A reflection on proposed regional alternatives to international development financing, responding to a blog on how strategic coordination and regional cooperation could turn crises into opportunities for the Arab region.
This piece was developed in response to a webinar discussion on "Localization: A Myth, a Trend, or a Necessity." It draws on insights and lessons accumulated over years of evaluating and advising stakeholders across the development and humanitarian program value chain.
Local NGOs began as community-driven movements; three decades of donor funding turned many into subcontractors. Can they reclaim their original purpose?
In the context of the post 2015 development agenda and in the lead toward adopting the sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in September 2015, the multi-stakeholder debates have focused lately on two critical enablers for sustainable development – namely “Financing for Development- FfD” and the…
I have been following the discussions and scholarly literature on the Canadian development aid and agenda post 2015. I have collected some observations and tried to highlight key dimensions that are worth noting and further exploring.
Located on the west coast of the Arabian Gulf and sharing many socio-economic and cultural similarities, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, United Arab Emirates and Kingdom of Saudi Arabia established in 1981 a political and economic coalition called the Cooperation Council for the Arab Gulf States.
محاولة تفكيك الالتباسات حول الأثر، قياسه،إدارته وقيمته: تسليط الضوء على الممارسات الناشئة في بعض الدول العربية
Impact discussions often confuse measuring impact with managing it, and add a third confusion with tools such as social return on investment. “Impact” is now common in leaders' vocabulary, yet practice mostly stops at measuring results.
The E-T Nexus brings valuable structure to the muddled space of “transformative evaluation” by mapping four ways evaluation can interact with transformation: OF, FOR, AS and IN. Some reflections on it.
While we all acknowledge that the call for transformational evaluation has gained momentum in recent years, particularly in the context of global challenges we are facing, I am still not at ease in addressing the foundational question: what are the ontological and epistemological premises that…
Over the course of decades of practice in international development and humanitarian settings, the role of evaluation has undergone steady evolution.
A reflection on evaluators' professional and ethical responsibility in times of injustice, prompted by a discussion in the Evaluators for Justice community on positioning vis-à-vis the tragedy in Palestine.
On time and spot on! At the time when the HLPF is taking place in New York two of a series of briefings on SDG Evaluation are released..
I was intrigued with the question of “how to explain Outcome Mapping (OM) in 2 minutes?”, as it takes me –like many other program evaluators- hours to address this question!
الدولة والسلاح الغير شرعي في لبنان: أزمة الدور والاستراتيجية لا أزمة قرار
The debate over restricting arms to the state has become a test of the state's own capacity. What is missing is not the principle but a national strategy, a phased path and guarantees to make it achievable.
قراءة في مضمون وثيقة "خارطة طريق للمجلس البلدي المنتخب خلال ١٠٠ يوم"
A critical reading of Tripoli's 100-day municipal pledge: closer to a behavioural charter than a plan, without vision or verification mechanisms — and how citizens can turn it into real accountability.
نواف سلام: قراءة في مآلات حكومة "الانقاذ والتغيير"
Government formation as a clash between quota-sharing and obstruction on one side and a minority seeking to restore state institutions on the other — and the four qualities the new prime minister must balance.
Foreign aid has never been about pure benevolence: it is a strategic instrument used to secure alliances, trade benefits, geopolitical influence and military footholds. On what recent executive orders mean for it.
التمديد للمجلس النيابي
The two-year extension turns a limited technical and security justification into a freeze on existing power balances — postponing deadlines instead of resolving them.
الاستحقاق البلدي 2025 كبروفة مبكّرة للانتخابات النيابية
The municipal elections showed the sectarian-clientelist system had not budged — it used the vote to restore itself, leaving reform forces without a unified alternative ahead of the parliamentary elections.
قراءة تحليلية في انتخابات بلدية طرابلس 2025: ازمة المجلس البلدي والخيارات المطروحة
A short post-election analysis of where Tripoli's municipal council stands and the options before it, including how a principled minority role can bring transparency and accountability to municipal work.
أزمة العمل المدني في الاستحقاق البلدي في طرابلس: بين وهم التحالفات ومخاوف الناشطين
On the eve of Tripoli's municipal vote: why civic electoral alliances are fragile, and why civic responsibility must be a sustained practice of oversight rather than a seasonal campaign.
الانتخابات البلدية في زمن الانهيار: تعبئة سياسية بلا رؤية تنموية
Municipal elections should renew local life and decentralization. Held amid collapse and without reform, they risk becoming another round of political mobilization that recycles the crisis instead of addressing it.
إن كانت الانتخابات البلدية قادمة... فلنستعد بالمعايير لا بالنوايا والشعارات
A citizen's guide to choosing municipal candidates — independence, integrity, administrative competence, vision — with a ten-criterion assessment tool civic groups and voters can use.
اتفاق الإطار: لبنان بين فكي الوصاية
Reads the Lebanon–Israel framework agreement within a wider regional picture — US–Iran negotiations and Israeli calculations — in which Lebanon risks remaining a bargaining chip instead of a state negotiating for its own sovereignty.
وقف إطلاق النار في لبنان: الخيار الوحيد أمام استحالة الحسم
Lebanon is less a decision-maker in the current war than the ground on which two military strategies collide. A ceasefire is the only realistic option — and it would open a long management phase, not solve the internal crisis.
العقد الاجتماعي في لبنان: سؤال برسم المجتمع
The social contract is neither the constitution nor the National Pact but an unwritten bargain between authority and society. Lebanese society must first contract among itself before it can negotiate with the system.
The term “social contract” has returned forcefully to Lebanese public discourse since the financial collapse and the October 2019 uprising — yet its renewed prominence reveals conceptual confusion more than clarity.
ثلاثة مستويات لعقد اجتماعي غائب في لبنان
Why the October 2019 uprising remained a “pre-contractual” moment, and three tracks — social rights, redistributing losses, and alternative non-sectarian institutions — toward a contract with the political system.
من يتحمل مسؤولية تبعات اتفاق وقف اطلاق النار؟ اسألوا "ألأخ الأكبر"
Argues that responsibility for the consequences of the 27 November 2024 ceasefire lies with those who negotiated and signed it — not with the government that inherited it.
These reflections are drawn from "Inequality Reexamined, Amartya Sen, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1995 (Chapters 1, 2 and 3)" Amartya Sen’s (1995) argument in exploring the question of “why Equality?” is too conceptual.
Behavioral economics provides some clues. In fact, behavioral science has contributed much to the understanding of decision-making in the last few decades.
Natural hazards are major adverse events resulting from natural processes. Natural disaster can cause loss of life or property damage, the severity of which depends on the affected population's resilience and their ability to recover.
In addressing whether the Canadian "welfare state" model contributes to conflict resolution or exacerbate conflict, i would argue that Canada has been managing political conflicts flexibly on its "welfare state" barometer.
