North Africa stands at a pivotal crossroads—geographically and economically—between Europe’s industrial demand and Africa’s demographic dynamism. In today’s rapidly shifting global landscape, North Africa has a timely opportunity to position itself as a strategic connector of...

Countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region are varied in their political systems and geography—factors that have shaped their economic development and tax policy choices. This diversity means that taxation must be tailored to local factors and constraints. This book surveys...

This report provides a high-level overview of the key findings and insights contained in the report, “Waste Management in the Middle East and North Africa”. The report draws on new data from the 19 MENA countries and 26 cities, and analyzes the performance of, and challenges in, solid waste...

Conflict has engulfed the MENAAP region, exacting a serious human and economic toll and heightening geopolitical uncertainty. The closure of the Strait of Hormuz and damage to energy infrastructure have pushed up oil prices, increased financial volatility, and weakened the 2026 growth outlook. A...

The European Union (EU) and southern Mediterranean partners launched the Pact for the Mediterranean in November 2025 to reset relations with the EU's "Southern Neighbourhood" in an increasingly challenging regional context. The Pact comes 30 years after the 1995 Barcelona Process promised to...

Female labor force participation (FLFP) in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) remains the lowest globally, averaging just 19% in 2023 compared to a global average of 48%. Persistent gender unequal social norms, disproportionate unpaid care responsibilities, restrictive legal frameworks,...

Female labor force participation (FLFP) in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) remains the lowest globally, averaging just 19% in 2023 compared to a global average of 48%. Social norms, care responsibilities, restrictive legal frameworks, skills mismatches, and limited access to supportive...

The Middle East and North Africa faces significant climate challenges, such as increasing temperatures, heightened flood risks, frequent droughts, and growing air pollution issues. These challenges are compounded by the large proportion of the population living below the poverty line in some...

Low investments in human development (HD) are both a cause and a consequence of economic performance and income growth. Thriving populations in knowledge societies are skilled, mobile, healthy, and connected. However, in most countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, human...

Using panel data spanning 2004-2023 of 21 countries in the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region, we measure systemic risk and assess its influence on key banking sector performance indicators, including financial stability (proxied by commercial bank branches per 100,000 adults), providing...

Skills gaps, a lack of funding, and social norms continue to keep women and youth in North Africa from engaging in productive entrepreneurship. Using cross-national data and regional indicators from the World Bank and the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, this analysis shows how such barriers...

This policy brief uses data from those efforts to document the role social norms play to support (or hinder) female labor force participation in a sample of MENA countries. Data was collected in Egypt, the Republic of Iraq, Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI), Jordan, Morocco, and Tunisia between...

This report contains the annual summary of the wildfire season of 2024 on the basis of data from the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS). It is published early in 2025 to provide an advance comprehensive analysis of the wildfire season 2024. The analysis and data in the report...

Women's educational attainment has continuously increased across the Middle East, while fertility rates have declined substantially. Yet their labor force participation remains stubbornly low. To investigate this puzzle, I use a discrete choice experiment in Egypt that varies the gender...

This edition of the Macro Poverty Outlooks periodical contains country-by-country forecasts and overviews for GDP, fiscal, debt and poverty indicators for the developing countries of Middle East and North Africa. Macroeconomic indicators such as population, gross domestic product and gross...

Selon les estimations, la région du Moyen-Orient et de l'Afrique du Nord (MENA) a connu une croissance modeste de 1,9 % en 2024 et devrait croître modérément à 2,6 % en 2025. Cela s'inscrit dans un contexte d'incertitude mondiale accrue, en particulier en matière de politique commerciale....

This paper concentrates on informal practices, which refer to transactions occurring outside formal institutions and regulations. Bribery fits this definition as it involves the exchange of money or favours outside legal channels to gain an advantage or influence decisions. We analyse bribery in...

Skills gaps, a lack of funding, and social norms continue to keep women and youth in North Africa from engaging in productive entrepreneurship. Using cross-national data and regional indicators from the World Bank and the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, this analysis shows how such barriers...

To what extent are green and digital skills being demanded in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA)? We answer this question using over 276,000 online job postings between January 2022 and March 2023 across six MENA countries. We triangulate these data with selected labor force survey data and...

The Middle East and North Africa region faces severe water scarcity, intensified by climate change and growing demand. This paper explores desalination as a key adaptation strategy, with a focus on emerging issues and opportunities for middle- and low-income countries. It provides guidance to...

In many arid and semi-arid regions, rural women are at the heart of water-related dynamics - and therefore greatly affected by its scarcity. This scarcity affects their daily lives, farming activities, economic initiatives and solidarity networks, which are directly dependent on the availability...

Smallholder farmers, who mostly engage in low-value agriculture in the drylands of Northern Africa, were the first to have felt the effects of climate change, with threats to their livelihoods and food security. The increasing costs of agricultural production, poor water and energy...

The paper examines how liquidity risk affects the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) bank profitability. Banks need profitability to survive, but liquidity risk measures long-term company health. Through Refinitiv Eikon, quantitative data was collected over 11 years from 2012 to 2022 for 71...

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of financial inclusion on corporate investment. More specifically, this paper investigates the possibility of a nonlinear relationship between financial inclusion and corporate investment, as well as the moderating effect of audit quality in...

This report contains the annual summary of the wildfire season of 2023 on the basis of data from the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS). It is published early in 2024 to provide an advance comprehensive analysis of the wildfire season 2023. The analysis and data in the report...

This report contains the annual summary of the fire season of 2023 with official figures provided by 34 contributing countries for the number of fires, burnt areas and fire prevention efforts, and the analysis of fire danger and areas mapped in the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS).

The Middle East and North Africa is the most water scarce region in the world. Although studies have explored the effect of extreme weather events on agriculture, much less is known about the effect on businesses. Using geocoded firm-level data from the World Bank's Enterprise Surveys across the...

This paper assesses the state and resilience of corporate and banking sectors in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) in a "higher-for-longer" interest rate environment using granular micro data to conduct the first cross-country corporate and banking sector stress tests for the MENA region....

The conflict in Gaza and Israel is yet another shock to the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. It is causing immense human suffering and exacerbating an already challenging environment for neighboring economies and beyond. This Update covers economies in the MENA region and does not...

This study contributes to the literature on the relationship between trade, labour and environmental sustainability by providing empirical evidence at the firm level. For this purpose, it first explores whether exporting firms are more likely than non-exporting firms to adopt green measures....

The rate of biodiversity loss and forest depletion has surged significantly, primarily driven by the substantial increase in worldwide environmental deterioration. This alarming development is nearing the critical temperature limit of 2 °C, necessitating increased scrutiny. This study therefore...

Middle East and North Africa (MENA) gas exporters are facing long-term market and regulatory challenges in Europe. The near three-year continuous decline in Europe’s gas demand since the beginning of the Ukraine crisis is a key challenge for these exporters who are concerned about whether this...

We quantify in more detail than earlier studies the cost trade-offs of establishing import-export links between Europe and North Africa for two quintessential energy carriers needed for the energy transition: electricity and hydrogen. Using the TIAM-ECN model, we show under what assumptions...