Subscribe to updates about Open Society’s work around the world
By entering your email address and clicking “Submit,” you agree to receive updates from the Open Society Foundations about our work. To learn more about how we use and protect your personal data, please view our privacy policy.
Middle East and North Africa
The Open Society Foundations’ work in the Middle East and North Africa seeks to promote democratic governance and to protect human rights amid entrenched regional conflicts and political restrictions.
The Amman office supports a diverse group of local civil society organizations, research centers, universities, and media organizations across Egypt, Morocco, Palestine, Tunisia, and Syria.
Open Society’s work has always been grounded in the free exchange of ideas—either in the world of policy, or in the world of art and culture. Across the Middle East and North Africa region, we support the development of institutions and think tanks that can incubate ideas for positive change. We also support independent cultural institutions that use art to ask questions and to challenge boundaries that may be otherwise tightly controlled.
Human Rights and Political Freedoms
We are among the numerous international supporters of human rights and law groups across the region that defend freedom of expression, challenge discrimination, and call for accountability for government abuses. Our efforts to push back against authoritarianism include supporting groups abroad that speak out for freedoms denied them in their home countries.
Digital Rights and Freedoms
Young debaters pose for a selfie on the set of a TV talk show produced by the Munathara Initiative in Tuni, Tunisia.Photo courtesy the Munathara Initiative
Online civic space remains constrained across much of the region by government censorship and surveillance, while flows of sometimes toxic disinformation are largely unchecked. In addition, there is a deficit of regional capacity to address pressing issues that will shape the region’s digital future. We are working to build regional capacity to strengthen the ability of independent groups to advocate for an internet protected from the excesses of state and corporate power.
We have worked closely with the Open Society Justice Initiative to support regional and national groups pushing for accountability for atrocity crimes in the region, including those committed in Syria and Yemen, as well as the ongoing work by the International Criminal Court prosecutor on situations in Iraq/United Kingdom, Libya, and the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
Our History
The Open Society Foundations gave our first grants in the Middle East to groups in Israel and Palestine in 2002, as George Soros expanded his philanthropic efforts into the region. In 2006, our first regional office opened in the Jordanian capital, Amman.
Subscribe to updates about Open Society’s work around the world
By entering your email address and clicking “Submit,” you agree to receive updates from the Open Society Foundations about our work. To learn more about how we use and protect your personal data, please view our privacy policy.
