Middle East and North Africa

CMI works in the Middle East and North Africa to foster inclusive dialogue, support and complement nationally-led peace efforts, and create cross-regional spaces for addressing challenges of common concern.

The core principle in CMI’s work is that the region’s underlying challenges can only be solved if all the relevant actors are genuinely included in developing and implementing locally-owned and sustainable solutions, including traditionally marginalised groups such as women and youth.

CMI’s added value is in its ability to serve as an honest broker to facilitate and support unofficial dialogue together with local and regional actors, including on longer-term issues related to establishing inclusive national visions, responsive governance models and stable regional security architecture.

Despite continuing change in the political and security environment, we believe it is possible for peacemaking processes to contribute to more stable regional relations and more equitable social contracts across national contexts.

In 2025, CMI’s operating environment in the MENA region continued to be challenging, amidst continued escalatory conflict trends. Nevertheless, CMI contributed to increasing the political agency of civilian actors such as political parties, with a particular focus on women and youth.

Moreover, CMI provided informal regional dialogue spaces in contexts of insufficient regional cooperation frameworks, such as in the Gulf and Maghreb-Sahel regions, as well as process design support to the efforts of the EU in reviving a political process for the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Recent and ongoing key activities:

• Strengthening trust among political stakeholders and supporting an inclusive peace process in Yemen

The goal of this initiative, which concluded in 2025, was to enable political parties and movements in Yemen to restore their capacities for political collaboration and reconciliation. Political parties play a central role in government formation, governance reforms, and civilian political life and are capable of influencing political outcomes in Yemen. By addressing the obstacles standing in the way of intra-Yemeni negotiations and long-term political reconciliation, the initiative contributed to reactivating Yemen’s culture of political debate, cross-party cooperation, and civilian political life. In 2025, CMI facilitated and gave advisory support for cross-party debate, institutional meetings, and informal dialogue spaces that strengthened interpersonal trust and rapport among Yemeni political stakeholders. The project also provided capacity-building, situational assessments, and support for internal strategies and documents for addressing national issues to the internationally recognized government (IRG).

• Fostering dialogue to address the implications of water and climate insecurity on domestic and regional stability

The Euphrates-Tigris basin, shared between six countries, is experiencing the effects of climate change through severe water scarcity. The initiative aims to create informal platforms to foster dialogue and transnational cooperation among key policy influencers on water resource sharing and management across the basin. The project will explore the potential of water diplomacy as an entry point for building confidence amid the increasingly tense relations across the region. Funding: Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland.

• Fostering inclusion pathways for advancing the Middle East Peace Process

Established in the previous project phase with EU leadership and CMI’s support, the Women’s Advisory Council (WAC) is the first EU-supported regional women’s advisory mechanism for the Middle East Peace Process (MEPP). The first phase focused on building the WAC’s foundations and strengthening EU understanding of regional conflict dynamics. In the current phase, the shift is from institution-building to deepening and operationalising the WAC’s advisory role. It will increase WAC members’ participation in MEPP dialogues with the EU, regional organisations, the UN, and national governments. By enabling WAC members to engage with key policy processes, the project strengthens the inclusion of women’s perspectives in high-level diplomacy and supports alignment with the Women, Peace and Security agenda – contributing both to efforts around implementing the two-state solution and to wider peace and stabilisation initiatives across the MENA region. Funding: EU FPI.

• Supporting dialogue for unity in Palestine

The project, which recently concluded, engaged a wide group of Palestinian actors from different geographical and political backgrounds. It aimed to develop broadly acceptable solutions on issues related to Palestinian unity, including the governance of post-war Gaza and the rebuilding of the Palestinian political system. The project’s goal was to help create trust and bridge division among Palestinian actors in a highly polarised context where there is an urgent need to evaluate diplomatic options, shifting policy, and opportunities for constructive dialogue. Together with the Palestinian Center for Policy Research and Strategic Studies, CMI also explored pathways for renewed engagement with the United States in response to political developments following the war on Gaza.