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2003 ANNUAL REPORT
Nurturing scholarship through the Middle
East Research Awards
Marking its 25th year in 2003, the Middle East Research Awards Program in Population and the Social Sciences (MEAwards) helps scholars conduct important research on population issues in Middle Eastern countries. It is one of several Population Council programs designed to advance scholarship in the biomedical, public health, and social sciences. According to Barbara L. Ibrahim, director of the Council’s West Asia and North Africa regional office, which administers the program, “MEAwards has thrived because it provides two things that are rare in the region: peer support for emerging scholars of excellence and funds to pursue topics that are locally defined."
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| The Poverty Working Group, one of four long-term research working groups coordinated by the Council’s MEAwards program, held a workshop in Rabat, Morocco, on May 14–16, 2003. |
Abdel Ghaffar Ahmed, MEAwards program director, says it fills a void: “Lack of opportunities and lack of access to the necessary resources to undertake research in this region make the program extremely important.” Over the years, Ahmed notes, MEAwards has advanced scholarship on critical regional issues such as population displacement, rural transformation, and the social context of poverty, and has supported 311 researchers with 215 awards.
Grants are made to carry out projects that meet the program’s high standards, and freedom to address sensitive topics and critical ideas is guaranteed by the program. Hoda Rashad, who now heads the Social Research Center at the American University in Cairo, recalls that MEAwards allowed her to do innovative work that she might not have been able to carry out otherwise: studying the under-registration of mortality statistics in Egypt. Furthermore, Rashad notes, “MEAwards fostered interaction and networking among researchers. We were able to draw on and benefit from one another’s experiences.”
The program has made training scholars in research methods a priority. To promote a sense of academic community that facilitates collaboration, some recent awards have included Internet subscriptions—e-mail is still a luxury in some locations.
The goal of the MEAwards program is to cultivate creative thinkers and leaders who are engaged in solving the challenges of their societies, and by this measure the program has been highly successful. Several award recipients have become influential policymakers and academicians. For example, the sociologist Aisha Belarbi served as minister of state for foreign affairs in Morocco, economist Bassam Saket was appointed minister of transport and communications in Jordan, and Rahma Bourqia, an anthropologist, recently became the first woman to serve as president of a university in Morocco, at Mohammadia University near Rabat.
| Abdel Ghaffar Ahmed is MEAwards program director in West Asia and North Africa. |
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