For the past two decades, ANND managed to strengthen its presence in the regional and international arena, occupying a leading position in the defense of economic and social rights. ANND is generally considered to have an added value on several levels.
On one hand, ANND is known for addressing critical and non-traditional economic and social rights issues and social justice in general, in particular those relating to economic and social policies and North- South relationships. On the other hand, ANND developed a network of international relations through coordination, joint action, and advocacy activities, building bridges between civil society organizations in Arab countries and international and other parties.
Through social justice and development issues, through monitoring, dialogues and research work, they keep up with the effects of policies on the economic and social rights of Arab countries. Furthermore, ANND›s knowledge production represents an added value for those concerned with social justice and development issues. Through monitoring, dialogue, and research, ANND offers insight on the impact of policies on the economic and social rights of the citizens of Arab countries.
ANND developed intervention directions on three major issues, mainly founded on the need to reform developmental processes through policies and rationalizing and revitalizing the role of developmental actors.
These issues are:
a) Macroeconomic Policies
b) Distribution Policies
c) Roles of Development Actors
A) MACROECONOMIC POLICIES
ANND focuses on bilateral and multilateral trade and investment policies, based on its view of the negative impacts of their neoliberal orientation, which, over the past decades, proved to be in clear contrast with the right of people to development and individual economic and social rights.
This orientation was linked with impoverishment and marginalization, instead of contributing to promote developmental policies, as it favors large corporations, financial capital, and the elites who control decision- making positions.
Similarly, ANND directed its attention to financial policies, including aid and debt, engaging in international and local efforts to achieve development aid effectiveness and counter the negative impact of debt on people›s capacities and right to development.
B) DISTRIBUTION POLICIES
Locally, ANND focuses on issues governing the distribution policies in relation to development and the economic and social rights of citizens, namely: tax systems, social protection policies, and the informal economy. In terms of tax systems, ANND starts with the need to correct the imbalances resulting from tax policies that do not serve development and those imposing additional burdens on regular citizens, to the benefit of elites and capital. Negatively impacting development opportunities, they tend to deny citizens the rights and services provided by taxes as a tool for the state. Thus, tax justice became a priority for ANND.
These efforts are linked with ANND's focus on social protection policies. It identified the main flaw in the failure of most states to comply with the requirements of social protection, whether in allocating resources, the effectiveness of concerned institutions or in obliging the private sector to fulfill workers' rights to social protection, in addition to the lack of clear mechanisms for the participation of rights holders and weak possibilities for transparency and accountability. Also in local contexts, ANND addressed the question of the informal economy, which grows without the rights or legal and institutional guarantees for workers. The expansion of this informal and this marginal economy is directly proportional to the imbalance in development and distribution policies, as well as the increasing impoverishment of various social segments.
C) ROLES OF DEVELOPMENT ACTORS
In addition to relations and policies, ANND focuses on the roles of development actors, namely the governmental, non-governmental, and private sectors in decision-making and policy-making related to development, economic, and social rights. Thus, ANND also focuses its interest on democracy, human rights, good governance, and participation, whose absence leads to deep imbalances in developmental processes, due to the monopoly on decision-making processes and the exclusion of development actors from civil society, in its broad sense, from decision-making positions, especially NGOs, trade unions, social movements, and political parties. Empowering development actors and contributing to the creation of an enabling environment for participation, dialogue, and influencing development decisions and policies is a top priority.