World Bank Institute in the Middle East and North Africa

WBI’s profile and program in the Middle East and North Africa region evolved significantly in FY07 as the transition to country focused programming took place.    Activities are increasingly integrated with Bank lending and analytical work, particularly in our focus countries (Morocco, Egypt, Yemen and Iran) and aligned with regional priorities. This year, we delivered more than 70 learning activities in the Region, reaching approximately 2,500 participants, including government officials as well as representatives from the private sector, academia, and civil society. WBI is integrating capacity development into country-led development strategies, building capacity of local institutions, building confidence and capacity for policy reform, and leveraging the achievement of concrete results.

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• Alignment and Integration of FC Programs with Country Strategies
• Co-financing and Joint Design/Delivery of Programs
• Working with Local and Regional Partners

Alignment and Integration of FC Programs with Country Strategies, LEN, SPN, and AAA

Aligning with country assistance strategies and being more selective in prioritizing actions where WBI has value added and there is an explicit demand form sector counterparts we are moving towards shared accountability for outcomes. The benefits in terms of quality of content as well as targeting and follow up are giving the potential to enhance impact over time. Other outcomes include strengthening local partners and  reinforcing improved relations with client counterparts. Based on these principles, the Children and Youth Program delivered a 4-day national conference in Yemen to launch and agree on specific actions on the national Children and Youth Strategy prepared by various ministries in the Yemeni government. The World Bank provided technical assistance for the conference with a team consisting of staff members from the MENA Region Human Development Group, World Bank Institute, and Human Development Network Children and Youth unit.

Examples of other WBI program linkages with operations include: Public Expenditure Tracking Survey in Yemen (Economic and Sector Work), Iran Urban Transport (Analytical and Advisory Activities), Electricity Privatization in Lebanon ( Planned program in Public Private Partnerships), Investment Climate Assessment and Anti-corruption Initiative in Egypt (anticorruption seminar and PPP), INDH Lending in Morocco.

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Co-financing and Joint Design/Delivery of Programs

Although direct BB support has been difficult to secure, and TF for MNA are historically  scarce, some of the programs have been able to leverage considerable amounts of funding from the project teams that went towards the participants’ costs. Thanks to growing collaboration with bilateral partners in Europe and through Marseille, as well as effective relationship management by our partnership team and the Marseille, trust funds resources from the French and Spanish TF were made available for some of the programs. The Egypt Health Program and the INDH program for Morocco both utilized co-financing or joint design/delivery approaches to leverage resources. WBI HQ also made use of Marseille Knowledge Hub to obtain resources for the Alexandria-Egypt Local Economic Development Program.

At the country level, WBI continued to explore and respond to country demands that emerged after the WPA process. For example, in response to a request by the Minister of Investment in Egypt, WBI delivered a multi-stakeholder, high level seminar where government officials were exposed through peer learning as well as through recently updated analytical work on public and private diagnostics to international best practices and quick wins to reduce corruption and enhance the attractiveness of Egypt to foreign investors. WBI and the CT worked closely on this with the aim to translate the current government’s interest in this activity into a longer term, deeper commitment to undertake anticorruption reforms across sectors. WBI expects such collaboration to continue in FY07, although this will call for greater flexibility in assigning and accessing resources.

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Working with Local and Regional Partners

For greater impact of WBI activities, WBI programs are being implemented on a multi-year basis to ensure that knowledge and capacity are being built continuously through systematic follow-ups, and by acting as a catalyst to country-focused operational interventions. On an increasing scale WBI is taking the initiative to build capacity of partners in the region for sustainable learning in the area of governance and anti-corruption. In this vein a new network of public administration institutes GIFT - MNA has been set up and is engaged in an interactive on-line curriculum design process.

WBI’s collaboration with the Lebanon Institute of Finance was launched in 2003 when a trilateral Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between MNA, WBI, and the Institute of Finance. This year WBI has activated this MoU with a series of knowledge interventions on governance that aim to turn the Institute of Finance into a regional knowledge and training center on governance and public finance. Building on this fruitful partnership, WBI added Lebanon into the country focus program beginning July 1st, 2006. Other key partners in the Region include the Hassan II University in Morocco, American University of Cairo in Egypt; Islamic Development Bank with whom we are involved with your staff in intensive staff training activities. A new partner we look forward to cultivating is Sharif University in Iran.

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In support of the preparation and implementation of the Development strategy of the Governorate of Alexandria, Egypt, the WBI/MNA Marseilles office is leveraging the expertise and decentralized cooperation of European Cities and local Governments to build capacity in this Governorate. Marseilles and Lyon have dispatched their experts to work alongside Alexandria's team and MNA teams on developing an urban development strategy. Seville has taken the lead in organizing, in coalition with several other European cities, a Local Economic Development workshop in Alexandria which was requested by its Governor. Other cities, in Tunisia, Morocco, in Egypt, in Syria and Jordan requested similar support through those partnerships, and a timely response to their needs is being organized.

The conference successfully brought together 140 people representatives of all Governments from the region and Bank staff working in the region.  The main objective was to focus policy attention on what is recognized to be the most pressing issue in the MENA region -- high and rising youth unemployment, lagging job creation, and the imperative of raising and sustaining high economic growth rates over the next 2 decades to create 90 million new jobs (almost double current levels) to meet population growth.  It explored the linkages between labor market policies and other reforms toward the goal of job growth.

The Initiative Nationale de Développement Humain (INDH) is a large-scale community driven poverty reduction launched in August 2005 by the King of Morocco that endeavors to reform existing governance systems through a major devolution of responsibility and resources to the local government actors.  To reinforce the effectiveness of INDH, WBI provided a roundtable for Governors and Mayors to share emerging lessons and relevant innovations from ongoing project planning and implementation. The roundtable exposed the participants to international experience, expertise and techniques in institutional transformation and change management. WBI also recruited a facilitator to work with the INDH working groups. He is both providing support to the University of Hassan II to implement a rapid results program for key actors of INDH in Casablanca, as well as providing valuable assistance to the INDH strategic Capacity Development plan, including on knowledge sharing among all actors.