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SMEX

A regional organization advancing self-regulating information societies and defending digital rights across the Arab world.

Al Bawsala

A Tunisian civil society organization monitoring parliament, municipalities and public budgets to strengthen transparency.

SimSim-Participation Citoyenne

An independent Moroccan non-profit using technology to strengthen citizen participation and more transparent, accountable governance.

7iber

An independent Jordanian media platform producing investigative journalism and data-driven storytelling.

Masaar

A technology and law community defending digital rights and providing digital security support in Egypt and the region.

Jordan Open Source Association

A non-profit promoting free and open-source technologies, digital rights and open knowledge in Jordan.

Access Now (MENA)

An international organization defending the digital rights of users at risk, with a dedicated MENA program and Digital Security Helpline.

Hasoub

A community fostering technology entrepreneurship and digital skills among Arab youth, with a focus on inclusion.

Digital Dubai

The government entity leading Dubai's smart-city and digital-government transformation, including open data initiatives.

Code for Africa

Africa's largest network of civic technology and data journalism labs, with initiatives reaching across North Africa.

Tafra

A Moroccan think tank producing open data and evidence on elections, parliament and public institutions to inform citizen debate.

Innovation for Change – MENA Hub

A regional hub connecting people and organizations across MENA to defend and expand civic space, including open-source civic tools.

7amleh – Arab Center for Social Media Advancement

A non-profit advocating for Palestinian digital rights, researching online repression and training civil society in digital safety and campaigning.

Al-Hayat Center for Civil Society Development

A Jordanian NGO promoting accountability, governance and participation, best known for its RASED election-monitoring programme.

The Gherbal Initiative

A Lebanese organization advancing the right to access information, filing information requests and publishing public budgets in accessible formats.

I Watch

A Tunisian anti-corruption watchdog founded after the 2011 revolution, monitoring public spending, elections and integrity.

Nawaat

A pioneering independent Tunisian media collective producing investigative, data-driven journalism on democracy, rights and accountability.

Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism (ARIJ)

The leading network supporting investigative and accountability journalism across the Arab world, training reporters and fact-checkers.

Marsad Majles

A parliamentary monitoring project tracking legislators' attendance, votes and activity to strengthen accountability.

Marsad Baladia

A local-government observatory letting residents track their municipality's council, budget, assets and projects.

Nouabook

An online platform where Moroccan citizens post questions and proposals directly to members of parliament for public reply.

HarassMap

A pioneering initiative that crowdsources and maps reports of sexual harassment to challenge its social acceptability in Egypt.

Tafra Electoral Data

An open dataset and analysis of Moroccan election results, turnout and parliamentary activity across multiple election cycles.

RASED

Al-Hayat Center's long-running programme monitoring Jordanian elections and parliamentary performance to advance electoral reform.

Gherbal Budget Transparency

A transparency effort filing access-to-information requests and publishing Lebanese public-administration budgets in user-friendly formats.

Visualizing Palestine

A data-driven visual storytelling project using research and infographics to communicate issues of rights and justice in Palestine.

Morocco Open Data Portal

Morocco's national open-data portal publishing government datasets in reusable, machine-readable formats.

Digital Security Helpline

Access Now's free, round-the-clock digital security helpline for civil society, journalists and human rights defenders at risk.

Marsad Budget

An Al Bawsala platform visualizing Tunisia's public budget to make government spending understandable to citizens.

SMEX Digital Rights Hub

SMEX's knowledge hub covering digital rights, online safety and technology policy across the Arab region.

Daleel Madani

Lebanon's leading civil society portal, cataloguing organizations, projects and resources to strengthen coordination.

MENATOR Accountability Dashboard

An Innovation for Change MENA dashboard helping civil society use open data to track and evaluate public policies.

Security in a Box

A digital-security guide by Tactical Tech and Front Line Defenders offering practical tools and tactics for activists at risk.

Surveillance Self-Defense

The EFF's guide to protecting yourself from surveillance, with tutorials on encryption, secure messaging and threat modelling.

Digital First Aid Kit

A free, collaborative resource helping activists, journalists and responders diagnose and respond to common digital emergencies.

CyberArabs

An Arabic-language digital-security platform by IWPR providing guides, news and training for journalists, activists and netizens.

Open Government Partnership

A global multi-stakeholder initiative where governments and civil society co-create open-government reforms, with members in MENA.

GitHub for Nonprofits

A programme giving verified nonprofits free and discounted access to GitHub's collaboration, security and developer tools.

Google for Nonprofits

A programme giving eligible nonprofits free access to Google products including Ad Grants, Workspace and the YouTube Nonprofit Program, available in 65+ countries.

TechSoup

A global network providing nonprofits and civil society with discounted and donated technology, tools and learning resources.

African Civic Tech Atlas

A living online database of civic tech initiatives across Africa, curated by the Civic Tech Innovation Network. Source: civictech.africa/databases.

MENA Civic Tech Landscape

An overview of the civic technology landscape across the Middle East and North Africa, mapping actors, themes and opportunities. Source: codeformena.org.

CKAN

The leading open-source data management system used by governments worldwide to run open-data portals.

Decidim

A free, open-source participatory democracy platform for cities and organizations to run consultations and budgets.

Ushahidi

An open-source platform for crowdsourcing, mapping and verifying reports during crises, elections and campaigns.

Signal

A privacy-focused, end-to-end encrypted messaging app widely recommended for activists and journalists.

ODK (Open Data Kit)

An open-source suite for building forms and collecting field data offline, widely used by NGOs and researchers.

Aleph

An open-source tool by OCCRP for searching and cross-referencing large document and data sets in investigations.

Consul Democracy

The most widely used open-source citizen-participation platform, letting governments run debates, proposals and participatory budgets.

KoboToolbox

A free, open-source suite for field data collection in challenging environments, widely used by NGOs, researchers and human rights monitors.

SecureDrop

An open-source whistleblower submission system that lets newsrooms receive documents and tips from sources securely and anonymously.

Tella

A mobile app that helps activists, journalists and human rights defenders document abuses while encrypting and concealing their data.

OpenStreetMap

A free, community-built map of the world whose open geodata powers civic, humanitarian and crisis-response projects.

OpenRefine

An open-source tool for cleaning, transforming and enriching messy datasets, widely used by data journalists and researchers.

Digital Defenders Partnership

A rapid-response fund providing emergency grants and long-term digital-security support to civil society under digital threat.

OTF Internet Freedom Fund

The Open Technology Fund's primary fund supporting internet-freedom projects, digital-security tools and applied research worldwide.

European Endowment for Democracy

An independent EU-backed endowment offering flexible support to pro-democracy actors, including unregistered groups and individuals.

National Endowment for Democracy

A grant-making foundation supporting non-governmental groups working for democratic goals in more than 100 countries.

Open Society Foundations

One of the world's largest private funders of independent civil society, supporting rights, justice and accountability worldwide.

Hivos

An international development organization funding and running programmes on digital defenders, civic rights and just economies.

Internews

An international non-profit supporting independent media and information integrity through sub-grants, training and programmes.

Front Line Defenders

An international foundation providing protection grants and rapid support to human rights defenders at risk worldwide.

Code for MENA Fellowship

A civic-tech hackathon and fellowship bringing together civil society activists, developers and designers to build tools that expand civic space in MENA. Source: codeformena.org.

Civic Technology

Technology that empowers citizens, strengthens the relationship between people and government, and improves public life through participation, transparency and better services.

GovTech

The use of technology by, or on behalf of, governments to deliver public services more efficiently, transparently and inclusively.

Open Data

Data that anyone can freely access, use, modify and share for any purpose, typically published in machine-readable formats.

Digital Democracy

The use of digital tools and platforms to enhance democratic processes such as deliberation, voting, consultation and civic participation.

Open Government

A governing approach based on transparency, citizen participation and accountability, often supported by open data and digital tools.

AI Governance

The frameworks, policies and practices that guide the responsible, ethical and accountable development and use of artificial intelligence.

Digital Rights

Human rights as they apply online, including privacy, freedom of expression, access to information and protection from surveillance.

Civic Innovation

New ideas, services or approaches — often technology-enabled — that address public problems and improve community life.

Hackathon

A time-bound collaborative event where people rapidly design and build prototype solutions, often to civic or social challenges.

Digital Inclusion

Efforts to ensure everyone has equitable access to digital technologies, connectivity and the skills to use them.

Freedom of Information

The right of the public to access information held by public bodies, a cornerstone of transparency and accountability.

OSINT (Open-Source Intelligence)

The practice of collecting and analyzing publicly available information for research, journalism, human rights and verification.

Public Interest Technology

The application of design and technology expertise to advance the public interest and serve the common good.

E-Participation

The use of digital channels to involve citizens in information sharing, consultation and decision-making with public institutions.

Participatory Budgeting

A democratic process in which community members directly decide how to spend part of a public budget.

Digital Government

The design and delivery of public services and operations using digital technologies, data and user-centered practices.

Digital Divide

The gap between those who have access to digital technologies and the internet and those who do not.

Privacy

The right of individuals to control their personal information and to be free from unwarranted surveillance.

Transparency

The principle of making information about decisions, spending and operations openly available for public scrutiny.

Accountability

The obligation of institutions and officials to explain, justify and answer for their decisions and actions.

Encryption

Encoding information so that only authorized parties can read it; end-to-end encryption protects messages in transit from everyone but sender and recipient.

VPN

A Virtual Private Network routes internet traffic through an encrypted tunnel, helping protect privacy and bypass network censorship.

Metadata

Data about data — such as who contacted whom, when and from where — which can reveal sensitive patterns even when the content itself is protected.

Open-Source Software

Software whose source code is publicly available to inspect, modify and share, enabling transparency, collaboration and local adaptation.

Disinformation

False information created and spread deliberately to deceive, distinct from misinformation, which is shared without intent to harm.

Surveillance

The monitoring of people's communications, movements or behaviour by states or companies, which can chill free expression and association.

Data Protection

Legal and technical safeguards governing how personal data is collected, stored, used and shared, giving people control over their information.

Crowdsourcing

Gathering information, ideas or reports from a large group of people, often used in civic tech to map incidents or collect citizen data.

What is Civic Technology?

A clear introduction to civic technology: what it is, why it matters, and how it is used across the MENA region.

Digital Democracy in MENA

How digital tools are reshaping participation, deliberation and accountability across the Middle East and North Africa.

AI for Civil Society

Practical, responsible ways civil society organizations in MENA can use artificial intelligence for social impact.

Open Government Explained

The core principles of open government — transparency, participation and accountability — and what they mean in practice.

Digital Security for Civil Society

Practical, threat-based digital-security habits that help activists and journalists in MENA stay safer online.

Civic Tech and Elections

How monitoring, open results data and parliamentary tracking make elections more transparent across MENA.