and strengthen this network of partners in youth exchange.

Detailed information as well as application forms will be available at the end of September. For further information about IJAB please click on the following link:
https://www.ijab.de/en/news/overview

THE GOETHE INSTITUT LAUNCHES ITS REGIONAL ToT PROGRAM ON CIVIC EDUCATION

Under the framework of the “Dialogue & Transition” program supported by the German Foreign Office, the Goethe-Institut has carried out the first module of its 2017 Regional Training of Trainers (ToT) on Civic Education, which took place in Tunis on 15-21 July 2017. Recognizing the importance and strong potential of civil society in shaping societies, the GoetheInstitut
has been partnering up with the Center for Applied Policy Research (CAP) at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich, Germany for every year since 2014 to implement the successful
ToT program for civil society in Egypt. Building on the experience of these trainings as well as the outcomes of the CEC – Civic Education Conference 2016, and in an effort to continuously respond to participants’ needs, an updated ToT program was launched with a regional scope for the first time, reaching out to civil society in Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia and Jordan.
Bringing together experienced trainers in the fields of civic engagement, tolerance, women’s rights, the inclusion of people with disabilities, leadership development and media, the first module
provided a first opportunity to learn about methodologies to explore personal attitudes towards SAVE THE DATE diversity in our societies, to exchange experiences and to examine similarities and differences among the participating countries. The participants have also been introduced to the NACE network, opening the possibility of creating partnerships and collaborations lasting beyond the duration of the training. The next modules will take place on 20-26 October and 2-8 December 2017.
For additional information, please follow https://www.goethe.de/ins

LET’S INTRODUCE…

NACE Steering Committee Member UTIL

UTIL – UNION DES TUNESIENS INDÉPENDANTS POUR LA LIBERTÉ

UTIL a non-government organization created in 2011 has its headquarters in Tunis and another regional office/Citizenship center in the south of Tunisia (Gafsa) with a staff of 8 persons. UTIL is running numerous activities (training sessions, conferences, studies, awareness campaigns and cultural activities) on promoting citizenship values and civic engagement, promoting the
role of women and youth in their communities, promoting good governance and fighting corruption, and fighting violent extremism and terrorism.
UTIL is also part of international initiatives and activities such as the “Leading change access the Mediterranean” with Center for Applied Policies (C.A.P), Maghreb-Sahel Network to counter Violent extremism a dynamic launched by FHI360 and USAID.
UTIL also developed several partnership agreements with many international and government organization such us Lazord Foundation, COFFEY, Search for Common Ground, Management Systems International (MSI), AKTIS,… Their aims are striving for the promotion of human rights, universal values, citizenship rights and civil dialogue, fundamental freedoms and the development of democracy in society and public life and the progress of the rule of law; working on the citizen awareness to a successful democratic transition; participating in the expansion of opportunities for regional development and employment; support of young people, and the most vulnerable and marginalized communities and fighting violent extremism and terrorism.
Please find further information about UTIL and their work under the following link: www.util.tn

Selected activities of UTIL

Sidi Hassine youth complex: local youth, center officials and the UTIL team with representatives from the Canadian Embassy and the Center for Community Engagement and Prevention of Violence and SFCG

Invited by the political party Al Massar with other organization to discuss the recent Government initiative in fighting corruption

Execution of the research on violent extremism in the governorate of Gafsa (south of Tunisia) this is a part of a project “Gafsa raises against terrorism” that our Gafsa office team is implementing with local authorities

Assisting the young organization EIP (everything is possible) to organize a cultural event in Gafsa

COUNTRY PROFILES

The Making of Citizens in Europe and North-Africa

Under the mission The Making of Citizens in Europe and North-Africa, the sister platform NECE collected various country profiles of European and Arab Countries to give a summary of the background and the current situation of citizenship education.

For a general view of the entire country profiles please click on the link below:

http://www.bpb.de/veranstaltungen/netzwerke/nece/205936/country-profiles

Citizenship education by comparison

To focus on the exchange between Europe and the Arab Region, NECE initiated the opportunity to compare the different countries by various aspects. A single country profile is divided into various sub-items and could be scrutinized. The country profile Egypt for instance is classified into background information – brief history of citizenship education – definition of citizenship education – ecosystem of the non-formal citizenship education – legal environment and challenges.

For further information about the country profile of Egypt and more please click on the following link:

http://www.bpb.de/veranstaltungen/netzwerke/nece/207006/citizenship-education-in-egypt

To enable the comparison of citizenship education in the different countries across the Mediterranean, comprehensive overviews of certain aspects of the European and Arab country profiles were created, which also refer to the sub-items of the profiles and affords a direct comparison.

For detailed information about the compared country profile aspects please click here:

http://www.bpb.de/veranstaltungen/netzwerke/nece/206099/citizenship-education-by-comparison

FEATURED PUBLICATION

DANISH EGYPTIAN DIALOGUE INSTITUTE (DEDI)
THE ROAD TO CITIZENSHIP EDUCATION IN EGYPT

As a preparatory activity for NACE, the Danish Egyptian Dialogue Institute (DEDI) conducted a qualitative study regarding Citizenship Education in Egypt, especially the efforts done within the non-formal sector. The final version of this study “The Road to Citizenship Education in Egypt” was published in 2016. It was realized in partnership with the German Federal Agency for Civic Education (bpb) and the Egyptian Youth Federation (EYF).

For more information please click here: www.nece/exchange-between-europe-and-north-africa
You can find more current publications on citizenship education at the bpb (Federal Agency for Civic Education/Germany)-website