INTRAC has been supporting the development of civil society organisations across countries of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) for over 20 years.
We have staff focusing on MENA, and have a growing network of experts located within the region. We combine international expertise and knowledge in our core areas with strong linguistic, cultural and social knowledge of the region.
INTRAC’s emphasis is on strengthening the quality of capacity development support for civil society and giving people access to innovative approaches and best practice that can strengthen the sustained and long-term impact of local organisations.
We focus on:
- Advice and design of capacity development programmes for civil society.
- Developing the skills of civil society actors to carry out evidence-informed programming and advocacy including use of theories of change and action research.
- Online and face-to-face training and mentoring for civil society in our core areas of monitoring, evaluation, and impact assessment, organisational and capacity development, and programme design.
- Delivering high-quality scoping studies and contextual analysis.
- Conducting evaluations and impact assessments.
- Development of programmes of training and mentoring of consultants and trainers to improve high-quality capacity development support in the region.
- Sharing knowledge between different actors within countries and across the region.
- Promoting publication and dissemination of learning by practitioners from the region.
Recent training and consultancies include work in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia and Yemen. Additionally, INTRAC has done work on Syria. Open the menu below, or view our project pages, to read about examples of our work in this region.
- In February 2018, in Morocco, INTRAC conducted Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning training for Oxfam IBIS, with the main objective of developing the capacities of Oxfam IBIS staff and their partners to manage the requirements of the MEL of the Youth Participation and Employment programme, with particular focus on key programme-specific dimensions to employment creation.
- Tailor-made theory of change in-house training for the Salem bin Mahfouz Foundation in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia in September 2018 delivered by Malene Sǿnderskov.
- In 2018-19 INTRAC conducted an impact study for Christian Aid Ireland’s From Violence to Peace programmes in Israel & the OPT and in South Sudan. Floresca Karanàsou & Edward Thomas.
- Between September and December 2018 INTRAC conducted a learning evaluation commissioned by PAX in the Netherlands to provide an external assessment of the relevance, effectiveness and outcomes of the Siege Watch project and to draw lessons from its experience, in order to inform future evidence-based advocacy initiatives. Siege Watch was a joint project of PAX and The Syria Institute, which conducted evidence-based advocacy to end the sieges in the Syrian conflict between late 2015 and the end of 2018. The methodology of this evaluation combined elements of a utilisation-focused approach and a theory-based approach with Outcome Harvesting. It was conducted through remote interviews and a desk review of programme documents and publications and external secondary sources. Floresca Karanàsou and Rana Khalaf.
- Between July and October 2019 INTRAC evaluated policy influencing to reduce poverty by partner CSOs of Norwegian People’s Aid in 16 countries. The evaluation used Outcome Harvesting and a theory-based approach. A document review was followed by remote interviews to evaluate all country programmes with three countries (Cambodia, El Salvador and South Sudan) being evaluated more thoroughly. Field visits were made to another three countries (Ecuador, Kurdish Region of Iraq and South Africa). Floresca Karanàsou, Brenda Lipson, and Alison Napier.
Related Projects
Action research and advocacy training for Women Participating in Public Life programme
Needs assessment for the Humanitarian Leadership Academy in the Middle East
Mixed methods evaluation of Syrian Active Citizens Programme, British Council – Syria
Evaluation of Transparency International’s National Integrity Systems
Exposing the King Khalid Foundation to advocacy strategies in the UK
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