The Arab NGO Network for Development (ANND) is a regional network working in 12 Arab countries with 7 national networks and 23non-governmental organizations. ANND’s mission focuses on promoting human rights, democracy, and sustainable development in the Arab region.  Its main objectives focus on empowering civil society organizations (CSOs) to engage in playing a more effective role in monitoring and formulating public policies at the national, regional and global levels.

ANND perceives two chronic problems threatening the ability to ensure progress towards achieving social and economic rights for citizens in the Arab region; one is the lack of social and economic public visions and plans at the national and regional levels, while limiting the policy discussions to one model that is often advocated by actors outside the region, including international financial institutions and country actors with interest in the region, and second is the limited capacities and role for local CSOs in the area of policy influencing and shaping, especially the policies related to social and economic concerns.

Consequently, ANND’s strategy focuses on enhancing and strengthening the role of CSOs in rights-based advocacy related to social and economic policy making, through opening channels of influence in policy making processes. In addition, ANND works towards enhancing the availability of indigenous resource material addressing social and economic policies and rights. ANND perceives in such a strategy means for increasing the participation of civil society actors from the Arab region in national, regional, and global policy making processes and foras, and consequently enhancing their impact on related outcomes and governmental discourse and policy orientations. Furthermore, ANND works in sharing and developing capacities among CSOs, which can serve towards effective engagement in policy making and implementing plans and programs. It contributed to that through making available necessary tools and relevant knowledge and analysis for the promotion of the economic, social and cultural rights.
 
ANND has adopted the use of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) as targeted tools for monitoring progress in the Arab region. It also adopted work on through the UN Human Rights Council mechanism- the Universal Periodic Review (UPR)- as a mechanism for monitoring governmental policies and holding them accountable for the realization of economic and social rights.

ANND vision integrates the establishment of a Research, Analysis, and Advocacy Unit, which will serve as a space for promoting capacities in monitoring and evaluation social and economic policies including trade and investment agreements, developing of advocacy-related research, and provision of a platform representing development and rights based interests and perspectives of civil society organizations. Through this process, ANND will be building on several lessons learned through its previous programmatic work, specifically those indicating that influencing policy work necessitates: (1) Strong policy analysis and research that is built on indigenous materials and is not exogenous to the region. Accordingly, there is a need to step beyond imported materials towards building the analysis from the realities of various communities in the region. (2) A strong role for civil society in bringing alternative perspectives to policy making, which are rooted in local and national priorities and needs. This necessitates access by civil society groups to credible research and analysis that can be used to advocate for policy change, and they need the right kind of partnerships with academics and media groups to achieve the potential added-value in policy advocacy work. (3) Addressing the political economy of knowledge; i.e. tackling the question of who sets the research agenda, who owns the knowledge, and what kind of knowledge is reaching and influencing policy makers.

This work reflected on the national and regional levels is complemented by follow-up of issues related to global governance and institutions, especially given their their strong impact on the local and regional efforts. Below is a highlight of most recent engagements of ANND at the global level:
 
- ANND contributed to the panel appointed by the president of UN General Assembly headed by Joseph Stieglitz, reflecting a perspective from the region. ANND disseminated the draft report presented by the panel to the CSOs in the region. It also launched a consultation process among them, based on which ANND developed its contribution to the panel.

- ANND addressed a message to the conveners at the World Economic Forum (WEF) on the Middle East, which was held in Jordan- the Dead Sea last May. (http://www.annd.org/images/stories/front%20page/position_statement_in_english.pdf). The world economic forum convenes yearly in the Dead Sea to discuss issues related to economic policies and governance in the Middle East. In 2004, ANND organised a regional round table in parallel to the WEF in Amman and addressed a statement to the participants. This year, ANND revised the agenda of the WEF and reacted accordingly; the message contained specific answers on each of the suggested topics and was disseminated among CSOs in the region.

- ANND elaborated a position paper on the impact of the global financial and economic crisis on the region, in collaboration with Christian Aid International (http://www.annd.org/images/stories/front%20page/facing_challenges_of_poverty.pdf). The paper sheds light on poverty and unemployment challenges that the region is facing, impact on the crisis, and the effectiveness of adopted social and economic policy approaches in light of lessons learned from the crisis. The paper was circulated during the special UN High Level Conference on the Financial and Economic Crisis in New York, where ANND actively participated in various CSO parallel events and in the official roundtables of the conference. The paper was published in the Social Watch Annual Report 2009. 

- ANND, in coordination with Eurostep, is preparing a regional forum, including participation of CSOs from the Arab and European countries, to enhance discussion and elaboration of a joint Euro- Mediterranean strategy to deal with the crisis from civil society perspective. This should be a contribution focusing on the social and economic impact of the crisis and its implications on the partnership agreements and process.

- ANND follows the global climate change discussions, whereby it focuses on enhancing the linkages of this policy process to the principles of economic and social justice and sustainable development. In coordination with other civil society groups from the region, the UNDP surf for the Arab states, as well as agencies from the League of Arab States, ANND worked on elaboration of discussion policy papers on the subject and position documents for advocacy purposes. Furthermore, climate related work included regional discussion sessions among civil society groups, academia, media, and governmental representatives to the negotiations (http://www.annd.org/images/stories/front%20page/climate%20change%20folder/Agenda%20-%20Enhlish.pdf).