Gender equality and fair treatment of women and girls is a moral imperative, but global data analytics, evidence and experience clearly demonstrate that including women also fosters economic…

Christopher Stephens |

Women of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) have outperformed many other regions in terms of life expectancy, infant mortality, and tertiary education. Their performance in education has, in…

Ferid Belhaj, Paul Noumba Um, Muneeza Mehmood Alam |

As we commemorate the #16 Days of Activism campaign for yet another year, it is clear that no time should be lost in taking comprehensive and concrete action against the many forms of Gender-Based…

Ferid Belhaj, Ayat Soliman, Mirjam Kalle |

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 |

Today, the world is seeing an unprecedented freeze on work and production, a repercussion of the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) and the measures taken to confine it.

Dalal Moosa, Federica Saliola |

If there is a single lesson to draw from the pandemic, it is that transparency in public information can save lives and improve economic outcomes, by enhancing societal trust in the state.

Ferid Belhaj |

Of the region’s 450 million people, nearly two-thirds, almost 300 million people, are under the age of 35. Unfortunately, this vast human resource is highly “untapped,” and nearly 80 percent of…

Anna Bjerde |

Our continued belief in the enormous resourcefulness, resilience and sheer drive of young Arab women has yet again been reconfirmed. 

Ayat Soliman, Olivier Lavinal |

The political participation of Arab women in post-revolutionary Arab countries has been the subject of various studies and academic research. The 2011 revolutions marked a significant shift in the…

Ibtissam Alaoui |

Thirteen of the 15 countries with the lowest rates of women participating in their labor force are in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), according to the 2015 Global Gender Gap Report (2015…

Maha El-Swais |