The two and a half day Middle East and North Africa (MNA) regional conference, funded jointly by the MNA Region and by a DFID grant to WBIFP, was organized 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.
The multi-sectoral nature of the issue required cross-cutting approaches to address it, hence the joint organization of the conference by several networks in the MNA Region – Human Development (HD), Poverty Reduction and Economic Policy (PREM), and Finance, Private Sector Development and Infrastructure (FPSI) - and by the PSD and HD units in WBI. Similarly, participants came, for the first time, from both economic and social ministries – Investment, Planning, Industry, Education, Labor and Social Welfare – that typically do not work closely together, nor are invited to the same conferences. Reflecting the importance of the topic, the conference attracted between 10 and 12 ministers and an equal number of deputy ministers from the 14 MNA countries that participated, and from the Bank, the MNA vice-president, chief economist, director of HD, and sector managers for SP, Education, and FPSI.
The conference addressed these issues through global and regional presentations and discussions in three thematic areas: improving the Investment Climate for job creation, providing workers with education and skills, and improving labor market policies and institutions. These discussions drew upon 3 MNA flagship reports on trade and investment, employment and gender, recently completed Investment Climate Assessments in the region, and economic sector work on skills development and training policy by WBI.
Participants confirmed that the lack of job creation in the region will require fundamental restructuring of the macro economy, reforms in the Investment Climate to promote private sector development, improved education and training for the workforce, and effective labor market policies and institutions to provide a safety net and facilitate labor reallocation. The employment issue cannot be solved by labor market policies alone. The participants also confirmed that the World Bank should continue to convene similar cross-cutting conferences, including at the sub-regional level given differences between Gulf and non-Gulf countries, and assist countries in the region to formulate and implement comprehensive strategies to address employment challenges.
Participants
About 140 representatives from government, private sector, labor unions, NGOs, and academics in 14 MNA countries - Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, Jordon, Iraq, Djibouti, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, and Qatar - as well as staff from the World Bank and bilateral donors.
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