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Publication
Middle East and North Africa Economic Monitor, October 2018: A New Economy for Middle East and North Africa
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2018-10)Growth in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region is projected to rebound to an average of 2% in 2018, up from an average 1.4% in 2017. The modest rebound in growth is driven mostly by the recent rise in oil prices, which has benefitted the region’s oil exporters while putting pressure on the budgets of oil importers. The rebound also reflects the impact of modest reforms and stabilization efforts undertaken in some countries in the region. The report forecasts that regional growth will continue to improve modestly, to an average of 2.8% by the end of 2020 while there is the ongoing risk that instability in the region could worsen and dampen growth. Despite recovery, the slow pace of growth will not generate enough jobs for the region’s large youth population. New drivers of growth are needed to reach the level of job creation required. The report offers a roadmap for unlocking the enormous potential of the region’s large and well-educated youth population by embracing the new digital economy. Broader and bolder reforms will be needed to achieve this goal, along with critical investments in digital infrastructure. It will require the reorientation of education systems toward science and technology, the creation of modern telecommunications and payments systems, and a private-sector driven economy governed by regulations that encourage rather than stifle innovation. -
Publication
Supporting Constructive Engagement between the Government of Yemen and CSOs : Partnership for Development Knowledge Conference
(Washington, DC, 2014-05-20)This is a post conference summary of the Partnership for Development Knowledge Conference held in Yemen from March 4-6, 2014. The report summarizes the discussions that took place during various conference sessions and also some of the outcomes and agreements reached. Following a rich and open dialogue, important outcomes of the conference included a set of recommendations jointly formulated by the government technical teams and Civil Society Organization(s), or CSO representatives. They also agreed on a series of future actions, including the following: build on working group outcomes and discussions with the Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation to determine the 3-4 priority sectors in which more sector-specific dialogue needs to take place. Preparations and groundwork for sector-specific dialogue, building on the conference outcomes, will continue via technical discussions with relevant Sector Ministries. A possible knowledge visit to India by a small government technical team will be explored, with a focus on issues of social accountability. Sector dialogue sessions will be implemented after Ramadan 2014 and will focus on sectors that were recommended by the working groups. Dialogue sessions will support the development of sector-specific action plans that identify concrete opportunities for partnership between specific ministries and CSOs operating within the sector. In conclusion, the conference provided an ideal background to prepare for the sector-level dialogue sessions. These sessions will be facilitated under the next phase of the World Bank funded Government-CSOs Partnership Project. -
Publication
The Status of Yemini Women : From Aspiration to Opportunity
(Washington, DC, 2014-02)The report draws on the conceptual framework of the world development 2012: gender equality and development, and the regional report on gender equality, opening doors: gender equality in the Middle East and North Africa. The report's analytic approach is unique in threading together three bodies of evidence and analysis to shed new light on significant trends and causes underpinning the large gender disparities in the country. The report presents: i) a fresh look at available survey data on human development and socio-economic indicators in the country; ii) a brief history and in-depth analysis of the most critical legal barriers to women's and girl's full participation in Yemeni society; and iii) insights from a rich qualitative dataset collected in January 2011.The findings especially highlight the powerful roles of social norms and legal rights and entitlements in placing women and girls at a disadvantage and constraining not only faster progress on gender equality but also the country's economic development. The objectives of this report are two-fold: first, to take stock of the status of gender outcomes in Yemen and understand the forces that are driving the strong gender inequalities; and second, drawing on these insights and outcomes of the study, to highlight promising areas for policy action in this crucial transition period. The report explores how individual aspirations and opportunities in the areas of education, family formation, and labor force participation are constrained by the severe gender gaps in Yemeni society. -
Publication
Yemen Civil Society Organizations in Transition : A Mapping and Capacity Assessment of Development-Oriented Civil Society Organizations in Five Governorates
(Washington, DC, 2013-06)Civil society in Yemen is vibrant and diverse but highly fragmented. It includes independent registered and organized civic groups, less organized local self-help organizations, and charity oriented groups. The first period, from 1950 to 1963, saw a growth in associational activity in the modern enclave of late colonial Aden and within the protectorates of the northern imamate amidst heavy immigration and modernization. A second stage of development took place in the late 1970s and 1980s with very little central control but exceptional affluence thanks to remittances from citizens employed in the Gulf. As the political transition in Yemen continues, there is renewed interest in engaging local Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) in the process of service delivery, decentralization, institution building and in encouraging inclusion and greater citizen participation. The Government has requested that the World Bank update its earlier work on CSOs in Yemen to map and to assess the capacities of present-day, development-oriented CSOs in five governorates. Nearly all of the CSOs that participated in this study were formally registered, non-governmental organizations that were generally independent of tribal or religious affiliation. There is an important opening in Yemen at present to encourage greater social accountability among CSOs and through CSO-Government partnerships. Social accountability includes a growing emphasis on beneficiary engagement in monitoring and assessing government performance as well as service providers, particularly in providing feedback on, and voicing demand for, improved service delivery. Based on this study's findings, it is recommended that the Government reform CSOs-related procedures, including registration, re-licensing, and decentralize avenues for CSO-ministry collaboration on service delivery and standards development to the governorate-level branches of the respective Ministries. Finally, it is recommended that training be made available for Yemeni journalists that cover the work of the country's civic sector or development issues in general. -
Publication
Middle East and North Africa Economic Developments and Prospects, September 2011 : Investing for Growth and Jobs
(Washington, DC, 2011-09)The report highlights the important links between good governance on a level legal and regulatory playing field, and the ability of investment to stimulate growth. Investment in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region has been strong over the last two decades in comparison with Latin America and Eastern Europe. However, in the oil exporting countries, it has been primarily supported by large and expanding public investments. Oil importers, in contrast, have shown more strength in private investment, which has increased in recent years. A concern with reliance on public investment is that in economies with weak governance there is no evidence that public investment stimulates growth. In contrast, in countries with an adequate level of protection of property rights and legal institutions, public investment is strongly linked to growth. The report also makes a strong case for private investment in services and manufacturing as engines of job creation and income growth in the region. -
Publication
Middle East and North Africa Economic Developments and Prospects, January 2011 : Sustaining the Recovery and Looking Beyond
(Washington, DC, 2011-01)The impact of the global financial and economic crisis on the Middle East and North Africa region was relatively mild. Lack of integration and a large public sector helped insulate the region to some extent, but now these and other factors are slowing down the speed of its economic recovery. The report examines the major factors threatening the recovery and those that obstruct long-term growth – especially non-oil export growth, which in net terms contributed little to regional growth during the past decade, with non-oil exports remaining below potential in many countries in the region. The report emphasizes several major areas in need of policy makers’ attention, including restrictive trade policies, particularly those affecting trade in services; governance issues linked to uneven application of rules and regulations; inefficient and inflexible labor markets and scarcity of skills, innovation and technological capabilities. -
Publication
Republic of Yemen Education Status Report : Challenges and Opportunities
(Washington, DC, 2010-06)This report is motivated by two main considerations. First, after three decades of Yemen's impressive continuous expansion of education, the time is ripe to assess the outcomes of its education system and document its strengths and challenges. Second, in the long run, Yemen is poised to be more integrated in the regional and global economy. At this juncture, it is only wise to reflect on whether the recipes that have enabled past successes will be sufficient and relevant to sustain these successes and to build on them to take up looming new challenges. The Government of Yemen requested the World Bank to assist its efforts to forge a holistic approach to developing the education sector. These efforts would include strengthening linkages among the different levels of education, comprehensively addressing systemic issues, and enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of the system as a whole. This report addresses the first phase of the work. It provides a diagnostic summary of the education system and offers a menu of options to address the issues identified and to advance the system. -
Publication
Yemen - Mineral Sector Review
(World Bank, 2009-06-01)Dependence on the oil sector as a source of economic growth is no longer sustainable given the rate at which oil reserves are being depleted. Yemen will come to rely on other sectors of the economy, some of which have potential but remain under-developed. The mineral sector is one of these. The third five year plan for development and poverty alleviation 2006-2010, identified the mineral sector as one of the key sources of future growth for the country, along with tourism and agriculture. This study was conducted to assess the potential contribution of the mineral sector to sustainable growth and poverty alleviation in Yemen and to define the constraints that will need to be overcome if this potential is to be realized. In so doing it helps to define those areas of government action and donor support that will need to be sustained over the medium to long term. -
Publication
The Republic of Yemen - Economic Growth : Sources, Constraints and Potentials
(Washington, DC, 2002-05-31)High and sustained rate of economic growth in Yemen is a necesary, though not sufficient, condition for reduction of the high incidence of poverty and for raising the living standards of Yemeni citizens. Evidence in this report suggests that the main obstacle to rapid and sustained economic growth is the weak governance that characterizes Yemen in addition to the weaknesses in domestic security, property rights, and rule of law systems. Weak governance in Yemen is characterized/manifested by widespread corruption, lack of transparency and accountability, inefficiency in the interaction of public officials and private business, ineffective or absent market promoting institutions such as those enforcing contracts (courts, tribunals, etc.), poor performance of the public sector in terms of delivering essential goods and implementing programs, associated lack of incentives and skills in the civil service, and weak enforceability of contracts and rulings. Along with ordering the governance situation, there are areas that should receive government priority in the short and medium term, including: 1) enhancing domestic security to boost economic activity in all economic sectors; 2) removing excessive and arbitrary regulations to strengthen basic infrastructure and other services and to attract private investment into these sectors; 3) legal and judicial reform; and 4) sustained implementation of civil service reforms. -
Publication
Economic Growth in the Republic of Yemen : Sources, Constraints, and Potentials
(Washington, DC, 2002)High and sustained rate of economic growth in Yemen is a necesary, though not sufficient, condition for reduction of the high incidence of poverty and for raising the living standards of Yemeni citizens. Evidence in this report suggests that the main obstacle to rapid and sustained economic growth is the weak governance that characterizes Yemen in addition to the weaknesses in domestic security, property rights, and rule of law systems. Weak governance in Yemen is characterized/manifested by widespread corruption, lack of transparency and accountability, inefficiency in the interaction of public officials and private business, ineffective or absent market promoting institutions such as those enforcing contracts (courts, tribunals, etc.), poor performance of the public sector in terms of delivering essential goods and implementing programs, associated lack of incentives and skills in the civil service, and weak enforceability of contracts and rulings. Along with ordering the governance situation, there are areas that should receive government priority in the short and medium term, including: 1) enhancing domestic security to boost economic activity in all economic sectors; 2) removing excessive and arbitrary regulations to strengthen basic infrastructure and other services and to attract private investment into these sectors; 3) legal and judicial reform; and 4) sustained implementation of civil service reforms.