West and Central Africa faces compounding challenges including increased climate change impacts, such as prolonged drought and unpredictable rainy seasons causing flooding in the Sahel; high…

Jorge Trevino, Thierry Davy |

The COVID-19 pandemic created a huge crisis, but also an opportunity for MENA countries to build more adaptive, resilient, inclusive social protection systems. There are many lessons to draw from…

Ferid Belhaj |

A recent World Bank review of the Libyan financial sector demonstrated that even before the civil war, the financial sector in Libya was not sufficiently developed, and the current political…

Valeriya Goffe |

Nine years after the Arab Spring, people in Iraq, Libya, Syria and Yemen face tragically high levels of death, destruction, and displacement. From 2012 to 2017, the MENA region alone accounted for…

Ayat Soliman, Nadir Mohammed |

[[tweetable]]In just under two weeks, about 1, 000 people will gather in Washington D.C. for the 2018 Fragility Forum[[/tweetable]]. Policy makers from developed and developing countries,…

Franck Bousquet |

The issue of child soldiers is a modern blight with a long historical pedigree. Once the norm, documented back to the classical world and prevalent till the 19th century, the phenomenon was…

Omer Karasapan |

With the school year starting in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), millions of children are busily preparing to resume their studies. Some, caught in conflict, may not be able to go to…

Safaa El Tayeb El-Kogali |

. World Bank Chief Economist for the Middle East and North Africa, Shanta Devarajan discusses potential economic scenarios for the region.

Shanta Devarajan |

In February 2012, I wrote a blog about the relevance to the Arab revolutions that had swept the region of  the UN’s then recently unveiled “Resilient People, Resilient Planet: A Future worth…

Omer Karasapan |

Four years after the fall of Libya’s former ruler, Muammar Gaddafi, the post-revolutionary conflict in the country continues. And, as it does, young people—like all Libyans—struggle to make their…

Christine Petré |