Happy International Women's Day!

I'd like to wish our sisters a joyous day on this International Women's Day! May they continue to fill our lives with blessings and support their communities!

Dr. Hany

Is Spring Here Yet?

Why do we love spring and look forward to it from year to year? 

Sure, spring helps us endure the summer heat and winter cold, but that’s not all. Spring has become to mean optimism and political transformation, and is a buffer that nations need to overcome tough political and economic climates. How we can we have a never-ending spring to regenerate our communities?

I can’t help but wonder: how can we sustain the Arab Spring without affecting its climate and destroying its crop?

In my opinion, we can do it by creating capable, independent and free-thinking farmers – or civil society organizations (CSOs) – to make a significant and lasting impact on governments in the Arab world.

The odd thing is authoritarian regimes understood the dynamic role of CSOs, so we had hoped that new governments would empower them. Instead, political parties are highlighting their own priorities rather than supporting the civil society sector. We also found that in four of the Arab Spring countries – Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, and Yemen – succeeding political parties ended up dividing rather than uniting their people. 

This is precisely why we need strong, stable, and independent civil service sectors, producing skilled civil workers to bring about social, economic, and political transformations. If we get this right, we will succeed in laying down the foundation of a bright and colourful future – a lot like what we would expect from spring.