Social protection and sustainable peace in the Middle East and North Africa Region: Building a new welfare-centered politics

在巴斯大学中东和北非社会政策网络www.menasp.com（成立于2012年，由PI Jawad召集）的领导下，该提案与海外发展研究所（ODI）合作，汇集了众多英国和国际研究领导者和合作伙伴组织，共同开展中东和北非地区社会政策治理跨学科创新和能力发展的雄心勃勃的计划。该网络的独特贡献将是引入中东和北非地区预防冲突研究、政策和实践的范式转变，这将加强南地中海地区（黎凡特和北非）阿拉伯国家的社会福利政治-我们的地理重点。这些都是遵守官方发展援助的国家，是向欧洲输出经济移民最多的国家，历史上处于中东和北非武装冲突的中心。网络管理团队包括伦理、心理健康和残疾、中东历史、人类学、城市规划和环境、性别、视觉艺术和教育方面的专业知识。我们的网络愿景是：通过一个相互支持的创新、跨学科研究和政策变革能力发展框架，展示中东和北非地区有效的社会政策治理如何为和平和新兴的本地化解决方案驱动倡议提供微妙和情境化的途径。我们将通过一项工作计划来实现这一目标，该计划将服务于GCRF的以下目标：(1)最大限度地发挥共同领导的概念验证的影响，以及LMIC和英国领导的价值80万英镑的委托研究链，该研究链与LMIC合作伙伴共同设计，并建立在当地专业知识的基础上；(2)促进创新型建设和平研究项目之间的共享学习，并在中东和北非地区不同脆弱国家测试不同方法的可行性、可扩展性、可转移性和有效性；(3)通过社会政策治理机构及其相关的社会保护概念，将预防冲突的研究更集中地纳入可持续发展规划和规划，从而直接解决可持续发展目标1、3（减少贫困；在整个生命过程中实现福祉）、5（实现性别平等）、10（减少不平等）和11（促进包容性和平）。我们的目标是：(1)跨学科创新：通过关注社区层面的社会正义不满与宏观层面的社会政策治理之间的相互联系，改善中东和北非地区预防冲突和可持续和平的知识基础和实践；(2)现有研究和政策实践的能力建设：我们将支持政策学习和“设计思维”，例如通过政策实验室、社会政策治理研讨会和面向决策者的电子学习课程。我们认为，有动力对中东和北非地区冲突的性质和范围进行新的和扩大的重新评估，这直接解决了长期被忽视的社区层面的社会正义不满问题，以及这些问题如何对宏观层面的政治决策作出反应或再现。我们将通过展示预防冲突和社会政策治理如何分享共同关注的问题来推进现有的知识和实践：如何使社区能够团结一致地生活，公平地分享资源。这是一个关于国家与社会关系的跨学科问题，在当代国际发展文献中被称为“政治解决”。这是一个与动荡的中东和北非国家相关的问题，这些国家目前正在实施紧缩政策，同时也被授权制定国家发展计划，以支持2030年可持续发展目标议程的普遍社会保护愿景。中东和北非地区社会和收入不平等的挑战是严峻的：在2015年的一份报告中，世界银行承认有必要解决引发阿拉伯起义的“生活质量”不满。

Led by the MENA Social Policy Network, University of Bath, www.menasp.com (founded in 2012 and convened by Jawad, PI), in partnership with the Overseas Development Institute (ODI), this proposal 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 MENA. The distinctive contribution this network will make is to introduce a paradigm shift in MENA conflict prevention research, policy and practice that will enhance the social welfare politics of Arab countries in the Sothern Mediterranean region (Levant and North Africa) - our geographical focus. These are ODA compliant countries, the highest exporters of economic migration to Europe and historically, at the nexus of armed conflict in MENA. The Network management team includes expertise in ethics, mental health and disability, Middle East history, anthropology, urban planning and the environment, gender, visual arts and education. Our Network vision is: to demonstrate, through a mutually supportive framework of innovative, cross-disciplinary research and capacity development for policy change, how effective social policy governance in MENA can provide nuanced and contextualised pathways to peace and emerging localised solution-driven initiatives. We will do this through a programme of work that will serve GCRF goals as follows: (1) maximising the impact of Co-I-led proof of concepts and an £800,000's worth of LMIC and UK-led commissioned research strand that is co-designed with LMIC partners and builds on localised expertise; (2) fostering shared learning across innovative peacebuilding research projects and testing the feasibility, scalability, transferability and effectiveness of different approaches across diverse fragile MENA countries; (3) bringing conflict prevention research more centrally into sustainable development planning and programming through the apparatus of social policy governance and its affiliated concept of social protection thereby addressing directly SDGs 1, 3 (reduce poverty; achieve wellbeing across life course), 5 (achieve gender equality), 10 (reduce inequalities) and 11 (promote inclusive peace). Our aims are: (1) Cross-disciplinary innovation: to improve knowledge bases and practices in conflict prevention and sustainable peace in MENA by focusing on the interconnections between community-level social justice grievances and the macro-level governance of social policy; (2) Capacity development of existing research and policy practice: we will support policy learning and "design thinking" such as through policy labs, social policy governance seminars and an e-learning course for policy-makers. We argue that there is momentum for a fresh and expanded reassessment of the nature and scope of conflict in MENA which directly addresses the long-overlooked question of community-level social justice grievances and how these react against or are reproduced by macro-level political decision-making. We will advance current knowledge and practice by showing how conflict prevention and social policy governance share common concerns: how to enable communities to live cohesively and share resources equitably. This is a fundamentally cross-disciplinary question about state-society relations, otherwise referred to in the contemporary international development literature as "political settlements". It is an issue of relevance to volatile MENA countries that are now implementing austerity policies at a time when they are also mandated to produce national development plans supporting the universal social protection vision of the SDG 2030 agenda. The challenges of social and income inequality in MENA are stark: in a 2015 report, the World Bank acknowledged the need to address the "quality of life" grievances that had fueled the Arab uprisings.