Candid Foundation

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The Candid Foundation logo (founded in 2014)
Logo of the Candid Foundation in Berlin.

The Candid Foundation is a non-governmental organization and think tank founded in 2014 to promote international and intercultural relationships with a focus on the Middle East , Mediterranean and North Africa , based in Berlin . It has the legal form of a non-profit GmbH , describes itself as a “think-and-do-tank” that develops ideas and studies as well as implements innovative projects itself.

history

The Candid Foundation was founded in 2014 a. a. of several editors of the zenith magazine and other Middle East experts established, including the one in Paris living political scientist and jihadism -expert Asiem El Difraoui , the Orientalist and Middle East expert Daniel Gerlach and social entrepreneurs Belabbes Benkredda . Other shareholders are the photographer and documentary filmmaker Marcel Mettelsiefen , the conflict researcher Inna Rudolf, the editor of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung Christian H. Meier, the radio journalist Moritz Behrendt and the entrepreneur Jörg Schäffer. A co-founder of the Candid Foundation, the Arabist Katja Brinkmann, died in 2017.

The company's work is supervised by a board of trustees. Members of the Board are the ZDF -Journalistin and now presenter Aline Abboud , the economist and organizational researchers Ayad Al-Ani , the Middle East expert of the Bertelsmann Foundation Christian-Peter Hanelt, the former President of the German Commission for UNESCO Verena massacre-Mangold, the Swiss entrepreneur Heinz M. Buhofer, the Islamic scholar Udo Steinbach and the French Middle East researcher Gilles Kepel .

The Candid Foundation wants to promote “the intercultural relations between civil society in Europe and the Mediterranean with the help of media and technological innovation”. She conducts studies and analyzes on politics and society in the states of the so-called MENA region , the Caucasus and Western Asia . Further focus areas are media , radicalization , extremism prevention, start-up entrepreneurship in the Arab world .

According to its self-portrayal, the company carries out projects of various sizes and has a dense international network of regional experts from various disciplines. The term "candid" ( en . For "open", "sincere", "honest") should therefore be a guiding principle of the work of society, which is an "antidote for intolerance, xenophobia and disinformation ".

The Candid Foundation is financed through private donations and grants from public and private donors and maintains a special-purpose business . As a sponsor or cooperation partner, the company has numerous well-known foundations and organizations, such as the Anna Lindh Foundation , the Robert Bosch Foundation , the Mercator Foundation , the Society for International Cooperation (giz) , the Siemens Foundation , the BMW Foundation Herbert Quandt , and Bertelsmann Foundation, the Goethe Institute , the Institute for Conflict Research in Vienna or the Institut Montaigne in Paris .

activities

Culture and media

Due to the history of its origins from the Middle East Magazine network, the organization has a strong affinity for media and media projects. In 2015, the Candid Foundation took over the publishing and title license of the zenith magazine, which was founded in 1999 and whose digital content is now published in German, English and Arabic. Candid co-founder Daniel Gerlach told Der Spiegel magazine that this had become necessary because zenith was “not a commercial product”. The Candid Foundation has built a community model to promote sustainable and specialized journalism. This is a “future model” for other media too.

The Candid Foundation also organizes the zenith photo award on Islam and Muslims in Germany and Europe at irregular intervals . The aim of the initiative is to question stereotypes about Muslims and integration, to discover talents and to bring them into contact with photo editors of leading German media. The exhibits at an exhibition on the competition in the House of History of the Federal Republic of Germany 2017 have been considered German cultural heritage since then.

The Candid Foundation has been active in Libya since 2016 , where, among other things, it initiated media and photo competitions as well as the Local Libya project for a dialogue between local journalists and initiatives in the civil war country. According to a report in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung , the project, which met with greater media coverage, paints a picture of “a country that is being crushed between the power interests of individual groups, but in which committed citizens are still determined to grant the freedom of a system that has been nationalized use."

In 2020 the Candid Foundation began with the support of the Federal Foreign Office with a funding program for research work by journalists from countries in the Arab world .

Political topics

The Candid Foundation regularly organizes so-called roundtables and discussions on Middle East political issues. In particular, the two co-founders Asiem El Difraoui and Daniel Gerlach appear regularly in German and international media and comment on political events and backgrounds. Co-founder Belabbes Benkredda organized a. a. the first TV election debates for the 2019 presidential election in Tunisia.

Candid Foundation teams also advise German government agencies, such as the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees, on the prevention of Islamism and radicalization.

In 2019, the Society in Baghdad, together with Middle East experts, diplomats and politicians from Germany, France , Austria , Great Britain , the European Union , Russia , Jordan , Kuwait , Iraq and Iran, participated in the establishment of the Baghdad Policy Club, a multilateral dialogue format Developed ideas for conflict resolution in the Middle East and met for the first time under the patronage of Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abd al-Mahdi .

In addition, the Candid Foundation appears as the editor of publications in the program of the Federal Agency for Civic Education .

Start-ups and civil society

Since its inception, the Candid Foundation has supported young company founders in the Arab world and figures from civil society, including through media formats and events. During Germany's G7 presidency , the Candid Foundation, together with the Foreign Office under the direction of Frank-Walter Steinmeier, held the first major conference for civil society in the changing Arab states. The aim of the conference was, among other things, to revive the “Deauville partnership” with civil society that was decided at the G8 summit in Deauville in 2011 by US President Barack Obama and then host Nicolas Sarkozy .

In May 2019, the Candid Foundation, in partnership with the European Commission, hosted a conference entitled “EUMed means business” in Brussels, at which over 100 start-up entrepreneurs and young economic experts from the Arab states, including EU Commissioner Johannes Hahn met and approved a charter with recommendations for action and priorities for promoting entrepreneurship, combating youth unemployment and reducing bureaucracy in the MENA region.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Anna Lindh Foundation. German network. March 13, 2020, accessed March 13, 2020 .
  2. ↑ "Keep your eyes and ears open". September 6, 2017, accessed March 13, 2020 .
  3. ^ Candid Foundation: Kuratorium / Advisory Board. March 13, 2020, accessed on March 13, 2020 .
  4. ↑ Maybrit Illner January 9, 2020: USA against Iran - a postponed war? Retrieved March 13, 2020 .
  5. ↑ The CANDID Foundation. Retrieved March 13, 2020 .
  6. ^ Candid Foundation: Our Partners. Retrieved March 15, 2020 .
  7. ↑ For 20 years in the "Zenith" - derStandard.de. Retrieved March 13, 2020 (Austrian German).
  8. ↑ Swantje Kubillus, DER SPIEGEL: Middle East magazine "Zenith" turns 20: Interview with Daniel Gerlach - DER SPIEGEL - Culture. Retrieved March 13, 2020 .
  9. ^ Islam in Europe. Pictures of the zenith photo award. Retrieved March 13, 2020 .
  10. ↑ zenith photo award: France Keyser and Ayse Avdic - image 1 of 8 . In: FAZ.NET . ISSN  0174-4909 ( faz.net [accessed March 13, 2020]).
  11. ^ Islam in Europe. Retrieved March 13, 2020 .
  12. ↑ Dust, sweat and sea salt. September 11, 2019, accessed March 13, 2020 .
  13. ↑ Livia Gerster, Tunis: Young journalists in Libya: Defusing bombs with your bare hands . In: FAZ.NET . ISSN  0174-4909 ( faz.net [accessed March 13, 2020]).
  14. ↑ Annette Steinich, Tunis: Young Libyans are fed up with politics | NZZ . In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . ( nzz.ch [accessed on March 13, 2020]).
  15. ↑ zenith magazine seeking Applications for Reporting Grants 2020. March 6, 2020, accessed on March 13, 2020 (American English).
  16. ↑ Gerlach in the ZDF heute journal: "Hot war is still avoidable". Retrieved March 13, 2020 .
  17. ↑ Difraoui, mort d'Abou Bakr al-Baghdadi: "l'Afrique est le théâtre préféré des djihadistes et de Daech". October 28, 2019, accessed March 13, 2020 (French).
  18. ↑ Johanna Bruckner: "These young men don't know what jihad means". Retrieved March 13, 2020 .
  19. ↑ Mirco Keilberth: Election in Tunisia: Finally on TV . In: The daily newspaper: taz . September 11, 2019, ISSN  0931-9085 ( taz.de [accessed on March 13, 2020]).
  20. ↑ BAMF: International Expert Workshop “Counseling work in tertiary prevention of Islamist extremism - challenges and approaches”. (PDF) March 19, 2019, accessed on March 13, 2020 .
  21. ^ Three days in Baghdad. January 22, 2019, accessed March 13, 2020 .
  22. ^ Baghdad Policy Club. Retrieved March 13, 2020 .
  23. ↑ Candid Foundation: Sunnis and Shiites | bpb. Retrieved March 13, 2020 .
  24. ^ Deauville Partnership Conference: General Information. Retrieved March 13, 2020 .
  25. ↑ 'EU MED means business': entrepreneurs from Southern Neighborhood set out priorities for action to boost growth and jobs. Retrieved March 13, 2020 .