The MENASP-CP Network project is led by the MENA Social Policy Network (University of Bath) in partnership with the Overseas Development Institute (ODI). Funded by the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council’s Global Challenges Research Fund, the project brings together a host of UK and international research leaders and partner organisations to undertake an ambitious programme of cross-disciplinary innovation and capability development in the governance of social policy in the Middle East and North Africa region (MENA).

Specifically, the project aims to forge a paradigm shift in the critical analysis and policy practices of conflict-prevention in the Arab countries in the Southern Mediterranean region (the Levant and North Africa) – our geographical focus. It does this by advocating a move towards a welfare-centred, social policy perspective. It focuses on the governance and impact of social protection policies in tackling the most overlooked yet urgently pertinent drivers of civic unrest and conflict in MENA: horizontal and vertical inequalities.

For more detailed information, view the main announcement on the MENASP-CP website.

In conversation with Dr Rana Jawad

Dr Rana Jawad, the principal investigator of the new MENA project, has also recently recorded a podcast about her research and expertise in relation to welfare systems in the MENA region.