Internation Initiatives
Vita Marija Murenaite
IDS MENA Initiative

The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) faces an array of overlapping and compounding crises. Proxy warfare, military occupations, despotism, and unequal global integration overlaps with the collapse of incomes, skyrocketing unemployment, and climate shocks. At the same time, Arab Spring era demands for rights and liberties have been squashed. How can we generate fresh, localised, and actionable solutions to address these challenges?

The IDS MENA Initiative is an ambitious partnership between researchers, activists, citizens, development practitioners, and humanitarian agencies. Through research, events, workshops and other activities, it creates a space for shared global learning and actions that will address the biggest development challenges in MENA.

Recent work
news
IDS researchers denounce Gaza catastrophe and urge urgent global response
As Palestinians today mark the 77th anniversary of the Nakba – the expulsion of Palestinian Arabs from their homeland in 1948 – IDS researchers share their commentary on the current siege of Gaza by Israel. [caption id="attachment_110933" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] Gaza…
15 May 2025
Opinion
Israel’s long war against UNRWA
On 28 October 2024, the Israeli parliament voted 92-10 to ban the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the single largest provider of humanitarian aid in occupied Palestine. [caption id="attachment_104424" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] Palestinians inspect the site after an Israeli…
07 November 2024
events
Was there a famine in Gaza in 2024?
Following Israel’s declaration on 8 October 2023 of a “complete siege” of the Gaza Strip, a food crisis rapidly developed. But did the situation deteriorate into a full-blown famine? A series of food security assessments conducted by the international community…
18 September 2024
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