Dignity and Diversity

Picturing Development in the Arab States Region

البرنامج الإنمائي
7 min readApr 25, 2020
Nosaiba Almekhlafi (24, Yemen) discusses the status of women in her hometown during a Deutshe Welle Shabab Talk episode featuring participants of the Visualize 2030 data camp organized by the UNDP Regional Bureau for Arab States.

The Arab States region faces a range of pressing development challenges, not least the wave of conflict and crisis which is facing several countries, as well as growing threats emerging from climate change and burgeoning inequality.

Yet on the ground across the region, people are making gains every day in important areas of development, showing tremendous innovation, creative energy and an indefatigable will to bring a bright future into view.

UNDP is proud to work closely with Governments and communities across this diverse region to register these advances; the photos and captions below provide a glimpse of different paths through which people across the region are forging development solutions and preserving the vital dignity which courses through the people and communities of the Arab States.

Libya — Women as equal entrepreneurs

Young women join male colleagues in training on developing business plans, while gaining access to office space and financial support at the Tataweer Entrepreurship Campus (TEC), built by the EU-UNDP Strengthening Local Capacities for Resilience and Recovery project.

UNDP partners with Tatweer Research to boost economic recovery through entrepreneurship and promotion of job-friendly reforms, reaching 480 young people so far.

© Tatweer Research

Yemen — Lights are back!

Children in Hajjah, Yemen celebrate their first night of restored electricity. The town has been in darkness for three years.

“Now, my brothers and I will be able to play outside at night,” said one of the boys. “We can also do our homework and study now! I want to become a doctor — that’s my dream.”

Over 39,000 people access energy through solar units supported by UNDP. Critical energy access has also been gained by hospitals and farmers — key for resilience across the country.

© UNDP Yemen

Iraq — Cleaning rubble to restore services

Members of a UNDP-supported cash-for-work team clear rubble and debris from an area at Al Shifa Hospital Complex in West Mosul.

The hospital was used as one of ISIL’s headquarters and was heavily bombed in the battle to liberate the city.

Through a UNDP Funding Facility for Stabilization programme, thousands of men and women from Mosul are earning income while cleaning their city.

© UNDP Iraq / Claire Thomas

Lebanon — Training female police agents

Al Mina, North Lebanon-A female police agent helps in controlling the traffic in Al Mina, North Lebanon. Al Mina’s Municipal Police agents benefited from a UNDP supported training that equips them with the necessary skills to control and enforce traffic laws.

Through its project “Enhancing Community Security and Access to Justice in Lebanese Host Communities,” UNDP has been working with MoIM and Municipalities on ensuring the recruitment of female candidates in municipal police. The inclusion of women is one of 5 components identified as necessary to ensure the success of a newly set vision for a “people oriented” Municipal Police in Lebanon.

© UNDP Lebanon

Djibouti — Sustaining water access

Securing and implementing sustainable access to water resources is a vital means of promoting resilience in rural areas of Djibouti.

Here an improved access to water supported by UNDP in Kourtimalei is enabling agro-pastoral communities to adapt to the impacts of climate change by developing shade-gardens — which make more efficient use of water resources than traditional farming methods.

© UNDP Djibouti / Hibo Mohamed

State of Palestine — Connecting local companies to global markets

UNDP and partners came together to support the creation of the Jericho Agricultural Industrial Park in the Jordan Valley of Palestine as a means to stimulate development and create jobs.

UNDP also provides business development services to companies leasing space in the Park, in order to support expansion of production and access to international markets.

Here a technician in the Al Masara juice and drinks factory located in the Park tests formulas for a beverage being developed.

© UNDP PAPP

Morocco — Bringing solar power to the oases

Oases play a major role for the environment, economy and communities across Morocco — however they are also among the areas most vulnerable to climate change.

Through UNDP’s oases programme, UNDP supports Moroccan authorities and communities to thrive in challenging conditions while also adapting to and mitigating climatic changes, boosting local livelihoods and safeguarding cultural patrimony.

© UNDP Morocco

Syria — Safe spaces for peace

On International Day of Peace, UNDP Syria brought together young people from all ages and backgrounds to promote dialogue and social cohesion.

© UNDP Syria

Sudan — Boosting rural livelihoods

A farmer in the Northern State of Sudan takes a break and reflects on productivity gains since he installed electric water pumps to use s scarce water resources more efficiently, and solar panels to power them without the need for costly and polluting fuel. The Solar for Agriculture project has is aiming to install some 1000 solar pumps in areas identified as priorities by farmers associations and not reached by the national electricity grid.

© UNDP Sudan

Tunisia — Supporting entrepreneurship in the south

Eight years after its January 2011 revolution, Tunisia has registered significant advances towards the aspirations of the 2014 Constitution, while also continuing to address the country’s most pressing development challenges, including that of uneven development and the relative socio-economic difficulties faced by communities in the South of the country.

UNDP works closely with national and local authorities to continue to stimulate economic opportunity and local development, including through the support of over 200 entrepreneurs such as Amel Ferjani, based in Médenine, who has created an interior-design and furniture company with a competitive edge, being the first company in the area to use 3D imaging software in the sales-and-design process with clients.

© UNDP Tunisia

Somalia — Women as peacebuilders

Performers dance with the Somali flag, during a Peace Forum supported by UNDP and UNSOM in 2018 in Mogadishu. The Forum was the final in a series of country-wide consultations on how women can become more involved in peacebuilding across Somalia.

Not long after, Somalia passed its first Women’s Charter, also underscoring the importance of women in peacebuilding — and supported by UNDP.

© UNDP Somalia / Arete / Ismail Taxta

Egypt — Towards energy efficiency at scale

An innovative partnership between UNDP Egypt and the Ministry of Electricity is encouraging large segments of the public and private sectors to transition to LED lighting — saving people, businesses and public institutions energy and money while safeguarding the environment.

The partnership involves outreach at every level — here a member of the project team encourages participants at a convention to make the switch to LED.

© UNDP Egypt

Jordan — Planting trees to reverse land degradation

Together with Disi-Women, a women’s cooperative in Wadi Rum, UNDP Jordan supported local communities in reversing land degradation and overgrazing through reproduction of Al-Ghadha trees.

The Ghadha tree has countless benefits such as acting as fixative for sand dunes due to its excessive root system, providing shade, refuge (and food) for camels, beetles, rodent and reptiles, which have a very significant impact on the ecosystem as a whole.

This project was an opportunity for the local community to gain more awareness of the plant’s ecological importance and promote the protection of such species in the long term. Efforts also focused on enhancing women’s participation in the local environment development, which had a positive impact on improving family income-generation and provided women with new horticultural skills.

© UNDP Jordan

The photos above were originally used in a photo exhibition showcasing UNDP’s development impact across the Arab States region.

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البرنامج الإنمائي

‏‏شعوب متمكنة، أمم صامدة -الحساب الرسمي لبرنامج الأمم المتحدة الإنمائي في المنطقة العربية. UNDP official account in the Arab States