MED-Amin network

Post-Covid-19, the challenge of adjusting to high fuel and food prices, and to rising global interest rates, is particularly hard for the oil importing countries of the MENA region. Public debts are rising fast towards unsustainable levels. Already, currency devaluation and inflation are combining to lower economic growth, increase poverty, and put more stress on a battered middle-class, leading to a rise of social unrest. 

Millions of people in the Middle East and North Africa were suffering from severe effects of hunger and malnutrition long before the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted supply chains and put a squeeze on public spending. Now the war in Ukraine threatens to exacerbate the problem and global food prices are expected to keep rising.

Mohammed Mahmoud, director of MEI's Climate and Water program, will be hosting an affiliate event during the United Nation's first ever Middle East and North Africa Climate Week. The conference aims to provide an opportunity for a robust discussion on development in the MENA region and the current climate crisis in the hopes of identifying avenues for specific climate action.

The Middle East and North Africa is the most arid region in the world, home to 15 out of 25 of the world’s most water-scarce countries. Improved water resource management requires a better understanding of how much water is lost to the atmosphere from soil and plants, a process called evapotranspiration. But until recently, this data was not available for the MENA region.

Please join us for the launch and presentation of the World Bank’s latest Middle East and North Africa Economic Update, a twice-yearly forecast that looks at growth prospects for the region. Titled “A New State of Mind: Greater Transparency and Accountability in the Middle East and North Africa,” the most recent edition underscores how many MENA countries are struggling to overcome the lasting impact of the pandemic while facing new shocks from high oil and food prices, rising global interest rates, and slowdowns in major world economies.

The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) is the most water-scarce region in the world and is expected to be the most sensitive to ongoing climate change. This is especially true for Egypt, considered a global climate change hotspot that is on track to warm by as much as 4-8°C by 2100 (although predictions vary). This will be felt especially in the Western Desert, Upper Egypt, and the Red Sea coast. North Africa, including Egypt, is being squeezed from both north and south by encroaching salt water and desert, respectively, and freshwater loss. Additional freshwater loss driven by overuse and exacerbated by an unpredictable climate demands serious attention.