Annual Site Visit, Cairo, October 15th-17th
Members of the R4D project on “Ethnic Power Relations and Conflict”, representatives of the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) met for the project’s site visit at the American University in Cairo (AUC) from October 15th to 17th.
The participants discussed the project's research and knowledge transfer activities, evaluated the progress made during the first one and a half years of the project, and defined the research and knowledge transfer agenda for the remainder of the project’s first phase. A key outcome of the meeting was the integration of the specific research projects of each partner institution along three transversal themes −each related to a specific aspect of ethnic politics and conflict−, to enhance cross-institutional collaboration and knowledge dissemination.
The hallmark of the site visit was a one-day workshop (October 17th) on Comparative Examination of Ethnic Conflict in the Middle East and Northern Africa (MENA) Region, which focused on the causes of, and institutional solutions to, ethnic conflicts in the region. In addition to the participants mentioned above, experts, drawn from the academic sphere and civil society, were also invited, who enriched the discussions through their deep knowledge of the region’s dynamics.
Moderated by the AUC Department of Public Policy and Administration's Chair, Prof. Hamid Ali, the panel discussions revolved around the role of identity politics on intergroup relations and political stability in the MENA. The conference focused on a selected number of countries in the region, primarily Sudan and South Sudan, but also Libya, Iraq, Syria, Egypt and Israel/Palestine. R4D partners from India, Ethiopia, Zambia and Switzerland were also invited to share their insights drawn from their research and respective countries' experiences with intergroup relations.
For a detailed account about the workshop, please see the attached Download transcript (PDF, 1.6 MB).
