Near East Foundation

Decentralization: All Local Staff
NEF’s decentralized structure empowers local development professionals. Most of our technical capacity and programming capacity resides with the teams in the field. This allows NEF to design initiatives that are especially responsive to local need and tailored to local conditions. Our field programs evolve organically with the changing nature of local development challenges, as reflected in the growing importance of urban poverty reduction initiatives in Morocco (Casablanca), Egypt (Cairo) and Jordan (Zarqa).

Relationships: Long-Standing Partnerships
NEF has sustained its presence in partner countries and communities over many years. These long-term relationships give us intimate knowledge of local circumstances and challenges. Just as important, the relationships and NEF’s local reputation are a foundation for trust with groups that are often difficult to reach—such as residents of remote villages in Morocco’s High Atlas Mountains, refugees in urban Jordan and Palestinian farmers in the West Bank.

Innovation: Developing Replicable Models
NEF’s local capacity and long-standing relationships enable NEF to pilot and refine innovative solutions to local development challenges. While our activities are rooted in grassroots action, the approaches and tools we develop gain traction far beyond the communities in which we work. For example, local natural resource management bylaws, developed by NEF and its partners in northern Mali, are now common elements of development practice throughout West Africa. NEF’s locally adapted models for micro-credit and small enterprise development are now widely used by NGOs throughout Jordan. And NEF’s model of engaging communities to increase girls’ education, piloted in a handful of villages in the High Atlas Mountains, is now used across southern Morocco and is on the cusp of expansion to the national level.

Portraits of NEF from Charles Benjamin on Vimeo.