Two researchers from UNU-MERIT have won this year’s Best Paper Award from the Journal of Economic Psychology. The winning article, ‘Gender attitudes in the Arab region – The role of framing and priming effects’ was co-authored by among others Micheline Goedhuys and Eleonora Nillesen. Using survey data to study sensitive topics can lead to biased results. For example, direct survey questions on non-sensitive information, including ownership, already present the challenge of random and systematic ...
Why are boys and teenagers most prone to dropping out of school in Jordan? Why are Syrian children up to 10 times more likely to drop out than Jordanian children? And why is the return on education so uneven for different groups? In December 2020, Prof Franziska Gassmann took part in the launch event of the Jordan Country Report on Out-of-School Children, produced under the auspices of UNICEF Jordan. She was joined by representatives from the Ministry of Education, international organisations an...
I work as a freelance consultant, and the bulk of my career has focused on project evaluation, research and supporting humanitarian development organisations in designing projects and programmes. I chose this course because I thought it would address my needs and improve my performance, especially during commissioning assignments for NGOs working in conflict areas such as Iraq and Syria. Also, as a large part of my work is to evaluate research and projects, I needed a course that would help me u...
Despite the fact that women comprise half the world’s population, gender inequality persists worldwide, especially in low- and middle-income countries. Beyond gender-based violence, this inequality manifests in various ways: from unequal control over resources, to unequal distribution of household duties, to legal or cultural constraints on women’s socio-economic mobility. So argue Dr. Micheline Goedhuys and Prof. Eleonora Nillesen in a new policy brief. Achieving gender equality is important i...
You defend your PhD on 19 June 2018. Can you briefly describe your thesis? My research looks into strategic planning within Palestinian local governments. It considers the conditions, factors and dynamics that shape the design, launch and roll out of local strategic plans within fragile contexts. The conceptual framework is based on two interlinked elements. First, that fragile states are marked by weak national institutions, where the legitimacy and effectiveness of central governments are ofte...
A survey co-led by researchers at UNU-MERIT has found that women’s economic empowerment in Tunisia remains low, in spite of a nationwide strengthening of legal protections. There was progress, however, on women’s leadership and time use thanks to improvements in education and training. The results of the survey, presented 11 May 2018 at a workshop in Tunis co-hosted by the Center of Arab Women for Training and Research (CAWTAR), showed that 95% of women living in households with a ma...
“Waleed Sami Abulkhair is a Saudi Arabian lawyer and human rights activist, and the head of the ‘Monitor of Human Rights in Saudi Arabia’ (MHRSA) organization. He was listed by Forbes magazine as one of [the] Top 100 Most Influential Arabs on Twitter. He is the first activist to be prosecuted by the Terrorism Law… On July 6, 2014, Abulkhair was sentenced to 15 years in prison by the Specialized Criminal Court…” (Wikipedia, 12 May 2016). Waleed also has a young daughter, born during his detention...
The Arab region has been a cradle of economic growth in recent decades. While this growth has clearly brought in wealth, there are still countless questions about the characteristics, constraints and implications of the region’s systems of innovation. Do these systems even exist in the Arab region? How do prevailing economic structures affect regional innovation? Is the presence of natural resources a help or a hindrance? A new book on the ‘Economic Systems of Innovation in the Arab ...
Tunisia, 2010: The self-immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi leads to protests and uprisings across the Arab world. Grassroots movements overthrow dictators, both peacefully and violently, but also pave the way for an Islamist-secular divide, conflicts and civil wars, and economic and political uncertainty. Yet the fires of the Arab Spring not only touch communities in the region: they also reach national communities living abroad – creating a new ‘diaspora consciousness’, writes PhD fello...
Date & Time: Wednesday 26 August 2015, 12:00 PM EST / 18:00 CET Duration: Around 1 hour (45 minutes presentation, 15 minutes discussion). The ‘Arab Spring’ in Tunisia and ongoing conflict in Syria have caused global waves — in terms of geopolitics, security and of course migration. As diasporas settle around the world, how do they develop and express a group ‘consciousness’? Going further, what factors enable or constrain engagement of diasporas in politically f...