Middle East and North Africa

operation and Development’s (OECD) Development As- sistance Committee (DAC) and usually high-income countries, several other middle-income countries have gradually emerged in the global health financing arena. Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, commonly referred to as the BRICS countries, are making a number of important commitments towards global health through providing development aid under the “South- south cooperation” regime and have also emphasized international cooperation including technology transfer to developing countries in the BRICS health ministers’ meetings [4]. Furthermore, Arab donors, like Saudi Ara- bia, United Arab Emirates and Kuwait have been provid- ing development aid for decades. More recently, countries like Turkey have also started disbursing devel- opment assistance bilaterally. Most of these non- traditional donors do not report their bilateral aid to OECD DAC, which limits our understanding of their fi- nancial contributions, however estimates from IHME’s Financing Global Health 2018 analysis (Fig. 1) indicated that DAH contributed through multilateral agencies by different region (high-income countries excluded) varied between $61.5 million (Central Europe, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia) to $243.8 million (Middle East and North Africa).

Abstract. Changes in water resources availability can be expected as consequences of climate change, population growth, economic development and environmental consid- erations. A two-stage modeling approach is used to explore the impact of these changes in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. An advanced, physically based, dis- tributed, hydrological model is applied to determine the in- ternal and external renewable water resources for the current situation and under future changes. Subsequently, a water al- location model is used to combine the renewable water re- sources with sectoral water demands. Results show that to- tal demand in the region will increase to 393 km 3 yr −1 in 2050, while total water shortage will grow to 199 km 3 yr −1 in 2050 for the average climate change projection, an increase of 157 km 3 yr −1 . This increase in shortage is the combined impact of an increase in water demand by 50 % with a de- crease in water supply by 12 %. Uncertainty, based on the output of the nine GCMs applied, reveals that expected water shortage ranges from 85 km 3 yr −1 to 283 km 3 yr −1 in 2050. The analysis shows that 22 % of the water shortage can be attributed to climate change and 78 % to changes in socio- economic factors.

This paper examines the impact of public infrastructure on private capital formation in three countries of the Middle East and North Africa: Egypt, Jordan, and Tunisia. The first part highlights various channels through which public infrastructure may affect private investment. The second part describes our empirical framework, which is based on a VAR model that accounts for flows and (quality-adjusted) stocks of public infrastructure, private investment, as well as changes in output, private sector credit, and the real exchange rate. We propose two aggregate measures of the quality of public infrastructure and use principal components to derive a composite indicator. The impulse response analysis suggests that public infrastructure has both "flow" and "stock" effects on private investment in Egypt, but only a "stock" effect in Jordan and Tunisia. But these effects are small and short-lived, reflecting the unfavorable environment for private investment in our sample of countries. Reducing unproductive public capital expenditure and improving quality must be accompanied by reforms aimed at limiting the investment to infrastructure capital that crowds in the private sector. At the same time, other improvements to the environment in which domestic investment operates are crucial to stimulate growth and job creation in the region.

The Middle East and North Africa remained relatively powerful until the 18th century despite the shift of economic power to northern Europe at the beginning of the 14th century. Erosion of its central position began in the early 14th century. No single explanation for this decline exists, but most historians confirm that the loss of control over global trade and the emergence of Europe as the new global power are the main causes. In addition to external factors, intense internal dissensions, weak central government, declining financial resources were also among the causes that led to the fragmentation of the region and its decline thereafter. By the end of the 19th century most countries in the region were colonized, and during colonialism, the economic development processes became distorted to serve the requirements of the dominant foreign powers. Any local production of commodities which might have competed with the products of the dominant country was forcefully prevented (Alnasrawi, 1987). The evolution of the MENA economies was determined by the needs of the colonial country and its economic system.

Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) are a major and increasing global health issue. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that NCDs represent 63% of all global deaths of which 3.9 million are due to chronic respiratory diseases (CRDs) and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) in particular. COPD is now the third most common cause of death globally; 90% of these deaths occur in Low and Middle Income Countries (LMICs). COPD affects 329 million people, almost 5% of the world’s population. In addition, asthma affects 334 million people, again representing almost 5% of the world’s population. There is limited literature published on the epidemiology of COPD and Asthma from Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Both diseases are under-diagnosed and underestimated in both SSA and MENA regions. The burden of COPD in sub-Saharan Africa is disputed and reports offer variable prevalence estimates, ranging from 4.1% to almost 22.2%. SSA and MENA countries report similar mortality rates from COPD of 18 per 100,000 population (2001 data). Asthma is a less common cause of death than COPD but is a major cause of morbidity; WHO estimates that there are 250,000 deaths per year from asthma, mainly in LMICs and it remains in the top twenty causes of disability in children globally. Risk factors for CRD are genetic and environmental; the latter dominated by air pollution exposures including tobacco smoke, household air pollution, outdoor air pollution and occupational exposures.

Evidence indicates that terrorist incidents have been reduced in Western Europe and the United States, but have been increased in the Asia-Pacific and Eastern Middle East and North Africa. Also, terrorism with religious objectives have increased dramatically (Anderton and Carter, 2009). The importance of terrorism issue in terms of economic perspective is that this phenomenon has an important effect on the whole economy (Takay, 2009). Terrorism reduces economic growth (Blombeg, 2004, & Sandler, 2002), makes the transaction costly (Anderton & Carter, 2009). This reduces business (Nitche & Schumacher, 2004), and also has a negative effect on tourism and absorption of foreign direct investment (Enders 2007 & Blombeg, 2004). It also affects the capital market by increasing the systemic risk (Drakos, 2004). It is worth mentioning that terrorism affects migration, human capital and labor market (Murdoch and Sandler, 2002).

Fast population growth, urban sprawl and the raise in households’ motorization observed in all major cities of the Middle-East and North- Africa (MENA) region, are constantly challenging public transport providers who seek to handle efficiently the continuously rising travel demand. Most of the MENA cities suffer from traffic congestion that not only impacts the quality of life of MENA citizens, but also their access to job opportunities, health services, and social and political participation. Alongside the development of public transport network, it is crucial to encourage urban dwellers to reduce their dependence on personal cars, use public transport, and develop soft mobility skills. Therefore, operators and service providers need to define customer-centric strategy and build a culture of service excellence in line with their customers’ expectations. In cooperation with academic partners, the UITP MENA Centre for Transport Excellence launched the User-Oriented Public Transport research project with the aim to understand the perceptions of female and male users and non-users about public transport services in five MENA cities: Algiers, Amman, Beirut, Casablanca and Muscat. The methodological framework was built around the five dimensions of the user’s needs pyramid: safety, security, ease-to-use, comfort and experience. Based on the quantitative analysis of data collected from 984 respondents and the qualitative analysis of 49 women’s testimonies collected during the focus groups, recommendations were made to encourage culture of service and gender mainstreaming in public transport development in the region.

Cows are considered as the main source of milk production in most of the Middle East and North Africa countries. For instance, about 92.7% of the processed milk in Jordan is cow milk, while the rest is from sheep and goats (Alqaisi O., 2009). Milk production in most countries of this region is produced in both the traditional and modern sectors (Fig. 2). However, the traditional sector is the main source of production. This sector is usually divided into two types. The fi rst type comprises nomadic cattle producers who are migratory by defi nition and dependent on natural pastures in raising their cattle and always move in pursuit of water and pastures. However, most of their milk production is not available for trade due to the remoteness of the production areas and the weak marketing facilities and services. In addition, they largely depend on milk for food and mainly raise cattle for meat production, i.e. milk production is considered a secondary activity for the majority of them. The second type comprises traditional producers who have settled around cities and agricultural projects. This type of producer mainly relies on crop residues to feed their animals. As regards the modern sector, it is always located around cities and dairy factories. This sector applies modern rearing techniques and intensifi ed production in farms that are specialized in producing milk from imported, hybrid and domestic dairy cows. Producers in this sector rely on green fodder and feed concentrates for feeding their animals. In analyzed countries milk production has been constantly growing. It is a part of agriculture business activity which is growing very fast especially because of constantly growing demand (Aden A., 2005). Total milk production in the Middle East and North Africa increased from about 12.57 million tons in 1990 to about 25.10 million tons in 2008, which is a 99% increase (Abdel F., 2008). The estimated general regression equation for milk production in the Middle East and North

“Improving infrastructure is a priority for us in the region, especially in conflict-affected countries like Iraq, and Nafith has proved it has the ability to do this,” says Mouayed Makhlouf, IFC Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa. “Investing in Nafith is also part of wider IFC strategy to increase cross-border trade and regional integration, and boost South-South investments in MENA.”

Financial Inclusion is critical for the competitiveness of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, for employment creation, and for raising incomes and reducing poverty. Financial inclusion is through access to financial services such as credit, bank accounts, deposits, payments services, insurance, and pensions. Firms need access to financial services to be able to invest, innovate, take advantage of market opportunities, manage cash flow and costs, and reduce risks. Microenterprises constitute the vast majority of enterprises in MENA and are a significant employer (92.5 percent of enterprises in the case of Egypt, and 63.6 percent share of private employment 1 ). Individuals and households benefit from financial inclusion through a safe place to save, safer and cheaper access to remittances and other payments, loans or insurance payments to cover health or education expenses, and pensions for old age. High levels of financial exclusion hinder efforts to bring enterprises into the formal sector, and to increase investment and trade.

This study explores the relation between the adoption of various social media platforms and the demographic variables of users consuming these platforms in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. It also provides a better understanding of the positive and negative gratifications acquired when users adopt social media in the region. The uses and gratifications (U&G) perspective is the theoretical grounding of the study applied to newer media, social media platforms in specific. A quantitative questionnaire, conducted within the social media users whose home countries are from the MENA region (N=561) to indicate the behavior of social media adoption in relation to 8 motivation variables. Three in-depth interviews were also conducted to analyze the findings and result, presenting insights on the assumed hypotheses. Findings of the study showed that there’s a significant relation between using social media and the use of media utilities in terms of content creation and content engagement. It also showed that social media delivered not only positive gratifications, but also negative ones. Users may gain better online social activity, online learning opportunities, online active citizenship and online efficiency, but on the other hand, they also risk personal privacy violations, social media addiction, and distractions from daily tasks.

We examine socio-economic indicators relevant to ‘low cost carriers’ (LCCs) in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and review the evolution of air transport liberalization and air service agreements in the region. We analyse the business strategies of MENA-based LCCs and using a benchmarking methodology, we compare the business strategy of Air Arabia Group with those of dominant European LCCs easyJet and Ryanair. Our economic development indicators suggest future potential for LCC growth in Iran and Saudi Arabia while other MENA countries continue to face challenges. The lack of success in regional liberalization in air transport is restricting LCC growth although individual MENA countries have or will benefit from ‘open skies’ agreements. MENA-based LCCs while retaining some characteristics of the LCC model also deviate in significant ways. Benchmarking analysis shows that Air Arabia’s business strategy represents a departure from the business strategies that have been most successful in Europe.

As the conflict in Syria approaches its fifth year, over 50% of the public hospitals in Syria have been destroyed and the health care infrastructure is bordering on nonexistent [28]. Thus far, an estimated 6.5 million Syrians have been internally displaced [29,30] and an additional 4.4 million Syrians have been externally displaced [31]. Due to the violence, Syrians have been forced to flee from their homes and seek refuge across the Middle East, North Africa, and, more recently, Europe [31]; currently, 95% of the over 4 million refugees who have fled Syria reside in Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, and Egypt (Fig 2) [31]. The mass migration of people within Syria and the MENA region has put a strain on resources. Internally displaced individu- als have reported that they are in need of non-food items (including personal hygiene prod- ucts), health care services, food, shelter, water, and education [32]. Similarly, externally displaced individuals are often living in overcrowded and unhygienic spaces, commonly with- out access to many necessary resources, including basic sanitation and waste disposal services, food, electricity, as well as health care [33 – 36]; in Lebanon, refugee camps consist mostly of makeshift houses built out of scrap and rubble or tents [33]. Syria is now the leading producer

Abstract: Norovirus (NoV) is considered the second leading cause of viral acute gastroenteritis (AGE). To our knowledge, there are no systematic reviews assessing the role of NoV in AGE in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Consequently, we conducted an extensive systematic literature review on articles studying NoV in the 24 countries of the MENA region during the past 15 years (2000-2015). The methods and reporting were set according to the 2015 PRISMA-P and based on the elements from the international prospective register of systematic reviews (PROSPERO). We retrieved 38 studies meeting our predefined inclusion criteria and were used to extract full data. Studies reporting on NoV were conducted in 15 out of the 24 countries of the region. The reported NoV infection rates in MENA countries ranged between 0.82% and 36.84%. The majority of studies were clinical observational studies assessing NoV rates mainly among children. Participants were recruited from in- and outpatient clinics. NoV infection was reported all year round with with peaks observed mainly during cold months. GII.4 was the predominant genotype detected in stool of participants as reported by 16 out of 25 studies (64%). Overall, there is an increasing recognition of NoV as an important causative agent of AGE across all age groups in the MENA region. Further studies are needed to assess the national and the regional burden of NoV among different age groups, its molecular diversity and seasonal variability.

It is with great that we present the second volume of the series “Population and Family Studies”. In this book, we study demographic developments in the Mid- dle East and North Africa (MENA). In the past, the demographic developments in the Middle East and North Africa have been described as “peculiar” and “unique”. In particular, the development of fertility got attention from a western point of view because it did not show the sharp decline with increasing development as the western countries did. Moreover, the growing population size and the bulk of young people caused worries, particularly in Europe, where a discussion about “the death of the West” has started. Thus, the demographic processes in the Mid- dle East and North Africa call for a closer inspection of the recent levels and tends. Surprisingly, there is not much literature on these countries, leading us to compile essential descriptive findings.

As shown in chapter 2, countries in the region are quite heterogeneous in terms of demographic structure, macroeconomic performance, and the level of financial sector development. Nonetheless, their pension sys- tems share important similarities in institutional design and the types of problems requiring attention. This chapter outlines general issues and questions that all countries will have to address when engaging in a reform program and offers a set of policy guidelines based on recent analytical work and the experiences of countries outside the Middle East and North Africa region. Clearly, future reform programs will have to be country specific, reflecting local economic, social, and political realities. The chapter is organized in four sections. The first is concerned with the question that all societies need to answer when designing a program of pension reform: What should be the role and mandate of the public pension system? It also discusses, along general lines, major choices in system design to implement this mandate, which are then developed in the remainder of the chapter. The second section presents a series of policy recommendations to improve the functioning of current defined- benefit, pay-as-you-go systems. Indeed, regardless of the structure of reformed pension systems, a defined-benefit, pay-as-you-go component is likely to remain an important pillar in most countries. This section also discusses implications for the design of disability and survivor pensions and gender issues that policy makers will need to take into account when designing a reform program. The third section discusses the costs and benefits of introducing a mandatory funded component as well as the conditions that countries will have to meet. The fourth section addresses the issue of coverage and explores measures that governments can con- sider to protect vulnerable groups during old age. The final section deals with topics that, although important to a well-functioning pension sys- tem, have received less attention in this report as a result of space and data constraints. These include the institutional organization, adminis- tration, and regulation of pension funds. The issue of pension fund man-

This paper investigates the comparative advantage pattern of the countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region for the period 2000 and 2010. Revealed Symmetric Comparative Advantage (RSCA) Index, paired sample F-test, t- test, and Spearman’s Rank Correlatio n are applied, This paper concludes thatthere are significant differences in comparative advantages among countries in the MENA region for 2000 and 2010 period. In addition, the stronger competition occured in resource-poor and labor abundant, resource-rich and labor abundant, and resource-rich and labor importing countries.

Since the end of 2010, when a wave of mass protests and uprisings swept across several Arab countries, there has been unprecedented media attention on Arab women and their role in regional political transformations. Yet, this large body of commentary and speculation has tended towards dichotomous positions, representing women either as the heroines of social media and street protests or as the victims of violent and conservative backlashes. A smaller number of scholars have addressed the gendered dimensions of the political and socio- economic processes unfolding since 2011, including the revolutionary struggles, counter- revolutionary backlashes, street protests, armed uprisings and civil war. They have highlighted the complex and varied picture emerging when applying a gendered lens to political transformations across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region (Al-Ali 2014; Hafez 2014; Kandiyoti 2013; Khalil 2014; Pratt 2013; Salime 2012; Skalli, 2013).

As shown in chapter 2, countries in the region are quite heterogeneous in terms of demographic structure, macroeconomic performance, and the level of financial sector development. Nonetheless, their pension sys- tems share important similarities in institutional design and the types of problems requiring attention. This chapter outlines general issues and questions that all countries will have to address when engaging in a reform program and offers a set of policy guidelines based on recent analytical work and the experiences of countries outside the Middle East and North Africa region. Clearly, future reform programs will have to be country specific, reflecting local economic, social, and political realities. The chapter is organized in four sections. The first is concerned with the question that all societies need to answer when designing a program of pension reform: What should be the role and mandate of the public pension system? It also discusses, along general lines, major choices in system design to implement this mandate, which are then developed in the remainder of the chapter. The second section presents a series of policy recommendations to improve the functioning of current defined- benefit, pay-as-you-go systems. Indeed, regardless of the structure of reformed pension systems, a defined-benefit, pay-as-you-go component is likely to remain an important pillar in most countries. This section also discusses implications for the design of disability and survivor pensions and gender issues that policy makers will need to take into account when designing a reform program. The third section discusses the costs and benefits of introducing a mandatory funded component as well as the conditions that countries will have to meet. The fourth section addresses the issue of coverage and explores measures that governments can con- sider to protect vulnerable groups during old age. The final section deals with topics that, although important to a well-functioning pension sys- tem, have received less attention in this report as a result of space and data constraints. These include the institutional organization, adminis- tration, and regulation of pension funds. The issue of pension fund man-

Effective credit risk management by the participating banks and the scheme itself can have a substantial impact on the sustainability of guarantee schemes.. Well established [r]