Introduction to the forum: Social welfare and conflict in the MENA region

Understanding the relationship between social welfare and conflict in the MENA region

A gendered analysis of trends in the faith‐based provision of social services: Evidence from Egypt and Turkey

BackgroundGiven the magnitude and frequency of conflicts in the MENA region along with their devastating impact on health responses and outcomes, there exists a strong need to invest in contextualized, innovative, and accessible capacity building approaches to enhance leadership and skills in global health. The MENA region suffers from limited (1) continued educational and career progression opportunities, (2) gender balance, and (3) skill-mix among its health workforce, which require significant attention.Main textThe Global Health Institute at the American University of Beirut incepted the Academy division to develop and implement various global health capacity building (GHCB) initiatives to address those challenges in fragile settings across low-and middle-income countries in the MENA region. These initiatives play a strategic role in this context, especially given their focus on being accessible through employing innovative learning modalities. However, there exists a dearth of evidence-based knowledge on best practices and recommendations to optimize the design, implementation, and evaluation of GHCB in fragile settings in the MENA region. The present paper describes the development of the evaluation of capacity building program (eCAP), implemented under the Academy division, to assess the effectiveness of its initiatives. eCAP is composed of 3 phases: (1) a situational assessment, followed by (2) production of multiple case studies, and finally (3) a meta-assessment leading to model development. The goal of eCAP is not only to inform the Academy’s operations, but also to synthesize produced knowledge into the formation of an evidence-based, scalable, and replicable model for GHCB in fragile settings.ConclusioneCAP is an important initiative for researchers, educators, and practitioners interested in GHCB in fragile settings. Several lessons can be learned from the outcomes it has yielded so far in its first two phases of implementation, ranging from the situational assessment to the production of evaluation case studies, which are expanded on in the manuscript along with pertinent challenges.

This study was conducted with the purpose of exploratory identification of the cause and specificity of the conflict surrounding the social security system in Korea using a qualitative research method. The main research findings are as follows. First, social conflicts related to the Korean social security system continue to occur, and conflict structures that cause conflicts exist visibly and inherently within the system. In particular, conflicts over the social security system have arisen as pressure for system reform has appeared before the system matures. Second, conflicts related to Korea's social security system include generational conflict issues due to rapid population aging, lack of basic philosophy and perspectives related to social security, politicization and limitations of social consensus because of electoral mobilization of social security issues, and a unique structure of interests between the government and private providers surrounding the system Third, in order to manage conflicts in the Korean social security system, a democratic and participatory social security conflict management and mediation system must be established, and structural problems that trigger social conflicts must be resolved. In addition, it is necessary to change the public's perception of social security based on citizenship and to improve factors that trigger conflicts such as the press and media. In the future, it is critical to address social security conflicts by developing a social security conflict scale which can evaluate as well as manage the level of conflict in the Korean social security system and continuously monitoring them.

The beginning of social work and its formation differ in each society due to its unique historical and social background inherent to a society, so the beginning of social work in Korea is also categorically influenced by historical events. How social work in Korea began and why the expression 'social work' is no longer used and has been replaced by 'social welfare' can be understood in the context of the social work development process in Korea, as the change of word usage can be viewed as a product of history that reflects its epoch and society. Up until around 1980, all the work in this field had been called 'social work', thereafter the terminology 'social welfare' was used, but there is no longer any differentiation between these two terms as the microscopic approach of social work on personal services and the macroscopic approach of social policy are jointly called 'social welfare'. This research is to consolidate the details and characteristics of social work and social welfare development in Korea. Consequently, this paper focused how social work in Korea started, what are the patterns of social welfare development, and what are the prospects and problems of social welfare in Korea. The task for Korean Social Welfare can be analyzed critically into five categories. Firstly, the nation's sympathy and approval must be sought for a particular welfare system. Secondly, it is necessary to increase the people's level of awareness of welfare issues. Thirdly, it is necessary for policy-makers to be aware of the problems in the Korean welfare system, and to have professional knowledge and accomplishments, and the power of decision-making on social welfare policy. Fourthly, an effort is needed to increase the level of expenditure on welfare. As welfare finance primarily derives from the nation's taxes, it is important to carry out taxation through a fair system as acknowledged by the people. Fifthly, it is necessary to develop a Korean social welfare model. Korean welfare model development needs to solve the problem of the right to survival of the socially deprived class and the socially weak, and social welfare policy and social services must be developed as a priority so as to guarantee their minimum livelihood expenditure to improve their quality of life. A welfare policy that includes the minority in social solidarity, and an intelligent, mature welfare policy which fosters integration, equality and unity, and allows for the continuous development of social welfare policy, must be the primary focus. In future, social welfare must be a pivotal policy of the government to enable it to recover its legitimacy and trust, and in implementing this there will be a greater sense of national unity and duty. Accordingly, I expect the Korean welfare model to be a driving force in the development of a multi-cultural society and in resolving the North-South division and confrontation and regional conflicts and divisions through regional solidarity.

Innovation in a Small State: <scp>Q</scp>atar and the <scp>IBC</scp> Cluster Model of Higher Education

In Chapter 9, Hatem Jemmali and Caroline A. Sullivan address water conflicts in MENA through a comparative analysis which uses a restructured Water Poverty Index. Under the premise that water scarcity is inherently multidimensional, integrated composite indices have been developed to go beyond traditional deterministic approaches to water poverty assessment. In this chapter, an enhanced methodology, to overcome weaknesses in existing indices, is used to develop a restructured Water Poverty Index (rWPI). This approach is applied to provide a multidimensional assessment of water poverty in the MENA region. Findings reveal a clear distinction between oil-rich yet water-poor countries and water-rich yet money poor countries. They highlight the likely utility of the rWPI approach to ultimately guide appropriate action towards sustainable water management and transparent allocation of shared resources.

In recent years, much of the public discourse regarding conflict in the Middle East has pondered the possibility of military intervention, but far less attention has been paid to the optimal mechanisms for conflict mediation. There remains considerable confusion in the study of conflict resolution about how to locate the right time, or ‘ripe moment’ for this type of third-party involvement. This is a crucial area of policy relevant research. When attempting to model ripeness, most of the literature has relied on expected utility models of decision-making and found that crucial but nebulous factors that are important in the MENA region, such as conflicting parties’ psychology, religious and political beliefs, as well as grievances compounded over time, cannot easily be incorporated into the framework. This paper offers a plausibility probe to highlight the potential of an augmented approach. Using Poliheuristic (PH) Theory that reflects the non-compensatory nature of political risk, it creates a litmus test for third-party mediation based not on what conflicting parties aim to achieve, but what outcomes and processes they must avoid. The result is a relatively simple identification of ‘bad’ timing, as well as theory-informed mechanisms designed to help practitioners generate better conditions for mediation. This probe contributes to our understanding of the relationship between political fragility and conflict in the MENA region by indicating how political fragility might be conceptualized as a process that can be mapped and perhaps interrupted.

The MENA region is at a crucial point in time, with two urgent needs: the need for social inclusion right now and the brave search for economic diversification through technological innovation. This article goes into further detail on how these two important factors are coming together, focusing on a group of people who are not only very vulnerable but also represent a huge, untapped source of human potential: the 21 million disabled children in the area. These kids have been on the outside of society for a long time, and their exclusion has been kept up by a never-ending cycle of data neglect, policy failures, poorly financed schools, and social bias. This exclusion has a huge effect on the economy. In low- and middle-income nations, people with disabilities who are underemployed can cost the economy up to 7% of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP).1MENA countries are putting a lot of money into digital transformation and artificial intelligence (AI) to build economies that are diverse and based on information. This article says that the smart use of AI in special education is the key to bringing these two regional agendas into line with each other. AI is a key tool that turns problems with social welfare into strong drivers of economic growth.AI can help countries in the MENA area deal with the ongoing resource shortages that have made universal inclusive education seem like a pipe dream. AI-powered technologies have the ability to develop personalized learning experiences, provide improved support tools, help teachers find learning obstacles quickly and accurately, and improve teachers’ skills by making administrative jobs easier. This technology revolution makes it possible to move away from a reactive, segregated approach to special education and toward a proactive, inclusive paradigm that helps every kid reach their full potential.This article goes into great detail on the present state of special education in the MENA area. It also talks about how AI might change the world and shows some of the most innovative projects in countries like the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Jordan. It goes beyond normal classrooms to provide a strong economic case, showing that funding AI-driven inclusive education leads to a big “Inclusion Dividend.” This dividend leads to better human capital, a more trained and diversified workforce, the birth of a new high-value Assistive Technology (AT) and EdTech industry that is predicted to reach USD 1.2 billion in the Middle East by 2030, and higher corporate profits. Companies that do an excellent job of including people with disabilities tend to make 1.6 times more money and 2.6 times more net income.3This article gives governments, schools, businesses, and international organizations a complete set of rules to follow. We need to change the way we think about the 21 million disabled children. Instead of seeing them as a problem to be solved, we should see them as 21 million potential innovators, contributors, and leaders who are essential to the region’s future development. AI has the ability to change the MENA area from a place where people are left out to one where they are empowered. This will create societies that are not just fairer but also economies that are stronger and more dynamic.

Irregular migration became an alarming issue over the last decade for both developed and developing countries. A prevailing assumption in migration policy is that labor market and institutional characteristics play a crucial role in pushing people to leave their home countries in search for better life prospects. This paper examines this hypothesis using a unique dataset covering young people aged 15 to 29 from five major MENA countries from the year 2016. Using a probit model, the paper finds that labor market drivers (unemployment, job sector, social security, contract type) are of great importance for the decision to migrate irregularly amongst the youth in the MENA region and that the quality of institutions matters. In addition, the lack of wealth and economic opportunities enhance their willingness to engage in irregular migration.

ABSTRACTSocial stability is a crucial prerequisite for the prosperity and development of a country or region, and social conflict has long been a focal topic in academia. However, few studies examine the impact of commercial social capital on social conflict. This paper addresses this gap by investigating the influence of shanghui (chambers of commerce) in the late Qing Dynasty, a form of commercial social capital, on regional social conflict. Utilizing prefecture‐level panel data from 1902 to s and employing a DID approach, we empirically explore the impact of shanghui on regional social conflict during this period. The results show that the establishment of shanghui significantly increased the likelihood of regional social conflict, and this effect remains robust across a variety of robustness tests. As a form of commercial social capital, shanghui effectively promoted the formation of merchant networks, facilitating collective action among merchants to safeguard their interests. Further historical evidence suggests that the impact of shanghui on regional social conflict is primarily evident in three areas: (1) supporting social revolutions, particularly the Revolution of 1911; (2) resisting actions by foreign merchants and the Qing government that threatened their interests, exemplified by the Boycott of American Goods and the Railway Protection Movement; and (3) siding with merchants in labor disputes, thus leading to worker strikes.

In this paper the complexities of ongoing conflicts in the MENA region are scrutinized through a critical lens. Acknowledging the influence of multiple actors and factors in shaping political history, the paper challenges the prevailing use of postmodern and post-colonial paradigms in framing and assigning responsibility for these conflicts. While recognizing their contributions, the paper argues against their limitations in providing a nuanced understanding of the underlying dynamics and roots of MENA conflicts. The paper argues that postmodern and post-colonial lenses oversimplify conflicts by presenting them in binary terms and focusing solely on the role of Western colonialism. Instead, it advocates for a broader perspective that considers the complexities of the region's history, including the legacies of the Ottoman Empire and local social structures and actors. It suggests a contextual realist approach analysing conflicts at both internal and external levels, examining state formation processes and regional dynamics. While acknowledging the challenges, it asserts that with the right analytical and methodological tools, a deeper understanding of the region's conflicts and the underlying dynamics of its political landscape is possible.

Introduction 1. Middle East and North Africa: A Harmonized Geographic Region Without a Complete Regionalism 2. The Economic Development of Late Comers 3. Institutions and Development in the Middle East and North Africa: Between Economic Challenges and Stability Policies 4. Demographic Dynamics and Development Implications in the Middle East and North Africa 5. The Performance of MENA Economies Between Internal Conditions and External Shocks 6. Social Contract, Human Development and Welfare in MENA 7. Human Capital and Labour Markets in the MENA Region 8. The Migration-Development Link in the MENA Region 9. The Openness of the MENA Economies: Beyond the Lost Regionalism, En Route For A New Regional Arrangement 10. Conclusion

This chapter sets out the conceptual framework of the book. It uses three core heuristic policy concepts: membership, allocation and entitlement to analyse the social policy developments that are explored in the book. Entitlement reflects the rules or eligibility criteria by which membership of a community enables or prevents benefit from the allocation of wealth and resources. In essence, questions about membership, allocation and entitlement inevitably relate to the mutual responsibilities among state, societal and market actors in protecting against social risks and ensuring the social and individual welfare of their members. These are questions that have become ever more relevant in the MENA region and help to build connections between basic issues of human need, dignity and survival to the more conventional concerns of macro-economic policy and political stability. Hence, the chapter presents a framework for analysing the political settlements in the MENA region which includes the varying processes of bargaining, negotiation, conflict and compromise that social and political actors take part in, in order to expand or decrease access to social and public services.

UBI as Social Assistance: Comparative Models and Instruments