MENA Knowledge & Learning
191 items available
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These notes are intended to summarize lessons learned from the Middle East and North Africa region (MNA) and other Bank Knowledge and Learning activities.
Items in this collection
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Publication
Child Care Subsidies, Employment Services and Women's Labor Market Outcomes in Egypt: First Midline Results
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022-07)This paper contributes to the existing literature in several important ways. The existing literature on the impact of childcare subsidies is from contexts with relatively higher rates of female labor force participation. This work is thus an important test of whether alleviating care responsibilities and reducing the opportunity cost of women working through childcare subsidies can increase women’s participation in contexts and populations with lower participation. Likewise, although there is a sizable body of literature on employment services interventions, there is less evidence on whether they can help married women with young children. Lastly, recognizing that women in Egypt face a multitude of employment constraints, our experiment tests whether a combination of employment services and childcare subsidies has important complementarities, by alleviating multiple constraints at the same time. This paper examines the impact of the interventions on job search outcomes for women 3-4 months after the baseline survey and assignment to treatment for approximately half the planned sample. The first midline survey examines specifically job search behaviors: reservation wages, reservation job quality, and job search effort. The authors also discuss take-up of the two interventions and contextualize take-up and outcomes with information on norms about women’s work and childcare. -
Publication
Evidence to Inform Policy: What Works to Close the Gender Gaps in Middle East and North Africa
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-05)The traditional unequal division of household chores and caregiving hinder women from entering the labor market. Women in Egypt spend 9.5 hours more on unpaid household chores for every hour spent by men. Forty percent of women reported spending more time on household chores during the COVID–19 pandemic. Lack of access to affordable childcare is a constraint on the female labor supply in Egypt. Almost 96 percent of women in the pilot study expressed interest in childcare centers, but high costs are a concern. Weak demand for female workers, especially in the STEM fields, limits women’s job opportunities. About 60 percent of employers reported that they prefer to hire men due to women’s household responsibilities. About 87 percent of respondents noted approval with women working. However, the support declined steadily as additional information about the nature of the job or working hours was specified. One-third of women said that their husbands would not allow them to work outside of the house, and none of the men agreed with women working in a mixed-gendered environment, highlighting restrictive gender norms’ impact on female labor supply. These findings underscore the importance of our two randomized interventions designed to provide low-cost childcare services and signal firms to hire women through our employment services. -
Publication
Improving SME Access to Trade Credit and Financing in MENA
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-12)Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Middle East and North Africa (MENA), especially female entrepreneurs, face steep challenges in accessing finance and credit. This situation is now even more dire with the Covid-19 crisis. SMEs finance their activities in three main ways: (i) shareholder funds from family, business partners, and investors (ii) payment facilities from suppliers and pre-payments from clients, known as inter-firm trade credit (in short “trade credit”), and (iii) credit facilities from banks and other financial institutions, of which a large chunk is for working capital. All these sources of funds are required for SMEs to conduct their activities in a financially sustainable manner. The focus of this quick note is on the latter aspects: SME access to inter-firm trade credit and bank facilities to finance trade. These have major implications for financial inclusion, private sector development, value chains, and ultimately, on employment and growth. IFC is already very active in this segment, notably in poorer and fragile countries with the support of the IDA Private Sector Window, but more can be done by the World Bank. The financing of trade and value chains also needs to be much better understood by policymakers in our MENA client countries. -
Publication
Women's Economic Empowerment in Jordan
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-04)The Government of Jordan has strengthened its commitment in recent years to gender equality and women's social and economic empowerment through Jordan's Renaissance Plan 2019-2020 and more recently through the preparation of the Women's Economic Empowerment Action Plan under the Mashreq Gender Facility. Furthermore, the Jordan National Commission for Women is coordinating the development of the National Women's Strategy, encompassing the government's vision of women's empowerment and the national plans that address different areas of gender equality. The note touches on societal and household level issues such as existing social norms; the enabling environment provided by the legal framework; specific constraints to women's economic activity that are pronounced in the Jordan context such as access to care provisions and transport; access to entrepreneurship and finance, with a focus on technology-enabled services; and what may be considered to attract more Jordanian women in the rural areas to engage in employment in the agriculture sector. Given the saturation of the public sector in terms of employment, the focus is specifically on areas in which the private sector may play a leading role. -
Publication
EITI as an Instrument of Fiscal Transparency and Accountability in Contexts of Fragility and Violence: A Comparative Case Study of Afghanistan and Iraq (Part 2)
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2019-08)Efforts in Afghanistan have sought to enable systematized data disclosures and simplify data collection efforts, given security concerns that often restrict movement and coordination. In this context, the following governance enhancements are being supported: the new draft mining regulations seek to empower the use of data for improved governance and fiscal accountability; digitized systems of the ministry of mines and petroleum (MoMP) now increase fiscal transparency and accountability. Efforts are being made in Iraq to facilitate reliable data disclosures in the oil and gas sector. Such disclosures will enable improved stakeholder engagement and provide a baseline for analyses and sector reforms. The most recent extractive industries transparency initiative (EITI) report has provided clarity to stakeholders about vital aspects of sector governance, such as data regarding licensing, revenue-sharing and allocation mechanisms, revenues collected, the roles and functions of various state-owned enterprises (SoEs), and the relationship of these SoEs with the governmental ministries. When it comes to using EITI or other data systems for improved fiscal transparency and accountability, the priority steps for the future in both case study countries are closely linked to their respective priorities: in Afghanistan, the priority is to boost investor confidence, increase governmental revenues, and counter illicit revenue flows; and in Iraq, the priority is to expand the umbrella of fiscal transparency and accountability to critical sectors and other areas of government intervention, which account for very significant revenue flows. -
Publication
EITI as an Instrument of Fiscal Transparency and Accountability in Contexts of Fragility and Violence: A Comparative Case Study of Afghanistan and Iraq (Part 1)
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2019-08)Fiscal transparency is a vital requirement for effective fiscal policymaking. Budgets, including their underlying fiscal forecasts, must provide a clear statement of the government’s budgetary objectives and policy intentions. Credible budgets also require comprehensive, timely, and reliable data about the evolution of public finances, which enables sound financial projections. The extractive industries transparency initiative (EITI) is a global standard for enhancing transparency and accountability in the governance of oil, gas, and mineral resources (that is, the extractive industries). It requires periodic public disclosures of information about a country’s extractive industries. EITI also requires disclosure of financial data relating to extractive industries, such as reconciled figures of company payments and government revenues; revenue allocations and transfers; data on sector exports; and quantitative information about the contribution of the sector to the economy. Analyses of data disclosed through EITI, especially in countries dependent upon extractive industries, often enables the identification and delivery of key measures to strengthen fiscal accountability. -
Publication
Public Investment Management in Contexts of Fragility, Conflict & Violence – Part 2
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2019-02)The PIM Assessment resulted in the establishment of an Action Plan to strengthen the system. Given weak institutional capacity and limited resources, the Plan should include quick-win options where possible, particularly in the early recovery phase. Evidence shows that the process by which projects are delivered (scale, community involvement, expertise of project managers, etc.) can be more important than getting projects built quickly. This is an important balancing act to consider. A well-sequenced short-, medium- and long-term PIM Action Plan can be organized as follows: i) Formalize the institutional setting (establishing management functions inside the PIM cycle); ii) Develop capacity building in project design, appraisal and selection; iii) Improve capital investment project design, appraisal and selection; iv) Enhance the legal and regulatory framework of the PIM system; v) Improve process registration of projects via an Integrated Bank of Projects (IBP); vi) Establish regularly revisited project selection and prioritization criteria; vii) Formalize use of key performance indicators; and viii) Improve PIP–PPP in project management and ex-post evaluation. -
Publication
Public Investment Management in Contexts of Fragility, Conflict & Violence – Part 1
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2019-02)A government's provision of complementary public goods, such as roads and bridges, facilitates the development of markets leading to long-term economic growth. Private enterprise, by itself, is unlikely to provide such public works. Likewise, a government's investment in social infrastructure, such as education and health, is critical, particularly for conflict-ridden populations deprived of adequate services. Furthermore, scaling-up public investment is central to development, especially in in FCV contexts, which are often left with rudimentary or badly-damaged infrastructure. Public investments in FCV countries are often inefficient and ineffective, prone to waste, corruption and misappropriation. They are often highly concentrated in a few units or agencies with weak institutional capacity. Thus, supporting better management of public investments in FCV countries is critical to (re)creating economic and social infrastructure. This infrastructure is key to quickly restore basic services and the reestablishment of trust between the state and citizens. As such, it can allow for citizens to reap early peace dividends and plant the seeds for long-term stability. -
Publication
Capturing Opportunities for Integrated Coastal Zone Management and the Blue Economy in MENA
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2019-01-10)The MNA region has rich marine ecosystems that can play a key role in eroding extreme poverty and promoting shared prosperity through the Blue Economy—the sustainable use of marine resources for economic growth, improved livelihoods, jobs, and overall ecosystem health. The Blue Economy includes a wide range of activities, from fisheries and aquaculture to other ecosystem services such as carbon sequestration, coastal protection, and biodiversity. For example, MNA has large coastal areas important to the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of people, many of them poor and vulnerable. These include fisheries and aquaculture, much of it small-scale and increasing substantially in recent years, from 2,484,644 and 393,987 metric tons, respectively, in 2000 to 4,743,814 and 1,820,983 metric tons in 2016. Many MNA countries rely heavily on imports for food and fisheries and aquaculture supplement the food supply, impacting food security and nutritional diversity. These ecosystems also play a role in climate change mitigation and adaptation as seas absorb carbon dioxide (CO2) and coastal habitats, like mangrove forests and sea grass beds, sequester carbon and help to protect coastlines, preventing erosion from floods and storms. Integrated coastal zone management (ICZM)—which coordinate policies, activities, and investments impacting coastal and maritime resources—are critical to capturing the opportunities of the Blue Economy. -
Publication
Advancing the Public Procurement-Governance Nexus: The Case of Iraq
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2018-10)There is a strong link between efficient and effective public procurement and good governance. Public procurement is at the core of translating public policy into tangible results for citizens, delivering essential services, implementing projects and programs, and improving a country's business, investment, and social environments.