In the Middle East women, youth and people with disabilities are particularly vulnerable. There are many challenges that affect individuals and civil society actors that fight for their causes. IM provides support to partners within the civil society, and contributes to raise individuals’ awareness about their rights, and challenge inequal structures and norms in society.
IM has worked in the Middle East since 1967 and today IM collaborates with partners in Jordan, partners in Palestine and partners active in the whole region. The countries share many of the same challenges regarding social and economic exclusion of vulnerable groups as well as problems related to shrinking civic space.
IM supports Jordanian and Palestinian civil society actors who mobilise people to demand their rights. Our work is based on a rights perspective, where it is the people in the area who decide what needs to be done and how. We also build our work on five different SDGs among which is SDG 17 Partnerships for goals. We work with partner organisations and stakeholders to challenge inequal structures and norms in society, while advocating for direct actions from decision makers.
We work to strengthen and empower vulnerable and excluded groups and to strengthen and develop the local civil society in order to create lasting change. We want women and people with disabilities to be recognised as full worthy members of society and have access to their rights. We want young people, even in areas where long-standing conflicts are raging, to be able to see a future and influence both their own situation and the society around them.
By supporting our partner organisations with more than money, we promote a strong civil society. By offering competence development and opportunities for networking and learning between organisations, we can help ensure that the many efforts we support become sustainable and make a difference in the long term.
We work to raise the understanding of concepts related to environment, gender and conflict sensitivity. Collaboration with local organisations is fundamental and contributes to strengthening human rights and supporting the process of democratisation in the Middle East.