53019 . January 2010 Number 20 THE MARSEILLE CE TER FOR MEDITERRA EA I TEGRATIO : A I TERVIEW WITH WORLD BA K MAGHREB DIRECTOR MATS KARLSSO Can you give us a brief overview of the so hard to get a job? There are many answers, Marseille Center for Mediterranean on the labor demand side, on the labor market Integration (CMI) - why was it established side, but also on the supply side. The quality of and what are the challenges that it will help education and training is not adequate. But in overcome? discussing the quality of, say post-secondary schooling, it is clear that standards in today's In today's world, when you open a discussion world are set internationally. Imagine an on an issue of national development interest, Egyptian firm competing for contracts, needing you almost always come across a dimension to hire and prove to the client that they can do that relates to managing integration. the job. It needs to show that its employees Development in one country, so to speak, is not meet international standards, and so do the easy. Put positively, joining forces together to students applying for those jobs. In other deal with issues of inter-dependence will create words, a clear national development interest a far stronger base for progress and global will only be achieved by working regionally, in competitiveness. We absolutely need to create this case, with the evolution of higher new instruments to back up national efforts by education quality. So, when MNSHD decided also supporting nations' ways of handling to decentralize a group of its staff to work on common issues and dealing with these kinds of issues in closer cooperation with transboundary challenges ranging from our partners and countries, that was a critical environmental pollution, migration, move in the right direction. conservation of marine resources, communication networks, and urban growth to The CMI has had a predecessor in Marseille, name a few. with an office that was set up several years ago. In short, the insight that development and The Marseille Center for Mediterranean integration are linked is not new ­ it has often Integration tries to do exactly that, by been promoted over the past decades, but it has providing a platform for communities of become more compelling over the past several practice focused on development issues across years. Despite great efforts in the past and the region to ask hard questions about despite that fact that some useful activities took themselves, find answers that will be actionable place, not least on the urban front, the link to and in so doing, contribute to the prosperity of operations, specifically MNA, never became the region as a whole. By identifying critical solid enough. So at President Bob Zoellick's knowledge gaps and developing policy request, we asked ourselves some hard guidelines, the Center will support leaders and questions about our role, the functions we other key stakeholders in the region to adopt needed to perform, and our relations with our evidence-based policy-making and jointly partners. That process led to a consultation pursue common development goals. process a year ago and the upshot was an attempt at something different ­ a multi- Take, for example, youth employment. Why partner collaborative arrangement to promote are so many young educated people finding it joint knowledge-sharing and learning for gain. The idea was not to provide uni- Mediterranean integration. directional technical assistance, but to provide a space for joint learning. It is not an aid facility, We consulted with the countries in the region but a tool to manage forward thinking for a as well as with many partners, and in the end, region, which is moving towards becoming five southern partners, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, even more inter-dependent than it is today. Morocco and Tunisia, joined French partners, the European Investment Bank (EIB), and the We have a Strategic Council to offer such World Bank to form the Marseille Center for perspective. It is co-chaired by Abdelhamid Mediterranean Integration. A simple MoU Triki, State Secretary in the Tunisian Ministry defines the collaboration, with the Bank for Development and International providing the administrative platform, but the Cooperation, and Philippe de Fontaine Vive, key was to get to a critical mass of engagement. Vice President of the EIB. Its twelve members are people with integrity and vision.1 In short, we offered a platform for knowledge sharing. Instead of asking for a pot of money Formally, the CMI is guided by an Annual and becoming another layer in the cascade of Meeting, chaired by our Vice President, funds, we asked our partners whether they Shamshad Akhtar. In the interim, an oversight could get added value from working out of a committee of representatives of the founding joint platform. There would be logistical members meets as needed under my savings, of course, but more importantly there chairmanship, to ensure that we work along could be strategic synergies. That is what we agreed lines. were and are aiming for. What are some of the concrete achievements Who are the partners behind the CMI and of the CMI to date? what is the governance structure? We launched the CMI on October 9, 2009, so to Up front, several French partners and EIB talk about achievements would be a bit decided that they would support the core presumptuous. But we do have all the financing, always the most difficult thing in elements of the Center up and running. We establishing new institutional cooperation. have staff, budget and all the needed green Seeing the critical mass in place, President lights. So now it's all about delivery. Partners Zoellick put in $4.5 million over three years. At have defined five areas: Urban and Spatial; the moment, we have secured enough to carry Environment and Water; Transport and the core. Logistics; Skills Employment and Labor Mobility also with a focus on youth; and the The programs, on the other hand, were not to be financed by some core fund, but would instead build on their own momentum. They 1 are financed and governed by their own Ahmed Abdelkefi, President and Founder of arrangements. What the Center tries to do is to TUNINVEST Finance Group; Zoubida Allaoua, Director, Finance, Economics and Urban Department, World Bank; offer the value added of the platform, a bit of Ipek Cem Taha, Journalist, Deputy Chair International start-up and synergy finance, but most of all, to Competitiveness Institute, Turkey; Rima Khalaf Hunaidi, become a place that is known to be interesting Former Jordanian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of and creative ­ a network of joint learning. International Cooperation; Hanaa Kheir El Din, Executive Director, Egyptian Center for Economic Studies, Egypt; Gerd Leipold, Former Executive Director of Greenpeace I think that this is what caught the interest of International; Christian Masset, Director General, the southern countries. Egypt, Jordan, Globalisation, Development and Partnerships, MOFAE, Lebanon, Morocco and Tunisia have all agreed France; Fatallah Oualalou, Mayor of Rabat, former Minister of Finance, Morocco; Jean-Louis Reiffers, President, to join, and there is strong interest by others. Scientific Council of the Institute of the Mediterranean and All `Mediterranean' countries, from Mauritania, FEMISE; Ghassan Salame, Former Minister of Culture, to Syria, to the Balkans, and to the EU, stand to Lebanon; Dean, Sciences-Po, Paris. January 2010 Number 20 2 Knowledge Economy, Innovation and fundamentally new growth regime based on Technology. knowledge, which requires the development of multi-sector development strategies focused on First out in terms of events in December 2009 education, innovation, information and was the universities and governance communication technologies (ICTs), and the conference, organized by the Skills overall economic and business climate. The Employment and Labor Mobility cluster (See conference held in Tunis in December 2009, at accompanying Quick Note #19). It will be followed in March 2010 by an event that will the initiative of ISESCO, and with the support review our research on Labor Mobility. of the World Bank, underlined the tremendous interest voiced by the Southern countries in But even before that we have had other response to the development challenges of the activities. In June 2009, for example, we were next twenty years. part of the 5th Urban Research Symposium titled "Cities and Climate Change: Responding to Where do you see the Center for an Urgent Agenda," even as we were just Mediterranean Integration five years from beginning to formally exist. We hosted several now and what would be some of the success consultations on the Urban and Spatial indicators? programs to assess the needs and to list the strategic priorities that should be explored in a We have given ourselves three years to show region where the urbanization rate will be as that we are useful. I am sure that we will high as 70 percent by 2015. We presented the succeed. The dynamics that we have touched WDR 2009 on Economic Geography. We are really encouraging. listened to views as MNA prepares its own report on spatial development. The issue of So five years from now, I see the Center with sustainability inherent in the urban and spatial substantive programs that concretely contribute development sector and its link to the to greater convergence in the Mediterranean environment is one of the most pressing that region. Perhaps we will have lost a program, needs to be addressed in the region. The but then again, we may have also gained new integrated approach and the regional programs as development challenges evolve. dimension promoted by the Center are clearly steps in the right direction. The objective is really a focus on critical learning. Imagine reaching the new generation Also, on the theme of sustainable development, of decision-makers and stakeholders in the is the follow-up to the Mediterranean region getting to core issues, and jointly seeking Environmental Technical Assistance Program responses. That is what the Organization for (METAP), which many of you are familiar with. Economic Co-operation and Development The Secretariat of `Sustainable Med' is located (OECD) did for its members for example. We in Marseille, driving the governance and are much more modest but, for example, knowledge components of this large GEF- should the Union for the Mediterranean get off financed, MNA-administered program. the ground and start moving forward, Ultimately, we are talking about billions of collaboration and integration will increase dollars of private and public investment in immeasurably. At the same time, if the Arab water and environment management. The Maghreb Union wants to move ahead, we can potential is enormous if we get the thinking respond to that as well. We are simply a right. collaborative framework. For the Bank, to be clear, this is another tool, Another exciting theme is the one related to another platform, only this time, in partnership Knowledge Economy, Innovation and with organizations and countries around the Technology. The Knowledge Economy offers Mediterranean. We hope that the membership Mediterranean countries the possibility of a of the five southern partner countries will give January 2010 Number 20 3 a real sense of joint ownership. We hope that Contact MNA K&L: the participation from all sides will provide the Emmanuel Mbi, Director, Strategy and Operations, essential dynamic that is critical for the success Middle East and North Africa region of this endeavor. We hope that the way in David Steel, Manager, Operations, Middle East which we have offered operational programs a and North Africa region platform will focus on genuine added value, not the seeking of yet another pot of Regional Quick Notes Team: development funding but a true platform for Omer Karasapan, Roby Fields, Najat Yamouri, joint learning and knowledge sharing focused and Aliya Jalloh Tel #: (202) 473 8177 on Mediterranean integration. The MNA Quick Notes are intended to summarize lessons learned from MNA and other Bank Knowledge and Learning activities. The Notes do not necessarily reflect the views of the World Bank, its board or its member countries. January 2010 Number 20 4