At its inception, Med Dialogue for Rights and Equality Programme faced a fundamental question: how can we better contribute to support civil society organizations (CSOs) in the region to work together and strengthen their strategizing capacities? And how can this Programme coach them in this endeavour? These queries emerged from the observation that issues and challenges related to rights in the region could attain effective solutions only through transnational cooperation.To answer these questions, the Programme needed to understand better if there is an organised civil society in the region holding this vocation to act beyond borders, and how such a civil society is working. Research was therefore required.

BRIDGING THE SEA: A Review of Mediterranean Civil Society is, in this respect, the final output of such a research. Carried out by the Med Dialogue Programme, the research aimed at presenting a “portrait” of civil society working beyond borders in the Mediterranean Space, with the overall objective of strengthening the role of regionally active organisations in building regional cohesion, social resilience, sustainable development and a culture of rights, on the one hand, while influencing policy-making in the Southern Neighbourhood and the Euro-Mediterranean Space, on the other hand.