Granting Opportunities for Young Civic Leaders

MEPI is offering a select group of promising university students from across the region an opportunity to further develop their leadership skills and understanding of democracy by implementing self-designed civic engagement projects.

The Alumni Follow-On Grant Program provides limited financial awards of up to $4,000 each for participants who took part in one of the MEPI Student Leaders Progams and who now seek to conduct civic projects in their own communities.

Since 2003, MEPI has sponsored a series of specially designed, high-level training institues at leading U.S. universities for outstanding student leaders from across the Middle East and North Africa.  Participants gather again several months later for alumni events – the first held in Tunisia in 2005, the second in Abu Dhabi in 2006 – to gain more experience and share information on the civic work they are doing in their home countries. 

In February, nearly 100 students from 17 countries who took part in last summer’s Student Leaders Program met at an Alumni Conference in Cairo (see Photo Essay).  The five-day event featured presentations by the students, as well as speeches by leading civil society activists and government officials.

Through the Alumni Follow-on Grant Program these students, plus others who have attended the MEPI Student Leaders Program during or since 2005, now have an opportunity to receive funding to implement the projects they designed.  Grant proposals, including financial and narrative reports, must be submitted by May 18, 2007, and information on the application procedure can be found at http://mepi.state.gov/.