MEM Summit

Università della Svizzera italiana launched the MEM Summit in 2018, in collaboration with the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Division of the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs that is one of the main partners. The acronym MEM stands for the extended region of the Mediterranean and the Middle East (from Morocco to Iran) and it refers to a complex and heterogenous geopolitical and cultural space that has undergone and is still undergoing profound and rapid changes. The MEM Summit aims to develop new approaches, different narratives, as well as new projects that transcend physical and cultural boundaries between communities on all shores of the MEM region and beyond with the active contribution of the young participants, called young change-makers. Furthermore, the Summit aims to create a safe space for the young change-makers to meet, to exchange experiences, to collaborate and to build a common understanding. And finally, the Summit also serves as a platform to pilot initiatives and proposals at civil society level before bringing them on the formal and political tracks.