Tadamun launched the Planning [in] Justice project to study and raise awareness about spatial inequality in the distribution of public resources among various urban areas, and to highlight the institutional causes that reinforce the current conditions in Egypt, especially in the GCR. The Planning [in] Justice project compiled publicly-available data, and data available by request, and utilized Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software to map a variety of indicators—poverty and education levels, access to healthcare facilities, public schools, population density, among other variables—at the neighborhood level. Whereas previous studies on similar poverty and development measures in the CGR have largely been limited to the district level, Planning [in] Justice captures variations in these indicators at the shiyakha—or neighborhood—level. The project also aims to explore the possibilities for developing urban areas, to analyze the cost and return on public investment in underserved urban areas, and to compare this return with investment in new cities and affluent neighborhoods. We have previously published specific articles and briefs about spatial inequality, but in this document we present a more comprehensive analysis of the topic, drawing from our previous more specific publications. It is our hope that the Planning [in] Justice project will provide decision-makers and the general public with a necessary tool to advocate for, develop, and implement more effective and targeted urban policies and programs.

In the essay "Beyond Paralyzing Terror: The 'Dark Decade' in the Algerian Hirak, Elizabeth Perego discusses allusions to the "archived past" of the 1990s during the mass mobilizations that began in the country in 2019 and have continued into this year. In this issue's second center-piece essay, Ebshoy Magdy examines narratives around poverty in Egypt in relation to the country's two cash support programs, Takaful and Karama. Additionally, this issue features a bundle of essays contextualizing the Lebanese and Iranian uprisings.

Tadween Publishing is excited to announce the newest issue of its project: the Syria Quarterly Report Issue 5 (July/August/September 2019)!