This study explores how cash-for-work (CfW) programs can alleviate pressures on communities hosting refugees, particularly in Jordan. Based on interviews and surveys, it highlights positive community impacts beyond direct employment, while noting challenges in sustaining benefits and changing gender roles. Recommendations for policymakers are provided.
After independence, MENA countries relied on energy and food subsidies to reduce poverty and bolster legitimacy. As these became unsustainable, reforms faced challenges due to potential government delegitimization. This paper analyzes subsidy reforms in Morocco, Egypt, and Iran from 2010-2017, highlighting distinct strategies and their impacts on social contracts. Morocco engaged in dialogue and preserved its social contract, while Egypt's radical dismantling led to repression and a shift to a protection pact. Iran's cash transfer scheme created a more inclusive contract despite challenges. Lessons from these reforms are vital for post-COVID-19 recovery strategies.
Egypt launched a new industrial policy strategy after 2004. It boosted investments and exports but not innovation or structural change – mainly because it failed to address pertinent deficits such as in the quality of education, in the rule of law, in research and in the co-ordination of investors.
The main determinants of SME upgrading in Egypt are the owner’s education, work experience and international exposure, motivation and readiness to take risks, investment in human resources and market research, access to finance and ability to deal with persistent deficits in the rule of law.
Abstract: "Wide-ranging agreement exists today that a good business climate is central to economic growth and poverty alleviation. But questions remain open about the role of the state in creating a good business climate. This study is intended to answer some of these questions. The Arab Human Development Report 2004 stresses that sustainable economic growth cannot be achieved in the MENA countries without improved governance. One of the core dimensions of good governance is transparency and the control of corruption. The latter in particular is important for a good business climate (World Bank 2005f). Corruption can take different forms, one of them being favouritism which is very widespread in the MENA region. It is usually referred to there as 'wasta', which is Arabic for 'relation' or 'connection', and describes the use of personal relations for preferential treatment. The present study focuses on the economic effects of wasta. It has a twofold aim: first to find out how the use of wasta
Evaluates for each of the some 20 Arab countries the state of implementation of the eight MDGs and whether the goals can be reached by 2015. Reviews the contributions Germany is currently making
Abstract: Im September 2000 verabschieden 189 unabhängige Staaten im Rahmen der 55. Generalversammlung der UN in New York die Millennium Declaration. Im Anschluss an den Millenniumsgipfel extrahiert eine Arbeitsgruppe, die sich aus Vertretern der UN, der Weltbank, der OECD und anderer internationalen Organisationen zusammensetzt, einige messbare Zielvorgaben aus der Millennium Declaration. Dabei ergibt sich eine Liste von acht sogenannten Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), die im Wesentlichen auf zwei Kapiteln der Millennium Declaration beruhen: dem Kapitel 'Entwicklung und Armutsbekämpfung' sowie dem Kapitel 'Schutz der gemeinsamen Umwelt'. Diese Vorgaben untersuchend, verfolgt der Beitrag drei Ziele: In einem ersten Schritt wird die Bedeutung der Millennium Development Declaration und der MDGs in der internationalen Entwicklungsdebatte im historischen Kontext dargestellt. Der zweite Schritt erläutert, welche Risiken und Chancen mit den MDGs verbunden sind. So bestehen unter anderem die R