17 Items

(ESCWA, 2018)

(ESCWA, 2018)

Report - United Nations

Social Development Report 2: Inequality, Autonomy and Change in the Arab Region

| May, 2018

This report, the second Social Development Report from ESCWA, documents an increase in inequality of access to good quality education and to good jobs in several countries of the region, which may further entrench income inequalities. 

- Belfer Center Newsletter

Faculty Interview: Working 'Smart' in Saudi Arabia: Asim Khwaja on Transformation in the Kingdom and the Future of Policymaking

| August 24, 2016

An interview with MEI Faculty Affiliate Asim Khwaja on his work at the Center for International Development's Evidence for Policy Design (EPoD) program with the Saudi Ministry of Labor on labor market policy as well as EPoD's Smart Policy Design and Implementation methodology and implications for the future of informed, iterative policymaking.

Youth demonstrators call for an end to the current garbage crisis outside the government offices in downtown Beirut, Lebanon on July 25, 2015.

Getty Images

Analysis & Opinions - Project Syndicate

The Silent Arab Majority Must Speak Up

| July 13, 2016

"Since the United Nations Development Program began work on the Arab Human Development Reports (AHDR) in 2001, the situation in many Arab countries has gone from bad to worse. In fact, today the region cannot even come together to publish a new report. This is unfortunate, because finding a new shared vision for Arab people, especially Arab youth, is a prerequisite for ever achieving peace and prosperity in the Middle East and North Africa."

Report

Rewriting the Arab Social Contract

| May 16, 2016

During the fall 2015 semester, former Minister Hedi Larbi convened eight distinguished experts, each with direct operational and academic experience in Arab countries and economies to participate in a study group titled Rewriting the Arab Social Contract: Toward Inclusive Development and Politics in the Arab World. Over the course of seven sessions during the semester, these experts contributed  to an integrated approach to the historical, social, political, and economic dimensions of the Arab uprisings, focusing in particular on the often overlooked economic and social issues at the root of the uprisings.

A map illustrating the 1916 Sykes-Picot agreement.

Creative Commons (Paolo Porsla)

Analysis & Opinions - Agence Global

Yes, let us honestly assess Sykes-Picot’s ugly century

| May 11, 2016

We are into the season when you will be flooded with articles and analyses on the 100-year anniversary of the Sykes-Picot agreement that was signed on May 18, 1916. That agreement between Great Britain and France, with Russian acquiescence, defined how they would divide the spoils of the crumbling Ottoman Empire in the East Mediterranean region.

A group of people hold the posters of former President of Tunisia Zine El Abidine Ben Ali during a demonstration to mark the anniversary of January 14 revolution at Avenue Habib Bourguiba in Tunis.

Getty Images

Analysis & Opinions - Agence Global

2011-2016 Arab dashed hopes, opened eyes

| January 13, 2016

"Many analysts this week have marked the five years since the fall of former Tunisian President Zein el-Abideen Ben Ali, the first of several Arab dictators who were toppled from office by a wave of spontaneous street demonstrations across Arab countries. This process of retrospective introspection is important, if it can clarify whether new upheavals will occur or why the revolt of 2011 has been beaten back for many years..."

Leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries meet at a summit in Doha in December 2014.

Getty Images/Marwan Naamani

Analysis & Opinions - Agence Global

The GCC states face their biggest challenge ever

| December 30, 2015

"Keep your eyes on the oil-fueled Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Arab states in the year ahead, because they are just starting to experience a genuinely novel, almost existential, challenge that will test the quality of their statehood and national integrity as these have never been tested before. The issue that sparks this historic reckoning of statehood and citizenship in the GCC is not Iran’s nuclear future, the fate of “Islamic State,” nor the wasteful war in Yemen. It is the sudden array of sharp fiscal adjustment measures that most GCC states have announced in the past three weeks..."

Analysis & Opinions

Inside the Middle East: "International Monetary Institutions and Reform in Tunisia" with Minister Hedi Larbi

| December 23, 2015

Excerpt from an October 16 installment of the “Inside the Middle East" Q&A Series, with Minister Hedi Larbi, Former Minister of Economic Infrastructure and Sustainable Development and Middle East Initiative Fall 2015 Kuwait Foundation Visiting Scholar, on the role of International Monetary Institutions such as the World Bank and IMF in encouraging and implementing economic reforms during the political transition in Tunisia.