How We Work
For more than 100 years, the Near East Foundation has pioneered innovative solutions to social and economic development challenges impacting communities throughout the Middle East and Africa.
Headquartered in Syracuse, NY, and engaged in a strategic partnership with Syracuse University, NEF is an operational non-governmental organization (NGO) with current programs in nine countries: Armenia, Jordan, Lebanon, Mali, Morocco, Palestine, Senegal, Sudan, and Syria.
In these countries and throughout the region, we work with local partners to directly improve the lives of tens of thousands of vulnerable people each year through initiatives in sustainable agriculture, microenterprise development, women’s empowerment, civic education, and peacebuilding.
Our Approach
KNOWLEDGE
Basic knowledge is essential to full participation in civic and economic life. Without it, urban and rural poor alike have little prospect of taking advantage of new opportunities for employment and self-improvement...
Their poverty and vulnerability to exploitation persists -often while society around them prospers. NEF education, literacy, and job training programs offer access to the basic knowledge needed to pursue civic and economic opportunities. In addition, NEF training on communication, negotiation, and conflict management and resolution support peacebuilding efforts in communities affected by conflict.
VOICE
Many of NEF’s local partners have been excluded from public decision-making due to poverty, lack of education, established gender or cultural norms, and/or geographic isolation.They have no seat at the table, and their...
lack of political power is both the cause and effect of their vulnerability. Through community organizing and institutional building initiatives, NEF helps establish and strengthen local organizations, empowering them to take collective action and effectively represent their members.
ENTERPRISE
Our approach to creating economic opportunity varies according to the social and economic realities of our local partners, and may focus on agriculture and natural resource management, value-added...
processing, small-scale commerce, and/or local service delivery. In each case, NEF provides technical assistance to improve productivity, job and business development training, and micro-credit to help vulnerable people gain the knowledge and skills needed to earn a meaningful living and lift themselves out of poverty.
Our Values
Violence and women
Women in NEF Armenia's gender-based violence assistance projects increased their employability.
Water and agriculture
Among NEF’s primary areas of focus in agriculture has been to enable communities to use water resources more efficiently.
Cooperation
Our approach focuses on core livelihood issues in a given area and helps populations find mutual..
Helping women
NEF provides for vulnerable women in poor rural and urban settings - heads of households, widows, refugees, victims of domestic violence.
What Makes Us Unique
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 NE’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.
Local Partners
Local Partners
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur nec risus tellus amet sed integer accumsan eu orci, cursus eget vitae ut tristique egestas est cras neque faucibus. Malesuada vitae gravida mauris enim ras placerat dolor vulputate feugiat laoreet Malesuada vitae gravida mauris enim. Cras placerat dolor vulputate feugiat laoreet lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur nec risus tellus amet sed integer accumsan eu orci, cursus eget vitae ut tristique egestas
