Point of View

Last week the World Bank announced "up to $6 billion in new Bank support over the next two years for Egypt and Tunisia" to assist in political transitions and economic reform.  Shortly after the G-8 Summit at Deauville, France announced the formation of a "Deauville Partnership" and pledged to raise "more than USD 20 billion" over the next two years to strengthen institutional development in Tunisia and Egypt especially as it links to inclusive economic growth and job creation among young people. The Middle East Youth Initiative sat down with Edward Sayre, MEYI's Director of Research and a nonresident fellow at Brookings Institution, to discuss the potential impact of the G-8 and World Bank development packages on private sector development, youth participation in the labor market, and critical issues surrounding educational quality, employment, and social inclusion.

In a new commentary, Ehaab Abdou discusses the strength of Egyptian civil society and the need to engage ordinary citizens and CSOs in a strong, inclusive development process in order to live up to the expectations of the region's youth.

In an interview with All Things Considered host Michelle Norris (NPR), Ragui Assaad highlights the Middle East's youth bulge, the impact of these unemployed youth on the region's current unrest, and the value of creative economic policies designed to harness the energy and economic potential of these restless youth. The audio and transcript of this interview were originally published on NPR on 18 February 2011.

Tarik Yousef, Raj Desai, and Anders Olofsgård discuss the authoritarian bargain--"an implicit contract between ruling elites and citizens whereby citizens relinquished political influence in exchange for economic benefits"--highlighting the need for new reforms in the wake of the authoritarian bargain's collapse. This analysis was originally published by Brookings Institution on 09 February 2011.

Ragui Assaad reflects on what the recent historic events in Tunisia mean for youth in Tunisia, Egypt and the rest of the Arab world. This commentary was originally published by the Brookings Institution on 24 January 2011.

In an effort to shed light on the challenges that youth continue to face in the Middle East, Samantha Constant and Mary Kraetsch have created an interactive map and corresponding fact sheets that provide key statistics associated with youth issues for all 18 countries in the Middle East. In the accompanying note, they provide an overview of the data and their main findings.

In a new commentary, Ehaab Abdou, Samantha Constant, and Noam Unger examine the Obama administration’s commitment to supporting entrepreneurship and innovation in the Middle East and Muslim world, positioning the recent presidential summit and related efforts in the context of the larger dialogue on foreign assistance reform.