Clear insight

Blogs 7 December, 2022

Identity with Clarity: the factors driving growth in the global adoption of LEI

Earlier this year the Global LEI Foundation announced that over 2 million active LEIs are now in circulation, a significant milestone in the worldwide adoption of the transparency initiative first introduced by the G20 and the...

Blogs 14 November, 2022

Investing in education: for-profit schools in the UAE

“We don’t need no education,” sang Pink Floyd in 1979, a sentiment that present day UAE investors are unlikely to share. In a country where 85% of the population are foreign residents, where only Emirati nationals can attend...

Blogs, Sport 11 October, 2022

All to play for: Qatar bids for sporting glory, soft power and legacy

When hosts Qatar meet Ecuador on 20 November it will be a landmark moment in international football as it will signal the start of the first World Cup Finals to be staged in the Middle East as well as the Arab world. With its...

Blogs, Infrastructure 6 September, 2022

International buyers and real estate in Turkey: a pressure cooker

Migration is currently one of the hot topics dominating everyday Turkish discourse. Although the exact figures are unclear, Turkey may have received as many as eight million foreign nationals over the last ten years, representing...

Blogs, Sport 4 August, 2022

A tale of two gym industries: Iran & the UAE

A recent study by global health and fitness body IHRSA suggests that consumer awareness in the MENA region of the importance of sport and exercise has spiked in the last decade, and that 25% of the population spend three to five...

Blogs, Sport 11 May, 2022

The PIF and LIV Golf — lessons on how to challenge the established order of world sport

Breakaway sporting competitions are almost as old as professional sport itself. Ever since 21 northern English rugby clubs set up their own League in 1895 over a row about wanting to pay their players, two codes of rugby have...

Blogs, Sport 11 April, 2022

Squash and the Egyptian formula for sporting success

“Success breeds success” is a saying that is often used to explain the kind of sporting dominance enjoyed by different nations at various times over the last century: think Hungary’s “Mighty Magyars” who were at the top of world...

Blogs, Sport 17 March, 2022

Soft power and the unstoppable rise of sport in the Middle East

If any doubts remained about the link between geopolitics and international sport, then the recent reaction of global sporting bodies to the Russia-Ukraine conflict has surely dispelled them....

Blogs, Sport 17 March, 2022

Diligencia to focus on sport in the Middle East & Africa

Later this year one of the world’s most watched sporting events, the FIFA World Cup, will be hosted in the Middle East for the first time, in Qatar....

Blogs, Sport 17 March, 2022

Bids for Chelsea FC: who are the ‘Saudi Media Group’?

Roman Abramovich’s decision to put Chelsea Football Club up for sale (shortly before he was sanctioned by the UK government for his links to Russian president Vladimir Putin) has already attracted a number of potential buyers....

Blogs, Clean energy 17 February, 2022

The challenges facing Iran's quest for clean and renewable energy

The latest in our series on clean energy in the Middle East and Africa takes a closer look at the progress being made in Iran in pursuit of reducing carbon emissions....

Blogs 17 January, 2022

Turkish TV drama, and other conversation starters

Studying the Middle East as a Turkish researcher is no easy task. There are the practical challenges of conducting fieldwork in the region – navigating visa restrictions that are often subject to the political relations between...

Blogs 4 January, 2022

Resolutions for 2022: Keep good company

While I generally try to avoid making ill-fated predictions and resolutions at this time of year, there are times when a passing comment or suggestion seems to put a new complexion on, and even set the tone for, the 12 months...

Blogs, Infrastructure 7 December, 2021

Building a state within a State: NEOM and the new future of Saudi Arabia

Anyone who has lived and worked in the Gulf is probably accustomed to seeing new roads, buildings, sometimes whole cities erupt from the desert landscape in staggeringly short periods of time. Ambitious new infrastructure...

Blogs, Clean energy 1 December, 2021

The expansion of renewables in North Africa

North Africa has an abundance of renewable energy resources, with some of the highest potentials in the world for solar energy deployment. After a series of successful projects in recent years, the region is now set to develop...

Blogs 25 November, 2021

Instagram: empowering female retailers in Iran

Much has been said about how the pandemic has changed our relationship with online shopping. However, the situation in Iran is somewhat unique, as sanctions from abroad and firewalls from within create difficulties (and...

Blogs, Clean energy 22 November, 2021

The clean energy landscape in Sub-Saharan Africa

With global attention focusing on climate change and the clean energy transition, Africa is an important continent to watch in the drive for decarbonisation alongside rapid economic development. Several major initiatives are...

Blogs 17 November, 2021

The outlook for Carbon Capture and Storage in the Gulf states

In the second of our series of blogs and white papers covering clean energy initiatives across Africa and the wider Middle East, we focus on the uptake of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) in the Gulf states....

Blogs, Clean energy 26 October, 2021

Climate initiatives in the Gulf: the changing energy landscape in the run up to COP26

After years of muted progress, the Gulf states are now ramping up their efforts to address climate change with major new targets and initiatives recently announced. This comes amidst a flurry of worldwide activity on climate...

Blogs, Clean energy 26 October, 2021

Diligencia to focus on clean energy in the Middle East & Africa

Next week, global leaders will gather in Glasgow at the UN’s climate change conference, COP26, to discuss how to reduce the devastating impact that global warming and climate change are having on our planet. This year to date has...