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The Middle East and North Africa Social Policy Network (MENA) at the University of Bath has hosted a workshop on Social security in the MENA regions. During the workshop, Dr. Hafiz Khan has presented a paper on 'Dynamics of Socio-Demographic Changes in GCC Countries'.   > Workshop website     'Social security to protect the local populations of the MENA region from poverty and deprivation has - at long last - become an issue of major international concern – on a par perhaps, with the more traditional concern of international security. Both national governments in MENA and global development agencies (led by the ILO, World Bank, DFID and UN agencies) are now seeking to articulate new social visions for this region’s diverse populations based on a regime of (a) social assistance and cash transfer programmes and (b) the promise of extended social security coverage. But what are the prospects for social protection as a tool for policy analysis in the MENA region and are there no already existing forms of social solidarity and social mobilization which contribute to the formation of viable future social policies?'