The Middle East and North Africa region has been absent form stocktaking exercises on social accountability initiatives (SAI), an umbrella term to designate citizen-led tools aimed at socio-political change. We argue that this sidelining is unwarranted, given the proliferation of participatory governance …

This chapter offers a working definition of social accountability as any citizen-led action beyond elections that aims to enhance the accountability of state actors. We view social accountability as a broad array of predominantly bottom-up initiatives, aimed at improving the quality of governance (especially …

In this chapter, we first summarise the findings from the country chapters on the multiple meanings of SA, documenting terms, translations and contrasting understandings between citizens and public officials. Second, we highlight how civil mobilisation tends to be cyclical over time and is often mediated …

This qualitative research assesses the European Union’s (EU) democracy promotion, through the analysis of eight milestone policies, implemented between 1995 and 2014 in Tunisia. The idea is that these policies should be analyzed over an extended period, rather than separately. This is because the international …

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the evolution of the status of women in Tunisian society from the time Tunisia gained independence in 1956 up to, during and after the uprisings that began in 2010. The aim of this thesis is to provide an overview of the development of the Tunisian woman. Furthermore, …

After several revolutions in the Arab world, the question raised what the Netherlands and in particular The Hague as city of Peace and Justice could do to help reforms in the Arab region. This dissertation outlines the various reasons which have led to several revolutions in the Arab world, also known …