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Belabbes Benkredda is an award-winning social innovator, open debate advocate and the founder of the\xa0Munathara Initiative, a fledging online and television debate forum for Arab youth. In 2013, he received the Democracy Award from the National Democratic Institute in Washington, DC for his work in fostering citizen participation in the Arab public sphere.

Prior to the Initiative, Belabbes worked with the\xa0German Foreign Office, the\xa0League of Arab States\xa0and the\xa0Council for Arab-British Understanding. Since moving to Dubai in 2005, he\u2019s been a government consultant specialized on public diplomacy in the Arab world, a frequent television commentator, and op-ed columnist for the region\u2019s largest English daily.

Belabbes studied International Relations, Philosophy of Law and Middle East Politics. A son of Algerian immigrants to Germany, he is a polyglot conversant in six languages and with a basic knowledge of another three.