The Obama administration will use “principled engagement” to promote democracy in the Arab and wider Muslim world, said Michael Posner, assistant US secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor.
Change “occurs from within society” and is “very hard to impose from outside,” he said, insisting that reform was nevertheless essential “both to provide security and at the same time to build democratic institutions that protect their own people.”
Posner was accompanying US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and more than 20 Arab foreign ministers at a forum to promote democracy, at which Clinton announced a new “Civil Society 2.0” project to empower grassroots civil society groups through digital technology.
Some $5 million will be allocated in grant funds for pilot programs in the Middle East and North Africa to promote civil society groups’ capabilities in new media, networking and online learning.
Experienced technologists will provide training and support to build civil society organizations’ digital capacity by developing competencies in website development, blogging, text messaging campaigning, building online communities, and leveraging social networks for a cause.
It will publish interactive “how to” programs and online curricula to help NGOs without access to direct assistance and establish a “curated open platform that allows any citizen or company to develop, share or suggest content for the curriculum.”
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