About
Many regimes in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region are neither democratic nor inclusive. Yet they have achieved improvements in areas such as infant and child mortality, life expectancy and literacy. In countries like Iran and Saudi Arabia, for example, social policy is presented as ‘benevolence’ on the part of the Islamic autocracy.
The social policies in these countries have a number of shortcomings, primarily a gender bias, 
clientalism and an urban focus. This creates a gap in social provisioning that is often filled by non-state actors. For example, Islamic/nationalist movements like the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Hamas in Palestine and Hezbullah in Lebanon provide basic social services (e.g. health, education and housing) in poor communities.
clientalism and an urban focus. This creates a gap in social provisioning that is often filled by non-state actors. For example, Islamic/nationalist movements like the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Hamas in Palestine and Hezbullah in Lebanon provide basic social services (e.g. health, education and housing) in poor communities.
There are detailed studies of the links between Islamic social movements and social provisioning in some countries, like Egypt, but none at all on others. Comparative studies of social provisioning are also needed to improve understanding of the role of Islam, social movements and struggle for democracy across the region. The MENA research cluster addresses these questions and contributes to the broader debate on the economic, political and cultural dimensions of social policy. The cluster also acts as a platform for debate on the MENA region at ISS, in the Netherlands and around the world.