The Maghreb Center:
Fostering Understanding and Development of the Maghreb

Although considered part of the Arab world, the Maghreb (North Africa) has its own specificities, often overlooked in the United States. The Maghreb Center is an independent, Washington DC based non-profit organization formed to increase understanding of the Maghreb in the United States. In accomplishing its educational mission, the Maghreb Center organizes Maghreb-related conferences, seminars, lectures, round-tables, and offers a series of publicly available publications. The Maghreb Center sponsors numerous programs open to the public featuring U.S. and regional experts, development practitioners, foreign policy specialists, and representatives of Maghrebi governments, and civil society. An important event is the Maghreb Center Yearly Symposium.

The Mission of the Maghreb Center is to increase understanding by US policy makers, academia, the media, the business community and the public at large of the five countries of North Africa, also known as the Maghreb: Mauritania, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya. Correspondingly, the Center aims to improve knowledge of the United States by the people and governments of the Maghreb.  Additionally, the Center aims to provide development related research in the areas of social, educational and human development, trade and investment, good governance, the rule of law, decentralization, and the development of various forms of associational life.

The Maghreb Center joins American specialists of the region with Maghrebi counterparts in each country. The Center is an initiative of scholars of North Africa and development practitioners. For more information on the Maghreb Center's founding members, current board members, and associates, please click on the appropriate button on the left.

The Maghreb Center is independent of any government, political ideology, economic interest or religion. For its funding, the Center relies on its members’ contributions, on donations, and research grants.

(Map from the ‘Union du Maghreb Arabe’ website)

(Note: Views expressed at individual events do not necessarily reflect those of the Maghreb Center, which strives to be comprehensive in its presentation of viewpoints on issues important to the Maghreb)