Sheikha Mouza announces the creation of Arab Foundation for Democracy

via Gulf News by Barbara Bibbo

Qatar's First Lady Shaikha Mouza Bint Nasser Al Misnad yesterday announced the creation of an Arab Foundation for Democracy, an international organisation tasked with supporting democratic reforms across the Arab world.

The Foundation in Doha will be headed by Shaikha Mouza and will finance non-governmental organisations which focus on the promotion of democracy and institutional reforms, civil society's building and human rights.

World renowned figures like Joschka Fisher, former German foreign minister and vice-chancellor, Canada's former prime minister Kim Campbell, Emma Bonino, Italy's minister of European Affairs and International Trade, Ali Fakhroo, Bahrain's former minister of education, Sa'adEddin Ebrahim, chair of the Ibn Khaldun Centre Egypt, Sadiq Al Mahdi, former Sudanese prime minister, Hassan Al Ebrahim, chairman of the Kuwait Society for the Advancement of Arab Children, and other political leaders will be members of its board of directors, according to an unofficial list of members circulating among the media.

"I am glad to announce the creation of the Arab Foundation for Democracy that will be the tool to promote and encourage democracy in the Arab region," said Shaikha Mouza in a public announcement here yesterday on the occasion of the closing of the Second Forum on Democracy and Political Reform in the Arab world, a three-day event tasked with finding new mechanisms and ways to support reforms in the Arab region.

Some members of the Foundation's board met for the first time yesterday.

Amount

According to a source close to the conference's organisers, Qatar is planning to donate an initial $10 million (about Dh36.7 million) fund to get the foundation started.

However there was no official announcement on the real amount of the funding.

"Finally, we will have a mechanism that will follow up on the conference recommendations and bring about reforms," Sadiq Al Mahdi, told Gulf News after the announcement.