Al Jazeera Centre for Studies and the Brookings Doha Center are organising a panel discussion titled “The Importance of Evidence-Based Policymaking in the Arab World”. The discussion will take place in Doha on Wednesday, 30 January 2019. It will look at the importance research centres for policymaking in the Arab world and their potential role, particularly in providing decision makers with policy analyses and recommendations that assist them in taking positions in the interest of their states and peoples.
The panel will also discuss the challenges and obstacles facing research centres in the Arab world, including the paucity of research expertise, the small margin of freedom and the problematic relationship between funding on one hand and academic integrity and independence on the other.
Speakers will include Ezzeddine Abdelmoula, director of research at Al Jazeera Centre for Studies; Nader Kabbani, the director of research at the Brookings Doha Center; Mahjoob Zweiri, the director of the Gulf Studies Center at Qatar University; and Sari Hanafi, a professor of sociology at the American University of Beirut. The discussion will be moderated by Osman Ayfarah, a presenter at Al Jazeera Media Network.