Perception of MENA* countries: partners or developing countries?
►Geopolitical implications:
►post-colonial heritage
►recent history
►cultural clash
►religious fundamentalism
►democracy at work
►Professional development of
communication and toolkit to foster
dialogue: another clash?
*MENA – Middle-East and North African
Roberto Zangrandi: Cultural and professional cross fertilisation as a basis for open PR in the Euro-Med area
1. Cultural and professional cross fertilisation
as a basis for open PR in the Euro-Med area
Roberto Zangrandi, CERP President
2. A matter of points of view
► Perception of MENA* countries:
partners or developing countries?
► Geopolitical implications:
► post-colonial heritage
► recent history
► cultural clash
► religious fundamentalism
► democracy at work
► Professional development of
communication and toolkit to foster
dialogue: another clash?
*MENA – Middle-East and North African
3. Points of view generate stereotypes
One of the main problems involving general
evolution of MENA countries in a shared Euro-
Mediterranean communication context
4. Economic diversity and divides
►MENA countries are
usually perceived as natural
resources basin
►The region is economically
diverse and includes both
the gas or oil-rich
economies in North Africa
and those countries that
are resource-scarce in
relation to population,
such as Egypt, Morocco
5. Behind the figures
►About 23 % of the 300 million people in the Middle East
and North Africa living on less than $2 a day; empowering
poor people constitutes an important strategy for fighting
poverty
►The region’s economic fortunes over much of the past
quarter century have been heavily influenced by two factors:
► the price of oil and the generated revenues
► the legacy of economic policies and structures that had
emphasized a leading role for the state
World Bank data
6. The North Mediterranean vision
► No acceptance as interactive
partners – From both sides…
► Developing countries still far
away from evolved modernized
market – according to
“western” standards…
► No professional parity and
evolution pattern possible in
the near future…
► Difficulties… in focusing
priorities in any cooperation
process…
7. In the news
►The region’s image as a permanent crisis area
►The manifold territorial and border disputes (Israel and
Palestine, Syria, Lebanon; Greece and Turkey, Turkey and Syria,
Egypt and Sudan)
►Ethnic and religious rivalries (Cyprus question, Kurdish
question, Algerian civil strife)
►Weapons proliferation
►General political instability; threats of violent civil wars
►Missile technological capacity
►Potential for massive migratory movements
8. A way out
These topics
might well also
become ground
for an enhanced
communication
effort towards
basic
stakeholders on
the “both sides”
9. Start point, the differences
► Social systems and
worldviews
► Understandings of the role
and responsibilities of ‘civil
society’
► Different degrees of
democratization and
readiness to democratize
► Violation of human rights
► Migration
10. Not easy, but feasible
►A precondition to cooperation in the social and
cultural dimensions in the region is the acceptance and
respect of cultural and religious diversities, which entails
recognizing and emphasizing their potentials and not
their dividing lines
►Taking into consideration the cultural division
between modernism and traditionalism the
communication approach should be oriented on
countering intolerance and prejudice based on religion,
race or ethnic grouping as well as on integration and
dialogue on the regional level
11. Priorities of professional interaction
►Strong orientation towards
the cultural contribution PR
professionals could provide
for these countries
►Exchange of experiences,
best practices and tools to
improve mutual
understanding and
acceptance in the public
relations industry
12. Aggregate, share, join
►The Global Alliance of Public Relations is the best level
playing ground where confrontation and growth of
professionals is granted through an open exchange of best
practices and ideas – and a first step to integrate with the
most unbiased network of PR professionals
►Thinking of a more stable cooperation with PR
representative bodies, professionals and scholars as a way
to share approaches and mutually fine-tune the
communication process in the Mediterranean area
