Role of External Actors in Democratic Transition: FIRST SESSION WORKING GROUP REPORT

“Assessment of the Current prevailing Situation in the Arab World” - Doha, 27 May 2007

Co-Chair: Riad El Malki / David French
Rapporteur: Amr Hamzawy

In the framework of the Second Forum on Democracy and Reform in the Arab World, held in Doha (Qatar) on the 27-29 May 2007, the first session of the Working Group dedicated to discussing the Role of External Actors in democratic transition took place in the afternoon of Sunday 27 May.
The chairs opened the discussion by presenting the aims and goal of the working group, stressing the need for the debate to provide an assessment of the current situation within the region and to offer concrete and specific proposals aimed at offering answers to three main questions posed by the document provided by No Peace Without Justice as a framework for discussion, namely:
A.        what is the current situation in each country and generally in the region;
B.         what should the situation in the country and the region be in the 3-5 years;
C.         what steps need to undertaken to get from point (A) to point (B).
Participants stressed that the topic of democratic transition represents one of the big challenges that the Middle East and North Africa Region is facing. The Role of External Actors in this context is one of the most relevant and sensitive topics. The MENA Region, in fact, has witnessed various experiences, that give examples of different – and sometimes – conflicting solutions.
Governments of the Region sometimes respond to external rather then internal pressures. Moreover, another critical point is the fact that there is a lack of trust among Governments and civil society actors of the Region. On the other hands, cases such as Iraq have contributed negatively to democratic transition and to the role that external forces can play in the Region. But there are also indigenous problems that  the Region faces, such as the absence of real and effective civil society representatives and grassroots movements within some local realities as well as the lack of internal democratic mechanisms within civil societies organisations.
The discussion also pointed out that the approach to the topic of the role of external actors within the Region should not be ideological: instead, a case by case analysis of the situation on the ground is needed in order to provide effective and concrete answers.
External actors are active within the Region at two levels:
1)      Bilateral (Government-to-Government level);
2)      Non governmental organisations.
Therefore, an analysis of these two leverages, which are the instruments they utilise to work is needed. The Government-to-Government interactions risk unleashing several backfires; on one side, in fact, there is the risk for democracy to be considered as a foreign value and democracy promotion as a foreign-driven priority. Moreover, this can also have other effects, namely eclipsing local democracy advocates and having them sidelined, ignored or discredited. The third risk is that foreign Governments have no possibility to monitor concretely and analyse the situation on the ground.
The participants also noted that one of the issues to be addressed is the relationship between national sovereignty and the pressures exerted by external forces. Participants pointed out that these pressures have the aim of putting pressure on governments, but can't be against societies. How to reach this goal? One way is through developing a concept of democracy that is not linked exclusively to political matters but, instead is broader, extending its meaning also to include cultural and social components. Interventions from the rapporteur and the floor also pointed out that there is a need for external actors to be aware of the internal political and social realities in the countries in which they want to operate and establish sensitive sectors  - “no-go zones” - in which their intervention and external pressures could be dangerous and not productive.
All these factors led the participants to agree that local democracy advocates need to be supported and involved by external actors in their efforts toward democracy promotion and that the actions of external actors within the region have to be identified and carefully selected on the basis of the experience and knowledge provided by local democracy activists.
Participants also pointed out that when we speak about external actors' activities within the Region we speak mainly about the USA and the European Union. On this topic, the debate did not achieve a common ground of understanding, in fact, while some of the participants pointed out that Western countries stopped supporting the democratic processes and that their activities in the region towards democracy promotion turned out to be tools for their own political interests and politics, others considered that the theme of democracy promotion is still an important topic at the top of the political agenda of Western countries, notably the US and the EU.
In any case, the issue of the willingness of external actors to maintain a steady engagement toward the democratisation of the region poses great problems to the local democracy advocates. On this issue, the case of Palestine was analysed at same length as a practical and very clear example of the risks that non-governmental actors face if not appropriately supported. In fact, if the support from external actors is  seasonal, this exposes local NGOs to be left alone and unsupported when they need it. This is why local democracy advocates need to work towards the establishment of national and regional support aimed at strengthening and reinforcing their activities. Participants agreed that external support alone is not sufficient, it needs to be linked with local and regional networks aimed at transferring knowledge on democratic transition and supporting it directly.