The Bellevue Palace Hotel, Broumana, Lebanon

Saturday, February 6, 1999 - Balzac restaurant, Bellevue Palace Hotel

8:00pm: Opening Dinner

9:00pm: Welcome & Introduction: Kemal Dervis, Vice President, Middle East & North Africa Region, World Bank

Sunday, February 7, 1999 - Noujoum ball room, Bellevue palace Hotel

9:00 - 9:15am: Opening Remarks & Introduction to the Think Tank Initiative

Speakers:
Paul Salem, President, The Lebanese Center for Policy Studies
Keith Miceli, Deputy Director, Center for International Private Enterprise
Ishac Diwan, Division Chief, World Bank

• Strengthen existing linkages and expand the regional network of policy institutes into new countries in order to bolster reform throughout the region
• Develop a consensus regarding the key impediments to economic growth in the region which can benefit from think tank intervention
• Identify key “points of entry” in the policy process where think tanks can play a constructive role in encouraging the reforms necessary for economic growth
• Increase the capacity of think tanks to mobilize the necessary financial, human and intellectual resources, to advance the reform agenda in the region
• Facilitate ongoing mechanisms for regional cooperation and information sharing among think tanks

9:15 - 10:45am: Reform and Development in the Region: What Does the Past Tell Us About the Future?

• The Past: the economic, social and political costs of insecurity
• Democratic institutions and emerging civil society
• Oil revenues, effects on labor and capital markets
• Religious activism and economic development
• The Future: creating more open and productive societies

Speaker: Saad Eddin Ibrahim, President, Ibn Khaldoun Center for Development Studies
Discussant: Salim Nasr, Director, Regional Studies Program, Lebanese Center for Policy Studies

10:45 – 11:00am: Coffee Break - Al-Bazerkan Glass Cafe

11:00 - 12:30: Deregulating the Economy: A Key Second Generation Reform

• What is the Role of the State in Regulating the Economy?
• Identifying the Costs and Benefits of Regulation.
• Deregulation is Essential to Compete in the Global Economy
• Excessive Regulation: A Cause of Informality
• Creating Regulatory Structures to Successfully Privatize

Speaker: John Waterbury, President, American University of Beirut
Discussant: Faycal Lakhoua, Counselor, Arab Institute of Business Leaders

12:30 – 2:00pm Lunch - Balzac Restaurant

2:00 – 3:30pm: Fiscal Responsibility: Better Budgets and Good Governance

• How can the MENA countries build efficient and fair revenue bases in a globalizing world?
• What institutional reforms are required to increase fiscal transparency?
• How can think tanks encourage an open and transparent budget process?
• What roles do the parliament and media play in ensuring transparency and accountability in the budget process?
• How has fiscal decentralization fared? What are the current and future challenges?

Speaker: Samir Makdisi, Director, Institute of Money and Banking, American University of Beirut
Discussant: Gunduz Aktan, General Director, Turkish Social and Economic Studies Foundation

3:30 – 3:45pm: Coffee Break - Al-Bazerkan Glass Cafe

3:45 - 5:15pm: Education Reform: Privatization and Public-Private Partnerships

• What lessons can be learned from the reform experience of some countries inside and outside the region?
• Reforms in secondary education: how to better address the linkages of education and labor markets?
• What should public priorities in education be, and what are the private sector opportunities?
• Experiments in privatization in the education sector.

Speaker: Paul Holden, Director, The Enterprise Research Institute
Discussants: Ali Belhaj, President, Maroc 2020
Zafiris Tzannatos, Director, Social Policy and Labor Issues, MENA Region, World Bank

8:30pm: The Role of Policy and Research Think Tanks in the Design and Implementation of Government Policy

Speaker: Salim al Hoss, Prime Minister, Lebanon
Represented by Nasser Saidi, Minisiter of Economy, Trade and Industry

Dinner (Ball Room Hall - Beirut Commodore Hotel)

Monday, February 8, 1999 - Noujoum Ballroom, Bellevue Palace Hotel

9:00 – 10:15am: Acting Locally, Regionally and Globally: Think Tanks and Transnational Policy Debates

• How can think tanks best facilitate cross-national transfers of policy ideas, practices, and policy programs, global best practices?
• What strategies can be utilized to strengthen the ability of regional policy networks to support policy advocacy on a national level?
• What strategies can think tanks use to mobilize public opinion in favor of policy change?

Speaker: Diane Stone, Professor, Department of Politics & International Studies, University of Warwick and Author, Capturing the Political Imagination: Think Tanks and the Policy Process

Discussants: Heba Handoussa, Managing Director, Economic Research Forum for the Arab Countries Iran and Turkey
Paul Salem, President, Lebanese Center for Policy Studies

10:15 – 10:30am: Coffee Break - Al-Bazerkan Glass Cafe

10:30 – 12:00pm: Philanthropy in the MENA Region: The Future of Funding

• To what extent is regional philanthropy supportive of policy research?
• Are traditional forms of philanthropy in the MENA region accessible to civil society organizations such as think tanks?
• How does regional philanthropy contribute to social and economic development?
• How can think tanks tap into the private sector for funding?

Speakers: Ustün Ergüder, Board Member, Vehbi Koc Foundation; Board Member, Turkish Economic & Social Studies Foundation (TESEV); and Rector, Bogazici University, Turkey
Georges Frem, Chairman, INDEVCO; Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors, Lebanese Center for Policy Studies, Lebanon
Discussant: Hisham Fahmy, Director, Egyptian Center for Economic Studies

12:00 – 1:15pm: Lunch - Balzac Restaurant

1:15 – 2:45pm: Developing Online Communication Strategies and Programs

• Critique of MENA think tank websites, based on survey conducted by the speaker.
• Group communications strategy development session, led by a facilitator.
• What information technology tools can be used to enhance the programmatic value of think tank programs?
• What are the present realities and future prospects of Internet as a communications tool in the Middle East and North Africa?

Speaker: Fadi al-Qadi, Project Director, Arabic Media Internet Network, Jordan
Represented by Jennifer Bertsch, Program Assistant, CIPE

2:45 - 3:15pm: The Virtual Association of MENA Think Tanks

• Discussion of the Virtual Association of MENA Think Tanks

Speaker: Keith Miceli, Deputy Director, CIPE

3:15 – 3:30pm: Coffee Break - Al-Bazerkan Glass Cafe

3:30 – 4:45pm: (How) Can Think Tank Programs Be Evaluated?

• A critique of current think tank evaluation practices, best and worst practices.
• Evaluating non-policy programs: training, periodicals, web sites, etc.
• Open Discussion: Can policy advocacy programs be evaluated? If so, how? (counterfactual analysis, content analysis, etc.)

Speaker: Ray Rist, Evaluation Advisor, EDI, World Bank
Discussants: Yara Abdul - Hamid on behalf of Hisham Awartani, Head, Economics Department, Center for Palestine Research and Studies
Erik C. Johnson, Director of Policy Studies and Evaluation, CIPE

4:45 – 6:15pm: The World Bank's Global Development Network

Speakers: Ishac Diwan, EDI, World Bank
Mariana Todorova, EDI, World Bank

Group Discussion

6:15pm: Closing Remarks

Ishac Diwan, EDI, World Bank
Keith Miceli, Deputy Director, CIPE