Despite the tight security measures and temporary closure imposed by the Israeli authorities on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, the EuroMeSCo working group “Governance and civil society” met for its fifth workshop in Ramallah from May 23-25, 2003. This shows that EMP meetings can take place in Palestine despite the current circumstances and we would like to encourage other EuroMed networks and projects to hold more such activities.

PARTICIPANTS:

Core WG members and other EuroMeSCo members:
Volker Perthes, Head of the Middle East and Africa Department, SWP, Berlin
Muriel Asseburg, Researcher, Middle East and Africa Department, SWP, Berlin
Bettina Huber, EuroMeSCo Research Associate and coordinator, Middle East and Africa Department, SWP, Berlin
Mahdi Abdul Hadi, Head of PASSIA, Jerusalem
Deniz Altayli, Program Director, PASSIA, Jerusalem
Elise Aghazarian, Researcher, Governance Projects Coordinator, PASSIA, Jerusalem
Anders Hellner, SIIA Program Director, Sweden
Hassan Barari, Center for Strategic Studies, University of Jordan, Amman

Unable to attend:
Hani Hourani, Director, UJRC, Jordan
Fouad Ammor, GERM, Rabat, Morocco
Niall Greene, Institute of European Affairs, Dublin
Salim Nasr, Lebanese Center for Policy Studies, Beirut

FIRST SESSION:

Ulrich Wurzel: “Civil Society and Economic Development in the Southern Mediterranean – The impact of Socio-Political structures on Technological Modernization and International Competitiveness”

Paper Summary:
The draft paper presented by Ulrich Wurzel tackled three main issues: the importance of the economic basis for the EuroMed partnership (EMP) project, the social conditions needed for economic development, and in how far civil society activities can contribute to this process.

The EMP was initiated in 1995 to create an area of shared prosperity, stability and peace. To this effect, the parties agreed on three baskets of cooperation: political and security partnership, economic and financial partnership, and social, cultural and human partnership. Only the economic and financial partnership, Wurzel argues, can give a material base to the EuroMed project and is hence crucial to its success. The failure of the economic cooperation process is likely to lead to social and hence political crises and as a result could undermine the EMP. However, the success of the economic and financial cooperation is by no ways guaranteed considering the huge gaps in economic development and international competitiveness north and south of the Mediterranean.

International competitiveness is considered as much a social phenomenon in the 21^st century as a techno-economic one. The basis for competitiveness being an efficient collective process of innovation, a social environment that stimulates learning and searching for new solutions is a crucial condition for successful economic development. It is here where civil society comes into play since it constitutes an important element of an innovation-facilitating environment.

Civil society can support and create the appropriate social conditions for innovation in various ways. It can balance the role of the state and other social actors, contribute to the identification of development priorities, provide channels of communication between competing social and political actors, exert bottom-up pressure on the state to reform framework conditions, provide a socio-political and socio-cultural framework which stimulates critical and creative thinking, and hence contribute to cultural change. While civil society is commonly relegated to the basket of social, cultural and human cooperation, it can positively influence the process of establishing the systemic foundations of international competitiveness in the Southern Mediterranean Partner Countries and hence decisively contribute to the success of the economic basket of the EMP.

Discussion:
In the discussion, various issues related to the paper presented were raised. Thus it was discussed why technological upgrades do not always have the desired outcome, i.e., what determines the ability to translate and make use of new knowledge, resources and skills. Again the answer led to the social conditions of innovation and hence the ability to learn.

Underlying the assumption that civil society can support favorable conditions for innovation, however, is the normative idea of civil society as an effective tool for change. But the experience of good governance projects - specifically aimed at strengthening civil society groups that promote a participatory and innovative societal frame - has been rather disappointing because of their seemingly low impact in the Southern partner countries. On the other hand it has to be considered that the qualitative long-term impact of such projects is too resource-intensive to assess and hence it is often not traced.

Similarly it was also questioned whether civil society is as inclusive and mediating a realm as theory and paper suggest. While the paper does account for some gaps between theory and practice of civil society, it is also worth considering that there is often an “upper-class box” of civil society that is dominating the rest.

Furthermore it was asked in how far the private sector itself could have an influence over e.g. public opinion or have an interest in getting involved in shaping the system. An example for that is certain businessmen in Palestine who would not invest in foundations that promote societal concerns. When analyzing the case in light of the situation in Palestine, it was also stressed that a functioning national authority is crucial for a social climate of innovation, e.g. by providing for an adequate educational system.

Also discussed was the effectiveness of civil society in times of conflict. In contrast to what is suggested in the paper, the cases of Palestine and Lebanon illustrate that civil society fulfills a more creative role during conflict, where it tends to take over more functions and responsibilities. When state functions are reinstalled in a post-conflict period, this leads to a sense of marginalization and stifled scope for innovative action among civil society actors. In such a context, both state and civil society have to redefine their roles and relations with each other. Civil society might have to transform back to its original watchdog and advocacy functions, while the state would have to take over service-provision functions and allow for participation in planning processes.

Last but not least, it was discussed what the best framework conditions for upgrading competitiveness are: conditions of a free-trade zone, or a certain protection for fledgling industries. Very valuable for possible recommendations to the EMP in this regard was the experience of South Korea and the NICs.

Recommendations:
All EuroMeSCo members agreed that the paper is a valuable contribution to the working group and should be published, especially since it emphasizes that the development of civil society and economic development do not constitute two separate processes. Such an argument would be an important message to the EMP partners.

Recommendations stressed that the paper should be more policy-oriented and less theoretical. The chapters should be rearranged accordingly, starting e.g. with concrete examples where civil society has contributed to a favorable environment for innovation, and then move on to a more general outline of the impact of civil society on international competitiveness. The theoretical background could be condensed and presented in a background box. The new outlook should also be reflected in a more reader-friendly title, e.g. “Why an investment in civil society is an investment in economic growth”. It was also suggested that a creativity index could be developed or a checklist for social conditions of competitiveness and civil society be included in the paper.

SECOND SESSION:

Iyad Masrouji, Managing Director, Masrouji Trading Company, Ramallah & Sam Bahour, Businessman and Writer, Ramallah: The Palestinian Private Sector - Role and Relations within the Civil Society Context

Presentation Summary:
The second presentation focused on the factors that have influenced Palestinian development so far, such as refugeedom, occupation and conflict and their psychological and social consequences, the evolution of the Palestinian civil society and the private sector; the effects of the occupation and the Intifada on the Palestinian economy, private sector and hence the Palestinian population; and, the vision of a private sector in a future Palestinian state.

While municipalities, unions and professional associations already had assumed a prominent political role since the 1967 war and until the Oslo agreement and while other NGOs had more and more taken on relief functions during the Intifada, the role of the private sector has mainly gained importance in the process of state-building and with the establishment of the PNA.

However, the current state of the Palestinian private sector is rather disillusioning. While the private sector had slowly taken off after the Oslo Agreement with the World Bank predicting a 4% growth the year before the second Intifada erupted, the private sector has been very much crippled by the economic crisis, the lack of freedom of movement for people and goods and the political and institutional instability. For these reasons, the private sector has been largely hampered in pursuing its vision.

Since Oslo, the vision of the private sector has been the establishment an independent, pluralistic, modern and democratic state where civil society, private sector and the government coordinate and cooperate for the benefit of all citizens. For the private sector to flourish, it would need an independent and sovereign state with periodic elections, rule of law, a high investment in education, modern management of institutions, an open market, women as an equal participant in economic and political life and mechanisms for cooperation between the state and civil society.

Discussion:
The discussion in this session again touched on various aspects related to the presentation. One cluster of questions concerned how a “real civil society” can be built without a functioning economy, what the private sector could do without civil society and hence whether democracy or economic development come first and how the two are interlinked. Another issue discussed in this context was what the private sector should do to push for democracy.
Another part of the discussion focused on the impact of occupation in relation to the negative impact of also other factors. Not everything can be attributed to the occupation, it was argued. Problems in the educational system also existed before, PNA attitudes towards the private sector were not always the ones hoped for by the private sector. Also the Palestinian dependency on exports to the Israeli market was mentioned in this regard.
Last but not least, a major concern raised in the discussion was how the application of acquired knowledge e.g. through reports to the EU can be ensured, as it was assumed that many of the issues raised should already be known to EU institutions.

Recommendations:
The EuroMeSCo members agreed that the paper could be published in some form, but would need to be reworked. Since there already is a large bulk of literature on the current economic situation in the Palestinian territories, this part could be condensed and instead focus e.g. on the private sector responsibility in state-building, how the private sector could fulfill that role and support rule of law, a good educational system through e.g. foundations, business associations, specific projects etc. and how this could be supported by the EU and link it to the EMP.

THIRD SESSION:

Discussion with Palestinian Civil Society Activists About the Current Situation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip

Due to the security measures imposed on the Occupied Palestinian territories and difficulties to travel within the Westbank and between Ramallah and Jerusalem, the civil society representatives that had been invited to this session could unfortunately not come. The session had been intended as an outreach component in order to involve a broader spectrum of (Palestinian) civil society in EuroMeSCo activities and hence increase the visibility of EuroMeSCo at this level.

PARTICIPANTS:

Volker Perthes, Head of the Middle East and Africa Department, SWP, Berlin
Muriel Asseburg, Researcher, Middle East and Africa Department, SWP, Berlin
Bettina Huber, Research Associate and EuroMeSCo coordinator, Middle East and Africa Department, SWP, Berlin
Mahdi Abdul Hadi, Head, PASSIA, Jerusalem
Elise Aghazarian, Researcher, Governance Projects Coordinator, PASSIA, Jerusalem
Anders Hellner, SIIA Program Director, Sweden

AGENDA

1. Workshop Evaluation
2. Preparation of the next workshop

PROCEEDINGS:

1. Workshop Evaluation
The directors agreed that the workshop held the previous day had been very successful, especially in terms of the very fruitful discussion between the authors of the paper proposals and the working group. Although the directors found it too early to decide on the format of the publications, they encouraged the authors to rework and finalize the papers. Ulrich Wurzel intends to finalize his paper until September. Sam Bahour and Iyad Masrouji are expected to submit their drafts by the same time.

2. Preparation of the next Workshop
The Directors furthermore discussed the next workshop of the working group that will be held on September 19-21, 2003 in Dublin, Ireland. There are two possible papers that could be presented in this workshop. A draft paper on “Le mouvement associatif marocain: Enjeux, Enseignements et perspectives” has been submitted to the working group by Fouad Ammor (GERM). The Directors agreed that it would need to go beyond its current scope. Another draft paper on “Political economy of elite change and the impact on civil society” is to be prepared by Salah Abdul Shafi, a Palestinian development consultant. Another option would be to have a paper from Mahdi Abdul Hadi on “Civil Society in times of crisis: the case of Palestine”. As for the participating institutes, the working group will again invite Jordanian and Lebanese EuroMeSCo members. Since the host of the next workshop could not attend the workshop in Ramallah, it was agreed to postpone any further decisions until the Irish partners have been consulted, especially regarding possible outreach meetings for this workshop.