Welcome to the Rihla Initiative
Welcome to the Substack page of the Rihla Initiative for Green Economic Growth, a flagship initiative of the Bourse & Bazaar Foundation.
About the Rihla Initiative
The Rihla Initiative for Green Economic Growth is a policy and research platform established by the Bourse & Bazaar Foundation to examine how Gulf climate finance, investment, and economic diplomacy can support sustainable development across the Global South. The Initiative focuses on the growing role of GCC governments, sovereign wealth funds, companies, and policy institutions in shaping green economic transformation across five regions: the Middle East and North Africa, Central Asia and the Caucasus, South and Southeast Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Latin America.
The Rihla Initiative brings together policymakers, investors, experts, and practitioners to identify practical pathways for more inclusive, coordinated, and development-oriented climate investment. At its core, the Initiative asks how Gulf capital and expertise can contribute not only to climate mitigation, but also to job creation, industrial development, water and food security, infrastructure resilience, and long-term economic transformation in partner countries. The Initiative works across several priority areas, including renewable energy, green hydrogen, sustainable agriculture, blue economy, green industrialization, green urban development, climate finance, and Gulf cooperation with emerging partners across the Global South.
The Rihla Initiative is led by the Bourse & Bazaar Foundation. The initiative’s research activities and covenings are undertaken in partnership with a wide range of organizations, including Earthna, the Anwar Gargash Diplomatic Academy, the Grantham Research Institute at the London School of Economics, the Policy Center for the New South, South African Institute for Intrenational Affairs, and CAPS Unlock, among others.
About the Bourse & Bazaar Foundation
The Bourse & Bazaar Foundation is a research foundation committed to economic development, economic diplomacy, and economic justice.
Established in October 2020 as a non-profit entity in the United Kingdom, the Foundation began as a digital publisher of the same name in 2015. Our work imagines security, prosperity, sustainability, and cultural flourishing in the region spanning from Turkey to Afghanistan and from Yemen to Kazakhstan. These countries are charting a new course as part of a politically ambitious, economically integrated, and socially dynamic macroregion. Against this backdrop, our research and convenings help policymakers, business leaders, and civil society stakeholders to understand critical events and trends and to identify further pathways for inclusive and sustainable development.
Our work is distinguished by the following principles:
We focus on economic issues, ranging from national development models to the daily challenges of ordinary people. We believe that a disproportionate focus on security and political challenges in policy circles has prevented more holistic visions of advancement.
We are innovative, producing research and analysis that offers new and incisive perspectives on the economic, political, and social remaking of West and Central Asia as well as the broader Global South.
We are intensely collaborative, working in partnership with leading institutions across the world to produce new research and to build networks of likeminded people.
We actively create opportunities for the next generation of researchers and scholars to contribute to policy formation at the highest levels.
You can learn more about the Bourse & Bazaar Foundation by visiting our main website.
Who is our analysis for?
We publish analysis with a wide audience in mind. Our research is used by policymakers, executives, analysts, and journalists who are seeking actionable insights or quality assessments about political, economic, and social dynamics in the Gulf and the Global South. But we also aim to produce research and analysis that is broadly accessible, helping general readers interested in world events to gain a deeper understanding.
Why subscribe?
By choosing to subscribe here on Substack, you will receive each new article we publish direct to your inbox. The Rihla Initiative typically publishes 2-4 pieces per month so your inbox will not be overwhelmed.
