Tunisia: Understanding Conflict 2012 - Johns Hopkins School of ...

“training-of-trainers” (ToT) events, and the resulting elections were widely regarded as
free and fair. In Tunis, we met with one of the main Tunisian organizations responsible
for election monitoring. “I Watch” was formed shortly after the revolution by a group of
students, and its membership consists primarily of students and young people. “I Watch”
has been a tremendous success, implementing programs using SMS technology to
conduct country-wide opinion polls, and another program that allows citizens to “text in”
reports of corruption in their dealing with government officials or security services. The
“I Watch” co-founder described his relationship with the American democracypromotion
NGOs as a positive one. And while he said the group remained reluctant to
accept funds, he described the groups like NDI and IRI as providing extremely useful
training and advice (SAIS Group Meeting, 23 January 2012).
The U.S. government has been eager to promote the development of civil society
in Tunisia. Before January 2011, the Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI)—a
program formed after September 11 by the Bush Administration to strengthen U.S.
partnership with the region—hardly gave out any civil society grants because of the
regime’s chokehold on civil society. MEPI has since had trouble keeping up with the
surge of civil society activity and has given many grants aimed at building the capacity of
existing groups and in other ways promoting civic engagement. One MEPI-funded
program is “E-Mediat: Electronic Media Tools, Technology & Training,” a Tunisian-run
18-month initiative to train civil society leaders on the use of social media technology.
The initiative, according to MEPI, “helps grassroots organizations use digital technology
to tell their stories, build membership, and connect to their community of peers around
the world.” We visited E-Mediat’s computer training center in Kairouan, a simple room
filled with desks, used computers, and a blackboard where several local civil society
leaders were working on websites and connecting with peers through Facebook. The
groups being trained in web technology ranged from the Red Crescent Society of
Kairouan and the Association of Journalists in Kairouan to the Tennis Club of Kairouan
and the local parent-teacher organization. The local leaders were visibly enthusiastic
about their newfound freedom to organize and operate, and they had also clearly formed
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