The Aspen Institute

The Stevens Initiative is a public-private partnership designed to increase people-to-people virtual exchange between the United States and the Middle East and North Africa. The initiative is marked by shared respect and understanding between our societies by using virtual exchange as a tool for communication and education.

A public-private partnership managed by the Aspen Institute, the Stevens Initiative is a collaboration between the family of Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, the U.S. Department of State, the Bezos Family Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, the governments of the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Algeria, and Morocco, in addition to Microsoft, Mozilla, and GoPro. This forum will convene the program’s stakeholders to discuss how to advance the field of virtual exchange.

This forum also marks the inauguration of a merit-based competition for U.S. organizations to apply for and administer virtual and physical exchange projects between youth in the United States and the MENA region.

The Stevens Initiative is a public-private partnership designed to increase people-to-people virtual exchange between the United States and the Middle East and North Africa. The initiative is marked by shared respect and understanding between our societies by using virtual exchange as a tool for communication and education.