ARnet Regional Report Near East and North Africa 1998

Economic & Development Studies Centre (EDSC)
Rome, February 1998

Introduction

On November 10 and 11, a meeting took place in Cairo, Egypt, organized by Economic and Development Studies Center (EDSC), the regional coordinator of the Middle East and Maghreb Regional Node to discuss objectives, methodology, exchange information, and expected output of IFAD/ UNRISD Project on Grass-roots Initiatives and Knowledge Network for Land Reform in the region.

Objectives

The present report summarizes activities conducted by EDSC to investigate grass-roots initiatives and establishing knowledge network for land reform issues in Middle East and Maghreb region.

Conducted Activities

• Select three national coordinators of Yemen, Morocco, and Egypt and strengthen the contact between them on one side and the regional coordinator on the other.
• Define grass-roots organizations in the three selected countries, including, for example:

  Yemen

  • Different agricultural cooperatives with different purposes in different districts and governorates,
  • Different organizations deal with land and water conservation,
  • Different agricultural development projects,
  • General Administration for Agricultural Services,
  • Agricultural Development Program in selected Villages.

  Morocco

  • Agricultural Cooperatives for different purposes (land reclamation, marketing, machines use etc..),
  • Credit governmental and non-governmental organizations,

  Egypt

  • Farmers Unions,
  • Agricultural Cooperatives for different purposes (land reclamation, marketing, machines use etc..),
  • Individuals and private organizations (agricultural workers, small holders, land receivers or tenants ),
  • Agricultural Institutes.

• Select one grass-roots organization to be invited in both the regional meeting held in Cairo on 11.11.97 and in Rome on 10.02.98. Mr. M. Hamed Ali, Head of Cooperatives for Land Reclamation and Land Distribution in Raas Sedr in Sinai/ Egypt, was selected to present a very promising case on land reform at Rome Conference.
• Translate questionnaire sent by UNRISD into Arabic language, mother language of grass-roots organizations in the three selected countries of Middle East node.
• Prepare and distribute summary of project's and questionnaire's objectives to all related partners,
• Prepare all related contact procedures to network with all partners by using e-mail, fax, telephone or DHL post ,
• Collect and analyze conducted questionnaires from Yemen, Morocco, and Egypt,
• Keep in regular contact with the national coordinators of each country, IFAD, and UNRISD to help for preparation of an overview paper on selected cases and knowledge network.
  

Selected Indicators of Conducted Grass-roots Questionnaires

1) Number of conducted questionnaires



Country	Expected response	Maximum planned no.	Minimum planned no.	Actual response	% of actual to the minimum no.
	(1)	(2)	(3)	(4)	(3)/(4)
Yemen	50%	120	50	24	48%
Morocco	50%	100	50	21	42%
Egypt	50%	100	50	31	62%
Total	50%	320	150	75	50%
(1), (2), and (3) show planned figures on 13.11.97 during the regional meeting in Cairo.

2) Characteristics of grass-roots organizations

Yemen

24 grass-roots organizations were interviewed, of which 10 governmental, 12 non-governmental, and two are mixed organizations. These are working in fields of construction of dikes to collect rain water, land reclamation, digging cisterns, desertification, agricultural extension, and training. Main problems are weakness of financing systems, absence of agricultural extension, shortages in water and land resources, and desertification of the land.

Morocco

The grass-roots questionnaires were conducted by 21 organizations, mainly cooperatives, which works since more than 20 years in activities of : marketing of agricultural products, credit, food supply and agricultural mechanization. Most of them are facing problems like: shortage of irrigation water, work on credit, bad storage facilities, and difficulties of communication to the target groups.

Egypt

Number of grass-roots organizations interviewed is 31, of which 4 farmers unions, 4 governmental, 3 non-governmental organizations, 2 research institutes, 18 small holders and agricultural workers. Their activities are mainly in land reclamation, land distribution, irrigation, tenants- land owner relationship, marketing of agricultural products, credit and agricultural extension and training. Most promising cases were in distribution of new reclaimed land in particular to promote graduate program of agricultural development, and providing new credit to graduate people to own land with suitable conditions.

Present Situation of Network in the Region

Due to the absence of communication using e-mail, the networking among the national coordinators on one side and the regional coordinator on the other is negatively affecting the efficiency of regional network. All communications are made through fax and DHL post. Even the use of these ways has caused the missing of original questionnaires sent from Morocco. The only available facility to networking by e-mail is owned privately by Dr. M. Nasr, the regional coordinator.

More adequate resources should be available to both the regional and national country coordinators in order to strengthen the network knowledge exchange between them on one side and the NGO's of their countries on the other. Regarding   this, the following amounts should be made available by The Popular Coalition to Eradicate Hunger and Poverty (International Land Coalition - adapted from February 2003) :

• US$ 5,000 for both the regional and national coordinators for buying a powerful PC and conne ting it with the INTERNET to facilitate contacting each other quickly,
• US$ 2,000 for each national coordinator for financing all related efforts and to pay for their staff members. The absence of this financial resource has negatively affected the response of national coordinators and was at least the reason behind the delay of sending the questionnaires and then work after that up to writing the regional overview paper till now.