"In the past decade, civil society organizations in the Arab region have achieved significant improvements in performance and capacity to request change ... That improvement was neutralized by an improvement in the capacity of the authorities to contain the voices of civil society and deprive its organizations of the human capacity necessary for their survival ... In order to make recommendations aimed at improving the performance of those organizations and strengthening their role in influencing the policymaking process, ESCWA has conducted this comparative analysis of civil society participation in public policy in ... Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine and Yemen. The case studies covered the activities undertaken by civil society organizations and their working patterns in organizing advocacy campaigns and demand-driven protests, and in achieving concrete results in influencing public policy."--Back cover.