Canada and the Middle East: In Theory and Practice

7. Promoting Civil Society Advocacy in the Middle East and at Home: Non-Governmental Organizations, the Canadian International Development Agency, and the Middle East Working Group, 1991–2001

E stablished in 1968, the Canadian International Development Agency (cida) aims to combat poverty, promote human rights, and enhance sustainable development in the developing world. Over the past 20 years alone, cida has disbursed more than $1.7 billion to support a variety of programs in the Middle East (see tables 7–1 and 7–2). In the 1980s and ’90s, nongovernmental organizations (ngos) began to emerge as more significant players in Canadian foreign and development policy. Hitherto at the margins of policy making in cida and the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (dfait), development ngos in Canada not only began to increase in number but also began to organize themselves into broader coalitions, oriented toward issues and toward regional concerns, that acted as channels for Canadian development assistance; they also served as forums for policy advocacy within Canadian and, later, international foreign policy making circles (Van Rooy 2001).1 Indeed, between 1984 and 1990, more than a dozen ngo coalitions had emerged, supported by the ngo Division of cida’s Partnership Branch and registered with the Canadian Council for International Cooperation (ccic).2 The latter is, itself, a coalition of Canadian voluntary sector organizations whose mandate, in partnership with civil society organizations in the South, includes working toward sustainable human development, poverty alleviation , and social justice around the globe, monitoring federal policies on foreign affairs, and engaging Canadians in a collective search for development alternatives. One area where there was a noticeable absence of ngo collective representation in Canada, however, was with respect to the Middle East. This chapter describes and analyzes an attempt by a grouping of Canadian ngos to rectify this absence through the creation of the Middle East Working Group (mewg) in the wake of the first Gulf War in 1991. Paul Kingston 7 Promoting Civil Society Advocacy in the Middle East and at Home: Non-Governmental Organizations, the Canadian International Development Agency, and the Middle East Working Group,1991–2001 If the Canadian government has doubts about governments [in the Middle East], then it should support NGOs to work with NGOs. —Saad Eddin Ibrahim 117 The initiative raises important questions about both the implementation and the formulation of Canadian foreign policy in the Middle East. First, should the Canadian government actively promote politicized movements for change abroad that work toward its broader foreign policy goals? At question here are actors within the ngo networks of civil society of the Middle East, some of which engage on more politically contentious advocacy politics. In general, civil society is defined as the realm of associations that lie between the state, the market, and the individual. In recognition of the diversity of actors— and interests—that can be found within this realm, scholars have moved away from making any definitive theoretical assumptions about the link between civil society and democratization, preferring to discuss it as a concept whose significance is defined by the context within which it operates. Indeed, rather than treating it in a unified manner, civil society is now recognized to be a more 118 Paul Kingston table 7–1 Canadian International Development Agency Expenditures on Projects in North Africa and the Middle East Year Total Disbursement 1989/0 $62,034,060.49 1990/1 $98,129,561.02 1991/2 $97,450,789.37 1992/3 $68,823,167.25 1993/4 $59,869,054.82 1994/5 $74,722,671.09 1995/6 $64,246,742.51 1996/7 $69,803,381.51 1997/8 $67,258,536.01 1998/9 $63,353,879.98 1999/0 $77,696,306.69 2000/1 $75,605,721.06 2001/2 $81,829,764.98 2002/3 $93,209,781.09 2003/4 $207,436,381.73 2004/5 $142,936,496.04 2005/6 $133,870,306.74 2006/7 $153,245,406.83 2007/8 $19,708,203.54 Source: Data provided by the cida library to the editors. table 7–2 A Snapshot of the Canadian International Development Agency’s Social Assistance to the Middle East Women’s Initiatives Fund, 1990–2001 The Canadian International Development Agency (cida) provided $8.5 million toward this project with the aim of improving the economic conditions of women in Egypt by promoting the participation of women in business. The project involved increasing access for women to microcredit and small business loans and by providing support and training...