Knowledge to development in the Arab world: evaluation and plan of action

In Madrid, this round table will take place Wednesday 28th April at 18.00 at the Auditorium of Casa Árabe (c/ Alcalá 62). The speakers will be Adel Al Shared, Vice-Chairman and Managing Director of the Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation (MBRF); Adel Abdellatif, chief of the Regional Programme Division of the Regional Bureau for Arab States for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP); Sultan Lootah, MBRF Vice-President, Entrepreneurship and Employment Sector; Ghaith Fariz, Director of the  project The Arab Knowledge Report from the UNDP; Ali Al Shaali, MBRF Director of Knowledge Production; Nagla Rizk, Economics professor at the American University in Cairo, and Kamal Abdellatif, Philosophy professor in the University Mohamed V in Rabat. The round table will be conducted by Gema Martín Muñoz, Casa Árabe General Director.

With regard to the round table in Barcelona, it will take place the following day, Thursday 29th April, at 12.00, in the Auditorium of the Vice-Chancellorship of the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), on the Bellaterra campus. On this event, the table will be attended by the same speakers, but it will be conducted by Mercedes Unzeta, Vice-Chancellor of International Relations of the UAB, and by Olivia Orozco, Casa Árabe coordinator for the Socioeconomics and Business Programme. The discussion will be conducted by Teresa Velázquez, Chair Professor and President of the Mediterranean Observatory of Communication (OMEC) of the UAB.

Algeria: education, gender and society, difficulties in the emergence of a female elite

The last session of the series will take place in Madrid, Tuesday 4th of May at 19.30. The conference will be at the Auditorium of Casa Árabe (c/ Alcalá 62), and the participants will be Nasser Djabi, Sociology Professor in the University of Algiers, and Rafael Bustos, coordinator for the Maghreb-Middle East Region in the Observatory of Spanish Foreign Policy (OPEX) at Fundación Alternativas, and will be conducted by Olivia Orozco de la Torre, Casa Árabe coordinator of the Socioeconomics and Business Programme.

A day later, Wednesday 5th May, the same Tribune will take place in Alicante, Mr. Djabi will be introduced by Josefina Bueno, Culture Vice-Chancellor of the University of Alicante, and by Olivia Orozco de la Torre, Casa Árabe Coordinator for the Socioeconomic and Business Programme. The discussion will be conducted by Paqui Santonja, Director of the Governance and Cooperation Department of Casa Mediterráneo. The conference will take place at 18.30 at the Rafael Altamira Hall in the University of Alicante.

Past conferences:

Human Security in the Arab world

The first conference on the series focused on the topic of Human Security, a determining factor on Human development in some of these countries.

In Madrid, the conference took place Thursday 11th March, and counted with Mustapha Kamel al-Sayyid, Political Science Professor of the University of Cairo and lead consultant for the Arab Human Development Report 2009 from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and Haizam Amirah, Senior Analyst for the Mediterranean and the Arab World by Real Instituto Elcano. Olivia Orozco, Casa Árabe Coordinator of the Socioeconomic and Business Programme, conducted the Tribune. The event took place at 19.30 at the Auditorium of Casa Árabe (c/Alcalá, 62).

In Cordoba, the Tribune took place Friday 12th March and the participants were Mustapha Kamel al-Sayyid, Political Science Professor of the University of Cairo and lead consultant for the Arab Human Development Report 2009 from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), who was introduced by Manuel López Aguilar, Students and Culture Vice-Chancellor, UNESCO Chair in Conflicts Resolution of the University of Cordoba. It was conducted by Magdalena Reifs López, Applied Economics Professor in the University of Cordoba. The event began at 12.00 in the Rabanales Campus in the University of Cordoba.

Human Development in Iraq, current situation and prospects

The second conference of the series was this Tribune, where the conclusions from the latest report on human development in Iraq were presented and the current situation of the country discussed.

In Cordoba, the Tribune took place Wednesday 24th March and participants included Amal Shlash, Director of the Economics Department of Bayt al-Hikma in Baghdad and main author of the report Iraq: National Report on the Status of Human Development 2008, and Adib Nehmeh, Regional Advisor on Social Statistics to the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), Beirut. The round table was introduced by Jesús Claudio Pérez Gálvez, Applied Economics Professor, University of Cordoba, and conducted by Magdalena Reifs, Applied Economics Professor, University of Cordoba, in the Rabanales Campus of the University of Cordoba. The event took place at 16.30 in the Law and Economics Faculty Building of the University of Cordoba (c/ Puerta Nueva s/n).

In Madrid, the round table took place on March 25th and the speakers were Christine McNab, Deputy Special Representative of the General Secretary for Iraq (UNAMI), Amal Shlash, director of the Economics Department of Bayt al-Hikma in Baghdad and main author of the report Iraq: National Report on the Status of Human Development 2008, and Adib Nehmeh, Regional Advisor on Social Statistics to the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), Beirut. The round table was introduced by Jose Mª Fernández López de Turiso, Chief of the Department of Cooperation in the Mediterranean and Arab World, Spanish Agency for International Cooperation for Development (AECID) and conducted by Gema Martín Muñoz, Casa Árabe General Director. The event took place at 19.00 at the Auditorium of Casa Árabe.