WASHINGTON, D.C. /eNewsChannels/ — The U.S. State Department’s Office of the Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI) has awarded three grants totaling over $3.65 million to help civil society organizations and social innovators in the Middle East and North Africa improve their capacity to use technology to increase their effectiveness, reach, and impact:
Approximately $1.6 million was awarded to the Institute of International Education (IIE) to implement a new project called New Media Technical Assistance for Civil Society; Soliya was awarded $1.25 million for a project entitled Terana: Strengthening Leaders, Equipping Organizations, and Enabling Public Discourse; and
Mercy Corps was awarded $800,000 for its project, Innovation & Media Partnership for Action, Collaboration, and Transformation in the Middle East & North Africa (IMPACT-MENA).
MEPI’s competition for funding was designed in response to Secretary Clinton’s announcement of Civil Society 2.0, an initiative which helps grassroots organizations around the world use digital technology to tell their stories, build memberships and support bases, and connect to their community of peers around the world.
This new group of projects will advance MEPI’s goal of building pluralistic societies where diversity is reflected in social organizations, politics, business, media, and government, and where all citizens have equal standing, protected by guaranteed rights and by independent and effective courts of law. More information about MEPI is available at www.mepi.state.gov.
