Omer Karasapan crunches the latest ranking of global cities to see how urban centers in the Middle East and North Africa region are faring. 

Omer Karasapan |

As the price of oil falls, the discussion is heating up on what the impact will be for countries in the Arab World – especially online through the popular Arabic hashtag النفط_دون_50_دولار #…

Shanta Devarajan |

The Debate .asset-video strong{display:none} Governments in the Arab world have long subsidized the price of energy. This gives citizens throughout the region access to cheap petrol and diesel,…

Will Stebbins |

If you think the summers in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region are hot—think again. Summers are likely to become much warmer. Global temperatures are rising; the question now is by how…

Maria Sarraf |

At the Ninth WTO Ministerial Conference held in Bali on December 2013, all WTO members reached an agreement on trade facilitation and a compromise on food security issues, a contentious topic…

Bill Gain, Ankur Huria, Kaori Niina |

From August 2002, just months after Timor-Leste gained independence, to April 2006, I was the World Bank’s Country Manager for Timor-Leste and thus eyewitness to an unfolding state-building…

Elisabeth Huybens |

The Middle East and North Africa region has a large diaspora. According to the latest United Nations estimates, 11 million citizens from the MENA countries lived abroad in 2013. Many of the…

Mariem Mezghenni Malouche |

A former hotel owner in one of the region’s major cities, who wants to remain anonymous, tells a story that should have had a happy ending. Her 40-room hotel was doing well. It had built a…

Marc Schiffbauer |

What makes smart politicians?  Jeffrey Frankel has an idea.   His recent blog examines the allure, and trap, of universal subsidies.   For one thing, they know that pulling the plug on bad…

Heba Elgazzar |

In Tunis this month, the Arab Regional Agenda for Improving Education Quality (ARAIEQ) held its second annual meetings of representatives from institutions from across the region. The idea for…

Simon Thacker |