The Ecological Threat Report 2024 identifies 50 countries, home to 1.3 billion people, facing severe ecological threats. These challenges, ranging from water scarcity to food insecurity, are not merely environmental concerns – they are multipliers of social tension and catalysts for conflict. However, amidst these sobering findings, we have identified clear, actionable solutions.
Ecological Thereat Report COP29 Edition
Institute for Economics & Peace
This report highlights the urgent necessity for Arab region-specific policy solutions which take cultural and financial constraints into consideration. The report discussing case studies and data-driven perspectives that illustrate the region’s accomplishments as well as the deficiencies that still exist in sustainable consumption and consumer protection
Behavioural science and sustainable consumer protection: strategic insights for the Arab region
Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia
The share of humanity who live in conditions of poverty has been falling since at least 1980. Measured as the proportion of people who live on less than $2.15 a day, the figure has declined from above 40% to below 10% – or from 2 billion to fewer than 750 million in absolute terms (Hasell, 2022; Carbone & Ragazzi, 2023; Roser, 2024).
Decade of destitution? Severe lived poverty is surging in many African countries
Afro Barometer
Africa’s growth prospects are stagnating and have declined in recent years, as evidenced by slow GDP growth rates and limited improvements in human development indices. This downward trend is reflected in the revised and updated analysis of our Current Path forecast on the African Futures website published in December 2024.
Africas growth prospects stagnant and under pressure
ISS African Futures
Polling data from the Arab Barometer in 2021 reveals that a large majority of citizens—ranging from 89 percent in Tunisia and Lebanon to 61 percent in Morocco—believe that corruption is prevalent in state agencies to a large or medium extent. Fewer believe that governments in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region are effectively combating it, and these numbers are steadily declining in many countries.
Reading of the Week: How Effective Are Arab Anticorruption Agencies? Is the Glass Half Empty or Half Full?
Middle East Council on Global Affairs
New Israeli legislation, if fully enforced, would prevent the UN Relief and Works Agency from serving Palestinian refugees in the occupied territories. Such a de facto ban would be disastrous. Questions about the agency’s future should wait until after the Gaza war ends.
Keep UNRWA Alive in Gaza and the West Bank
International Crisis Group
The health impacts of climate change are happening now. This report tells the stories of communities in three countries across Africa. Burkina Faso, Malawi and Somalia were chosen because they are among the African countries most vulnerable to climate change (NDGAIN, 2024). All three countries have recently experienced climate-health events, including heatwaves, cholera outbreaks and tropical cyclones.
Under the weather: Stories from communities on the front lines of climate and health adaptation
International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC)
The digital revolution is not happening in a historical vacuum. It unfolds within a framework of confrontation or collusion between market forces and government forces. Depending on the market power that companies can exercise, the digital transition will have different impacts on income distributions between capital, labor, and land, as well as on income distribution within capital itself.
Capital, Labor, and Land in the Digital Transition
Policy Center for the New South
This report examines the record and participation of the African Group at the UN Human Rights Council from 2006 to 2022. The study considers 450 votes and 5 850 voting decisions, with the focus on the African states’ records on country-specific resolutions and civil and political rights. It uses five categories to classify the African Group’s commitment to human rights
African states on the UN Human Rights Council, 2006-2022
South African Institute of International Affairs
Protests in Kenya began on June 18, triggered by the country’s treasury announcing a set of revenue-raising measures.
The new levies included a 16 percent sales tax on bread, a 25 percent duty on cooking oil and the introduction of an
“eco tax” on several basic products. The measures were approved in the Kenyan National Assembly on June 20
Dysfunction and disillusionment in Kenya
Geopolitical Intelligence Services AG
Saudi Arabia’s ‘Vision 2030’ set in motion a large-scale, mainly state-led and top-down modernization agenda to diversify the Saudi economy beyond oil, develop a new national development ethos, reshape Saudi identity and introduce greater lifestyle options while maintaining consolidated rule in the hands of the Al Saud. The envisaged transformation is fully in line with the vested interests of the Saudi monarchy and much of the business elite, as well as some of the country’s younger generations.
Drivers and strategic puzzles of Saudi modernization
Clingendael Netherlands Institute of International Relations
This report offers a contemporary analysis of the operations, the organization, the involvement in illicit economies and the financing of the Anglophone separatist armed groups in the Northwest and Southwest regions of Cameroon, as well as their relationships with civilian communities.
Reading of the Week: Non-State Armed Groups and Illicit Economies in West Africa: Anglophone separatists
Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project
This working paper develops a political sociology of roadblocks to demonstrate how roadblocks in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) contribute to the production and reproduction of public authority beyond their spatial and regulatory effects and while transcending particular claimants to authority.
Roadblocks at the rhythm of the country : a political sociology of roadblocks in DR Congo
Danish Institute for International Studies
Since 2003, US airstrikes in Somalia have caused significant civilian harm, though most reported incidents of civilian harm have been deemed “unsubstantiated” by US Africa Command (AFRICOM). In the few cases the US military has deemed credible, the Department of Defense (DoD) has not provided a response beyond public acknowledgment that it mistakenly killed civilians.
Extend Your Hand: Civilian Preferences for Amends in Somalia
Center for Civilians In Conflict
The widespread adoption of non-financial standards for assessing economic performance, often called ESG (Environment, Social and Governance) criteria, appears to have had an impact on financial markets, one that is diffuse and hard to measure. The implications of this shift to a rigid yet vague system of evaluation could be especially challenging for African companies and economies, which are highly dependent on capital flows that must now measure up to the demanding ESG yardstick.
Africa shows ESG is near an adapt-or-die moment
Geopolitical Intelligence Services
Social, political, economic, and environmental changes have led to rapid urbanization and expansion of cities in Arab Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries, creating new opportunities, along with challenges, in the development and sustainability of cities. Emerging economic sectors in transportation, infrastructure services, and information and communication technologies will play a vital role in confronting the challenges.
Toward Smart Sustainable Cities in the MENA Region
Baker Institute for Public Policy
The world today faces the most wars since World War II. “Great Power Rivalry” has become a major narrative in explaining the trend toward conflict. However, humanism has deep roots in all societies and gives us the means to build coexistence. When we survey the state of international relations today, the overwhelming mood seems to be one of pervasive pessimism. The frameworks of leading thinkers confirm this.
Islam and Great Power Rivalry: Doom and Humanism in International Relations
The Wilson Center
By February 2023, the hunger crisis in Africa reached critical levels, with approximately 146 million people facing crisis or worse levels of acute food insecurity across sub-Saharan Africa. This crisis was driven by a confluence of climatic shocks, including prolonged droughts and recurrent flooding, compounded by conflicts, economic downturns, and the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Africa Hunger Crisis - Operational Update 5
ReliefWeb
Working Group (SWG) is conducting a four-part discussion series aiming to ensure a diverse range of civilian voices are taken into consideration by the United States and other international actors as they develop and implement policies regarding Sudan.
How to support Sudanese civilian efforts to form an effective bloc that will advocate for peace, humanitarian assistance and inclusive democratic governance in Sudan
Wilson Center
The passing of Pension Law 319 by Lebanon’s Parliament in December 2023 was a milestone. For decades, the vast majority of the Lebanese people have lived with little or no income security in their old age, a situation that has worsened since the economic-financial crisis that began in 2019. Approximately 80 percent of the Lebanese population has no formal pension coverage.
Pension Reform in Lebanon: Good Intentions, Uncertain Outcomes
Carnegie Middle East Center
Through an European Think Tanks Group initiative, ODI Europe, alongside ECDPM and The Nordic Africa Institute held a recent event in Brussels – ‘The EU-Africa migration agenda – realising a new partnership’. Ahead of the new European Commission and the 3rd AU-EU ministerial summit, the panel aimed to explore challenges and concerns around migration and gather recommendations for charting a new path in future.
The EU Africa migration agenda: driving a new migration partnership forward
European Think Tanks Group
In recent decades, urbanisation has emerged as a major trend on a global scale. This is particularly evident across Asia, Latin America and Africa, where global megacities with a population of 10 million or more experienced a population increase of 350 per cent between 1990 and 2018. This trend also plays out in the Gulf region
The future is urban: fostering Gulf-European cooperation through sustainable development
Brussels International Center
The importance of African cities as economic, political and social actors is increasing. While Africa used to be perceived as a predominantly rural continent, it is estimated that by 2050, the urban population of the continent will increase by around 900 million people, nearly tripling
Decentralization and Its Effects on Urban Governance in Africa
French Institute of International Relations
China’s biggest media conglomerate, Xinhua, has 37 bureaus in Africa. This dwarves any other news agency—African or non-African—and is a dramatic increase from just a handful two decades ago. Another Chinese media giant, StarTimes, is China’s biggest player in African digital TV and the second largest in Africa after South Africa’s DSTV
Chinas Strategy to Shape Africas Media Space
Africa Center for Strategic Studies
The importance of African cities as economic, political and social actors is increasing. While Africa used to be perceived as a predominantly rural continent, it is estimated that by 2050, the urban population of the continent will increase by around 900 million people, nearly tripling.
Decentralization and Its Effects on Urban Governance in Africa
French Institute of International Relations
The influx of refugees and returnees continues to put pressure on sources of food and income. There is strong competition for the few existing opportunities. As a result, incomes have decreased, restricting households’ ability to afford essential food items given atypically high prices.
Chad Food Security Outlook, February - September 2024
Famine Early Warning System Network
Since its change of government in 2017, the Gambia has undergone significant reforms aimed at promoting reconciliation and healing the wounds left by Yahya Jammeh’s two decade rule (Jaw, 2019). During his presidency, Jammeh adopted divide-and-rule tactics, such as declaring the Gambia an Islamic state in 2015 and attacking the Mandinka, the majority ethnic group in the country (Sommerfelt, 2016).
Tolerance for social differences is high, but not universal, in the Gambia
AFRO Barometer
Socioeconomic discontent has been rising in several countries of the Middle East and North Africa. In 2019, there was a surge of protests in these countries, including Sudan, Iraq, Lebanon, Morocco, Jordan, and Algeria, which did not experience the Arab uprisings of 2010–2011. Beyond calling for changes in their political systems, protesters demanded a comprehensive overhaul of their economic systems as well, denouncing soaring prices, wealth disparities, elite capture of resources and rent streams, and the absence of economic justice.
Economic Injustice is Anchoring Itself in the Arab World
Carnegie Middle East Center
This human capital review assesses human capital outcomes in Mauritania and identifies actions to strengthen, utilize, and protect human capital.
Mauritania Human Capital Review
World Bank Group
Until recently, the ability to keep one’s thoughts private was taken for granted. But recent developments call into question this assumption, as increasingly subtle, powerful and invasive technologies are becoming more pervasive. This policy brief offers case studies illustrating how technology threatens our freedom of thought and points to some directions for research.
New Technologies Challenge Freedom of Thought: Cases and Directions for Research
Centre for International Governance Innovation
The 7th edition of the UfM Women Business Forum offered female entrepreneurs and women-led businesses a unique opportunity to take their businesses to the next level and was co-organised together with the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) for the third time in a row. It gathered over 150 high-level attendees, regional and national stakeholders, as well as female entrepreneurs from across the MENA region.
2023 UfM-UNIDO Women Business Forum
Union for the Mediterranean 2023
Over the past decade, Kenya’s government has made notable progress toward achieving economic development as set out in its Vision 2030 and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Statistics from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (2022) indicate that the national economy grew at an average rate of 4.3% between 2017 and 2021.
For the first time in a decade, Kenyans see management of the economy as their most important problem
Afro Barometer
This policy brief, developed for the UK’s (November) 2023 Global Food Security Summit, summarises insights from recent research from Supporting Pastoralism and Agriculture in Recurrent and Protracted Crises (SPARC) in the Sahel, Syria and Yemen: mostly semi-arid areas subject to protracted crises and conflict, sometimes exacerbated by natural disasters, where food crises and food emergencies threaten.
How can development Partners support food Security in protracted crises
Supporting Pastoralism and Agriculture in recurrent and Protracted Crises
The paid care economy plays a crucial role in employing women. This sector also acts as a mechanism to reduce care work within households, which disproportionately affects women. This paper examines the evolution of the paid care economy in Egypt, over the period 2009-2021, drawing on three different data sources to assess trends in employment and working conditions.
Working Conditions in the Paid Care Economy in Egypt. Improvement or Deterioration?
Economic Research Forum
The European Union has always devoted strong attention to humanitarian issues in the Sahel, especially as regards the food crisis. Since 2010, the EU has helped more than 100 million people lacking access to sufficient amounts of safe and nutritious food, making it one of the world’s major donors in this area. In the Sahel region, the EU has been the second biggest donor after the United States with 850 million euro of aid, 35 per cent of which was allocated to the food security livelihoods (FSL) sector and 25 per cent to nutrition.
Beyond humanitarian aid: The EUs approach to alleviating food crisis in the Sahel at a time of global insecurity
Istituto Affari Internazionali
On the Horizon offers a snapshot into emergent conflicts and crises in the next three to six months in a clear, accessible format, identifying triggers, key dates to watch and potential behaviour of conflict actors, to support global conflict prevention efforts. This edition includes entries on Bangladesh, DR Congo, Ethiopia and Somaliland.
On the Horizon: October 2023-March 2024
International Crisis Group
Covid-19. The Russian invasion of Ukraine. Commodity price volatility. The rise of global inflation and interest rates. Currency depreciations among indebted middle-income economies. And now, natural disasters. As a sequence of events, the consequences can be both tragic and long-lasting. After analyzing the macroeconomic prospects of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Region, this edition of the regional Economic Update assesses the human toll of macroeconomic shocks in terms of lost jobs and deteriorating livelihoods of the people of MENA.
Balancing Act: Jobs and Wages in the Middle East and North Africa When Crises Hit
World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
In 1950, approximately 128.2 million people were aged 65 and older, just 5.1 per cent of the world’s population.
Today, the world has 807.8 million older people, a sixfold increase accounting for 10 per cent of the global population. Since women outlive men by an average of 5.2 years, they comprise a greater share of older persons.
Progress on the Sustainable Development Goals The gender snapshot 2023
UN WOMEN
Africa faces a serious challenge of youth unemployment, which affects millions of young people and hampers the continent’s economic transformation potential. According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), about 13 million young people in Africa are unemployed, and around 60 million young African people are not engaged in employment, education, or training as of 2022. By 2050, Sub-Saharan Africa will have twice as many people as it has today, and more than half will be under 25 years old.
Reading of the Week: Creating More and Better Jobs for African Youth through School-to-Work Transition Programs
African Center for Economic Transformation
What are the motivations for internal migration, and how do social relations influence the migration process? In answering these questions, this paper focuses on internal migration to Accra, the capital of Ghana. Qualitative interviews were conducted with 20 migrants in different areas of the city and analysed using narrative analysis. We found that livelihood and lifestyle dimensions work in tandem as motivations for migration. While the main reasons for moving to Accra, according to the interviewees, are related to livelihood, they are reflected and performed in culturally bound lifestyles. Furthermore, while social relations are rarely the main motivator to migrate, the social networks of migrants constitute an important enabling (or disabling) factor in shaping both livelihood and lifestyle dimensions of the migration process. Finally, we found that different ties – including emotional and economic – have different meanings across the migrants’ social network throughout the migration process.
The cake is in Accra: a case study on internal migration in Ghana
Taylor & Francis Online
Benin is doing its part to minimise the adverse effects of climate change by adopting a stringent set of nationally determined commitments (NDCs). These include measures to reduce emissions in the agricultural, energy and forestry sectors. The government has made significant progress in meeting Benin’s NDCs since their inception. For example, major infrastructure investments have been made in both the energy and agricultural sectors. Overall, the objectives set out in the NDCs align well with the country’s national priorities, such as improving food insecurity and access to electricity. However, the government’s policy response to COVID-19 showed little overlap with the NDCs. Integration with future emergency policy responses could be achieved by aligning the government’s monetary policy with the NDCs. In particular, liquidity earmarked for the agricultural and microfinance sectors could be directed at projects that advance the achievement of the NDCs.
Benins Nationally Determined Contributions and its Economy
The South African Institute of International Affairs
In recent months, Saudi Arabia’s ambitious investments in sports – with a particular focus on football – raised tremendous international attention. In December 2022, Portuguese superstar Cristiano Ronaldo was transferred to Saudi football club Al-Nassr, followed by a number of other stars such as Karim Benzema, Jordan Henderson, and Sadio Mané. Within months following the Ronaldo deal, stadium attendance had jumped from 8,000 to 10,000, as had TV ratings, while the number of Instagram followers of his new club had risen from 850,000 to more than 9.7 million in a matter of days.
The Development of a Community Sports Sector in the Gulf: A Driver for Youth Empowerment
Brussels International Center
Avec plus d’une soixantaine de groupes ethniques, le Burkina Faso est considéré comme un modèle de vivre-ensemble où le brassage culturel et ethnique ne souffrait d’aucune menace majeure. Mais depuis quelques années, cette cohésion sociale qui régnait semble laisser place à un climat de méfiance, faisant de la question des identités, en particulier celle de l'appartenance ethnique, l’une des plus sensibles, au point où le rapport sur les résultats définitifs du Recensement Général de la Population et de l'Habitat 2019 ne comporte aucune donnée sur la répartition ethnique de la population burkinabè.
Les Burkinabè sont fortement attachés à leur identité nationale
AFRO Barometer
This report is an attempt to do something novel: rather than explore how many people think the world is in trouble, it looks at the willingness of people in key countries around the world to support real, credible, and global solutions. The Global Governance Survey examines attitudes to the state of the world, revealing deep concern over conflict, economics, corruption, and other global issues, as well as potential global governance responses to issues of peace and security, pandemics, climate change, and institutional reform.
Reading of the Week: Global Governance Survey 2023 - Finding Consensus in a Divided World
Stimson Center
Un des droits humains fondamentaux, l’accès universel à l’eau et à l’assainissement est le sixième Objectif de Développement Durable des Nations Unies (2023) et constitue un défi pour la plupart des pays africains. Touché par une crise sécuritaire depuis 2012, le Mali a vu son réseau hydraulique affaibli par la dégradation de ses infrastructures. Le service d’alimentation en eau a subi de fortes pressions à cause des déplacements internes liés à l’insécurité.
Au Mali, la fourniture de services deau et dassainissement reste un défi
AFRO Barometer
The European Union faces intricate challenges in its policy towards Tunisia. Examining the country’s intertwined political and socio-economic crises, the analysis sheds light on President Kais Saied’s populist politics, which have hindered the political transition and undermined democratic structures. Amidst the pressing challenge of high inflation, escalating debt, sluggish growth and critical shortages in basic goods, the analysis delves into the IMF loan negotiations amidst European concerns regarding Tunisia’s economic collapse and increased migration flows across the Mediterranean.
EU-Tunisia Relations: Unpacking the Conundrum
Istituto Affari Internazionali
Over eight years of war in Yemen have had dire consequences on people’s day-to-day lives and shaped their definitions and perceptions of peace. Years of failed negotiations have allowed the warring factions to monopolize conversations on peace. Within these negotiations, women at both the local and national level have been largely excluded, despite them being at the forefront of mitigating the war’s impact on Yemenis. Utilizing a community-centered approach, this study seeks to give agency to Yemenis to define peace based on their own lived experiences, propose practices that promote women’s role in peacebuilding, and suggest ways to mitigate local practices that produce or reproduce gender inequalities and violent or non-peaceful practices. The study heavily draws on feminist literature that argues the ‘hidden’ everyday practices carried out by women — procreation, day-to-day routines, caregiving, satisfying basic human needs, negotiating inequalities, social relations, and resolving conflict—are integral to social cohesion, but inadequately researched nor recognized.
GRASSROOTS VOICES: Women and Everyday Peacebuilding in Yemen
SANAA
This study sheds light on the potential of personal income tax (PIT) to address inequality in African countries. We employ new data on PIT design and reforms from the TaxDev Employment Income Taxes Dataset (EITD) alongside data on pre-tax income distributions from the World Inequality Database (WID) to model the redistributive capacity of PIT regimes in African countries, and the extent to which reforms to these regimes between 1995 and 2020 have affected this potential. We find that, on average across the study period, PIT could reduce inequality by around 4.1 Gini points in African countries if applied to the entire income distribution.
Personal income tax reforms and income inequality in African countries
Overseas Development Institute
The Heritage Institute’s State of Somalia (SOS) report focuses on the main developments and key trends in politics, security, the economy, social services and the role of external actors in 2022. The objective of this annual report is to document key events that shaped Somalia throughout the year as well as provide analysis and context for policymakers, academics and the general public in order to support peace and state building efforts in the country.
State of Somalia: 2022 Report
Heritage Institute
How can a global community linking people on the basis of a Korean musical genre influence political and military processes in the world at large, and Israel in particular? In the digital era, social media have gained widespread popularity and become an important element of human culture. These platforms constitute a modern town square - a space for public discourse, where information and ideas flow rapidly.
Cultural Communities as a Foundation for Global Influence Operations: The K-Pop Community and Operation Guardian of the Walls
The Institute for National Security Studies
Globalization and extensive urbanization worldwide have brought cities to the forefront of global governance in a multilateral system designed and created for states. Cities have come to exercise power due in part to the inadequacy or ineffectiveness of inter-state action, but also because their democratic nature and immediate connection to the population make them legitimate actors. This Briefing Paper discusses the changing role played by cities transnationally as actors involved in global governance. It also seeks to increase awareness of the global rise of cities. The paper starts by exploring the empowerment of cities, followed by a discussion on the means through which cities exercise their power, as well as relevant policy sectors that constitute important parts of their global agenda. Finally, the Briefing Paper ponders the implications for the state-dominated international order.
Cities as global actors: Bringing governance closer to the people
Finnish Institute of International Affairs
“End the summer camp” was how Minister of National Security Ben-Gvir related to the changes he plans in the conditions of the security prisoners incarcerated in Israel. There is no question that reforms here are in order. However, given that the issue of prisoners is a highly sensitive issue and enjoys a consensus throughout Palestinian society, it is quite possible that a worsening of the prisoners’ conditions might lead to escalation, perhaps even to a severe degree. How should Israel act?
The Incarceration of security prisoners - What is possible, and what is correct
The Institute for National Security Studies
Although positivity around Russia-Africa relations was observed, most notably in South Africa and Mali, the surveyed populations presented as generally indifferent to or negative towards Russia. The Russia-Ukraine war was a key driver of anti-Russia attitudes. Additionally, the data found a division in sentiment between some African governments and their citizens, who tend to be more wary of associating with Moscow and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Data suggested measurable bot activity present in pro-Russia sentiment across all surveyed countries. Given the latest developments such as the referendums in eastern Ukraine and the Nord Stream pipelines leak, additional analyses on data collected from Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa found evidence of continued strong anti-Russian sentiment — even where Twitter users speculated about Western interference.
African Social Media Indicates Indifference towards Russia
The South African Institute for International Affairs
Despite serious challenges, Africa's youthful electorates vie to have their voices heard so as to shape a more democratic, stable, and prosperous future.Spanning West, Central, and Southern Africa, the seven elections in Africa this year comprise some of the most populous countries on the continent. This includes Nigeria, which kicks off the electoral calendar in February, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, with elections slated for late December. Collectively, the countries selecting national leaders in 2023 represent roughly a third of the continent’s population.In five of the elections (Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia, Madagascar, Sierra Leone, and Zimbabwe), incumbents are seeking a second term. There is only one open seat, in Nigeria, as President Muhammadu Buhari steps down after his constitutionally mandated second term.
Africas 2023 Elections
Africa Center For Strategic Studies
This Working Paper argues that one should watch out for populism and what it implies for hybrid threat activity. Populism has an underlying authoritarian logic and thus undermines the main checks and balances, and the individual and public rights and liberties that regularly keep excesses of power at bay in a liberal democracy. The logic of authoritarianism can thus mechanically undermine the key frameworks of a liberal democracy. Hybrid threats present an essentially political challenge to liberal democracies.
Watching out for populism: Authoritarian logics as a vulnerability to hybrid threat activity
The European Centre of Excellence
How much is the public in the Arab world worried about the economic situation? the security situation? What percentage would like to emigrate? What are the attitudes toward Israel – and have these attitudes shifted in light of the Abraham Accords or Israel’s “change government”? An examination of public opinion polls conducted in the area reveals interesting insights about Israel’s neighboring countries, and these insights are important for decision makers in Jerusalem
What Do the Arabs Think? Public Opinion in Arab Countries
The Institute for National Security Studies
Five years after the end of the war against the Islamic State group, more than a million people remain displaced across Iraq. Tribal feuds, destruction of infrastructures and private homes, and a lack of services and livelihood opportunities are some of the main factors impeding the safe and voluntary return of these civilians to their area of origin.
No War Yet No Peace: Why a Million Iraqis Remain Exiled in Their Own Country
Brussels International Center
Based on interviews with actors closely involved in the discussions, this Weekly Review examines the influence of international law in the negotiations on South Sudan’s permanent constitution-making process relating to public participation. While international law was infrequently referred to in the negotiations, much of what was discussed and agreed resonates with international law.
South Sudans Permanent Constitution-Making Process Negotiations: The Influence of International Law and Public Participation
The SUDD Institute
State practices relating to the repatriation of child returnees from Northeast Syria continue to be inconsistent and incomplete. With an increasing number of European countries escalating their efforts to bring home women and children from the camps, it is imperative that these practices include holistic policies towards child returnees that address the wide range of issues presented not only in the short- but also in the mid- and long-term.
Repatriation of child returnees from Northeast Syria: A child-rights approach to their management, rehabilitation, and reintegration
International Centre for Counter-Terrorism
The adoption of Resolution 922 by the Israeli government was a significant effort to accelerate economic development within the Arab population. The program rested on two primary objectives: economic development among the Arab sector and its integration in the Israeli economy and society; and a narrowing of the existing wide socioeconomic gaps between the Arab sector and the general population.
Five-Year Development Plans for Arab Society in Israel: Lessons from Plan 922 for the New Five-Year Plan
The Institute for National Security Studies
Climate change threatens to reduce the water flow in the Nile and increase the frequency and severity of droughts and floods in Egypt, which already suffers from water scarcity. This threat is a looming crisis as it seriously undermines the Government of Egypt’s long standing food self-sufficiency approach to food security, an approach which is wasteful of increasingly precious arable land and water resources, while achieving neither more food self-sufficiency nor meaningful food security for the poor and vulnerable.
Short of Water and Under Increasing Pressure to Deliver Food Security: Key Policy Considerations the Case of the Arab Republic of Egypt
Police Center for the New South
The COVID-19 pandemic plunged Africa into its worst recession in more than 50 years, causing a 2.1% drop in Africa’s gross domestic product in 2020 and pushing about 30 million Africans into extreme poverty in 2021. Already grappling with poverty and unemployment, the continent lost about 22 million jobs in 2021 (African Development Bank Group, 2021, 2022). In a bid to slow the spread of the coronavirus, at least 42 African countries enforced restrictions such as lockdowns, curfews, border closures, travel bans, and the suspension of sports and recreational activities, all of which hindered income-generating activities (African Development Bank Group, 2021).
Africans see unfair distribution of COVID-19-relief assistance, loss of resources to corruption
Afro barometer
The Africa Visa Openness Index (AVOI) measures the extent to which African countries are open to visitors from other African countries. The index analyzes each country’s visa requirements to show which countries on the continent facilitate travel to their territory.
The 2022 Africa Visa Openness Index report shows African countries making progress in their freedom of travel policies, most of which had been severely curtailed by the Covid-19 crisis.
Reading of the Week: Africa Visa Openness Report 2022
African Development Bank Group
Among other social barometers, the results of the November 1 elections to the 25th Knesset provide an insight on relations between Israel’s Jewish majority and Arab minority. Arab voter turnout was higher than expected, indicating an ongoing motivation of the majority of Arab citizens to integrate into the country's fabric. At the same time, the rate of those who abstained from voting or voted for the nationalist Balad party in higher numbers than before also suggest a sense of apathy toward the Israeli political system and a growing inclination toward nationalism and segregation.
Arab Society in Israel and the Elections to the 25 Knesset
The Institute for National Security Studies
Events such as the 2014–16 West Africa Ebola epidemic, the 2018–20 Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) Ebola outbreak and the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic have demonstrated the impacts of infectious disease outbreaks on the whole of society. These natural examples have highlighted the interconnectedness of the world and the need for collaborative international efforts to improve biological security to mitigate the spread of disease outbreaks
Opportunities for the European Union to Strengthen Biosecurity in Africa
Stockholm International Peace Research Institute
This piece examines the role of labor and religious movements in the face of the “informalization” of the African economy. How does the growth of an informal sector set back class formation and labor activism? How will the rise of economic networks outside formal economic and political channels affect state capacity? Can labor unions develop organizational independence if the labor market is segmented with a growing number of informal workers?
Informal Markets and Parallel States
Policy Center for the New South
More than half of all children living in conflict areas in 2021 - an estimated 230 million - lived in the deadliest war zones, a nine percent increase from the previous year, reveals new analysis from Save the Children released during the Africa Conference on Children and Armed Conflicts. While the recorded number of incidents of killing and maiming in conflict has dropped by about a third since 2018, more than 8,000 children, an average of 22 a day still died or were maimed in 2021.
Reading of the Week: Stop The war On Children. The forgotten Ones
Save the Children
Air pollution is the largest environmental risk to public health globally. Exposure to indoor and outdoor fine particulate matter is associated with an estimated 7 million premature deaths each year and is responsible for millions more non-fatal health outcomes such as an increase in emergency-room visits related to exacerbated asthma, and adverse pregnancy outcomes.
Reading of the Week: A Practical Guide for Business Air Pollutant Emission Assessment
Stockholm Environment Institute
Losses and damages are increasingly felt across the globe, with the most vulnerable countries and populations most affected. At the same time, processes around Loss and Damage under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change are characterized by divergent positions and slow progress.
Making Headway on Loss and Damage
Danish Institute for International Studies
This paper proposes two new approaches for targeting the beneficiaries of social benefit programs in Tunisia, such as the cash transfer and healthcare programs. The first approach is a mixed means test, which extends the proxy means test model to explicitly combine both individual/household assessment and geographical targeting methods. The second approach is drawn from the identification step of the family of multidimensional poverty measures.
Social Safety Nets in Tunisia: Comparison of Different Targeting Methods
Economic Research Forum
It has long been said that no one knows with any certainty the population of Lagos, Nigeria. A decade ago, the United Nations conservatively put the number at 11.5 million, but other estimates ranged as high as 18 million. The one thing everyone agreed was that Lagos was growing very fast. The population was already 40 times bigger than it had been in 1960, when Nigeria gained independence.
Reading of the Week: Megalopolis - How coastal west Africa will shape the coming century
The Guardian
Just as the call for women’s full, equal and meaningful participation has grown louder, and recognition of their role has become more visible, so has the violence that threatens and limits their participation. This violence is targeted precisely at silencing their advocacy and inhibiting women in general from participating in public life. The ascendancy of extremist political actors and the resurgence of military coups and seizures of power by force have made this problem worse.
Security Council Letter S/2022/756: Protecting women human rights defenders in conflict
United Nations Security Council
In October 2018, Carnegie published a report calling for fundamental educational reform in the Arab world and arguing for the need for that reform to move “from schooling to learning” in order to “serve the needs of pluralistic societies and foster the development of active, responsible citizens who are empowered to deal with complexity and advance constructive change.” The report gave a number of recommendations encompassing the different fields within which education takes place: the school, the state, and the society at large.
Innovation and New Directions: Searching for Novel Paths in ArabEducation Reform
Carnegie Middle East Center
Across the Arab world, different education reform initiatives have had varying levels of success in different contexts. This paper explores some types of education reform that could serve as groundwork for broader change.
Innovation and New Directions: Searching for Novel Paths in Arab Education Reform
Carnegie Middle East Center
On September 13, ACET hosted its first intergenerational dialogue. Junior and senior high school students and recent graduates from across Africa were joined by policymakers and education specialists in a series of three panels and Q&A sessions on workplace skills gaps, digital skills, and soft skills. This article on digital skills is the second in a series of three articles with highlights from each panel.
Intergenerational Dialogue on Digital Skills
African Center for Econimic Transformation
The workforce challenge is among the most complex and urgent socio-economic and political challenges facing the Middle East and North Africa today. The growth of large and youthful populations is colliding with the constraints of slow growth and investment, which makes it impossible for regional markets to absorb surplus labor. This report presents an analysis of workforce development drawing from primary research conducted in Jordan, Tunisia, and Oman and it breaks down the problem into a set of supply and demand side factors.
Ready for Work: An Analysis of Workforce Asymmetries in the Middle East and North Africa
Wilson Center
Global food security, especially in Africa, has been in the media publications these past few months. While a few outspoken African leaders shifted blames to Russia-Ukraine crisis, others focus on spending state budget to import food to calm rising discontent among the population. Some experts and international organizations have also expressed the fact that African leaders have to adopt import substitution mechanisms and use their financial resources on strengthening agricultural production systems.
Mitigating Africas Food Crisis, Increased Russian Grain Exports: Can African Leaders Prioritize and Address Food Security Challenges?
Global Research
The Multilateralism Index (MI) is the first known attempt to quantifiably assess the state of the multilateral system. It focuses on developments in the multilateral system over the past decade across five domains: Peace and Security, Human Rights, Environment, Public Health, and Trade. The domains are evaluated across a total of sixty-five indicators covering three dimensions: Participation, Performance, and Inclusivity.
Multilateralism Index: Pilot Report
International Peace Institute
The present report is submitted in response to a request by the General Assembly in the Doha Programme of Action for the Least Developed Countries (resolution 76/258). In paragraph 42 of the Programme of Action, the need to address severe food insecurities was recognized, and the Secretary-General was requested to explore the feasibility, effectiveness and administrative modalities of a system of stockholding for the least developed countries on a regional and sub regional basis, or alternative means, taking into account possible economic implications and risks, and to report thereon to the Assembly for its consideration at its seventy-seventh session.
Food insecurity in the least developed countries: options for a system of stockholding and complementary means at the global, regional and sub regional levels
United Nations
The blue economy is a complex multi-theme and multi-layer conceptual paradigm according to which marine spaces are considered as spaces with great potential for sustainable development and socio-economic prosperity. This is particularly true for the Mediterranean where, since ancient times, marine and maritime activities have played a key role in the well-being of coastal countries and communities.
The Blue Economy in the Mediterranean Region and Opportunities for the Algae Industry
Istituto Affari Internazionali
The civil wars in Libya, Syria and Yemen arose from the Arab Spring that, in turn, was triggered by a broken social contract. In the old social contract, the state would provide free health and education, subsidized food and fuel, and jobs in the public sector, in return for which citizens would keep their voices low, despite widespread cronyism and corruption.
A new social contract for post-conflict Middle East and North Africa
Economic Research Forum
The present report is submitted pursuant to Security Council resolution 2625 (2022), by which the Council extended the mandate of the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) to 15 March 2023 and requested the Secretary-General to report on the implementation of the Mission’s mandate every 90 days. The report covers political and security developments, the humanitarian and human rights situation and progress towards the implementation of the Mission’s mandate between 1 June and 31 August 2022.
Report of the Secretary-General: The Situation in South Sudan
United Nations
Social protection floors were a key policy and anti-poverty focus globally, even before the challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic (UNDP, 2014). In line with the global push for social protection floors, low- and middle income countries have been creating and expanding cash transfer programs targeted to the poor.
Minimum and Living Wages in Jordan and Tunisia: Implications for Social Protection Floors
Economic Research Forum
The current study is an attempt to provide a linguistic, a historical, as well as a sociocultural record of the language variety spoken in Bashiqa (Northern Iraq) by one of the communities which represents a religious minority in Iraq known as Yazidis. This language is an example of an under-researched language diversity. This research draws on a sample of eleven in-depth semi-structured interviews with Yezidi men and women from Bashiqa, Iraq.
The Language of the People of Bashiqa: A Vehicle of their Intangible Cultural Heritage
Institute of Development Studies
This article investigates this question by focusing on the relation between religion and politics in Lebanon. The Lebanese democracy is embedded in the consociational constitution, which distributes executive power and parliamentary representation based on the size of the nation's 18 publicly recognized confessional communities (Henley 2016).
Radical Secularism and Worldview Dilemmas in Countering Sectarianism in Lebanon
Dansk Institut for Internationale Studier
Food prices have reached an all-time high in the Spring and Summer of 2022 because of the war in Ukraine, and farmers around the globe are facing substantially increasing fertilizer prices. These effects are not distributed evenly, with the Middle East, North Africa and the Horn of Africa suffering the most from the fall in grain exports from Ukraine.
Global Food Insecurity Due to the War in Ukraine
Netherlands Institute of International Relations
The African Development Bank Group has released a new report providing a snapshot of results of regional operations financed by its concessional lending window, the African Development Fund (ADF), over the last decade. The ADF regional operations to date show that Africa-wide changes are underway. The Bank has a proven performance track record and scores second on global rankings.
ADF Regional Operations Report Crossing Borders, Connecting Communities, Changing Lives
African Development Bank Group
Recalling all its previous resolutions, statements of its President and press statements on the situation in Mali, Reaffirming its strong commitment to the sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity of Mali, emphasizing that the Malian authorities have primary responsibility for the provision of stability, security and protection of civilians throughout the territory of Mali, urging the Malian authorities to uphold their efforts to meet their obligations in that regard, and expressing great concern at the violent and unilateral
actions taken by non-State actors hampering the return of State authority and basic social services.
The Situation in Mali - MINUSMA
United Nations Security Council
This ODI Policy brief is intended to help those working towards gender equality to better meet the aspirations and needs of those they aim to support. It departs from a growing base of evidence that those who seek to advance gender justice will accelerate progress when they intentionally channel resources to feminist social movements – one of the most important historical drivers of change.
Reading of the Week: How to Partner with Feminist Movements for Transformative Change
One Day International (ODI)
At its 95th meeting, on 29 September 2021, the Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict of the Security Council examined the fifth report of the Secretary General on children and armed conflict in Yemen (S/2021/761), covering the period from 1 January 2019 to 31 December 2020, which was introduced by the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict.
Conclusions on children and armed conflict in Yemen
United Nations Security Council
The following executive summary outlines the results of an Arab News / YouGov pan-Arab survey on attitudes toward the Russia-Ukraine conflict. The poll, the ninth in the series, sought to understand how Arabs across 14 countries in the Middle East and North Africa viewed the conflict in Ukraine.
Reading of the week: Russia Ukraine: Where do Arabs Stand?
Research Studies - Arab News
On 14 March 2022, UN Secretary-General António Guterres announced the establishment of a Global Crisis Response Group on Food, Energy and Finance (GCRG) to coordinate the global response to the widespread impacts of the war in Ukraine. Many countries from all the continents will have to face challenges of food security, energy and financing. This brief is the result of the coordinated work of the Global Crisis Response Task Team, reporting to the Steering Committee of the GCRG.
Global Impact of War in Ukraine on Food, Energy and Finance Systems
UNCTAD
This Migration Governance Indicators (MGI) pro?le presents a summary of well-developed areas of migration governance in Liberia as well as areas with potential for further development, as assessed through the MGI. The MGI is a standard set of approximately 90 indicators to assist countries in assessing their migration policies and advance the conversation on what well-governed migration might look like in practice.
Republic of Liberia Migration Governance Indicators
International Organization for Migration (IOM)
This paper, written by Refugee Law Project (RLP) at Makerere University's School of Law and produced in collaboration with the Humanitarian Policy Group (HPG) at ODI, reflects on a research project that examined the relationship between social media and inclusion in humanitarian action in Uganda's forced migration context.
Social Media and Inclusion in Humanitarian Action. The Case of Refugees in Uganda
ODI
Small island developing States (SIDS) are among the most water-scarce countries in the world, with seven in ten SIDS facing risks of water shortage, including nine in ten low-lying SIDS (UNESCO, UNEP, 2016). Water being an element of life, its scarcity undermines fundamental priorities, such as the human right to clean water and sanitation and the conservation of habitat and biodiversity. By extension, water scarcity constrains economic development in SIDS.
Aligning Economic Development and Water Policies in Small Island Developing States
United Nations Conference on Trade and Development
This report examines how missions are implementing their mandates to protect civilians from SGBV, including CRSV, and assesses good practices, gaps, and opportunities for improvement. The report draws on lessons learned from the UN missions in South Sudan (UNMISS) and the DRC (MONUSCO).
UN Peacekeeping and the Protection of Civilians from Sexual and Gender Based Violence
IPI
Child malnutrition remains widespread in sub-Saharan Africa, especially in rural areas where many households are involved in subsistence farming. Increasing farm-level production diversity (FPD) is often considered a useful strategy to improve child diets and nutrition, but the empirical evidence is mixed. Most studies have investigated associations between FPD and dietary diversity. We therefore aimed to analyse associations between FPD and child and adolescent nutritional status.
Farm-Level Production Diversity and Child and Adolescent Nutrition in Rural Sub-Saharan Africa: a Multicountry, Longitudinal Study
The Lancet
The future of the food system is critical to the long-term well-being of Africa and its people. An abundance and variety of safe and nutritious food, which too many Africans still lack, is the foundation for good health and cognitive development. And as African leaders have recognized, agriculture and value added food manufacturing can lead Africa's economic growth by providing jobs while meeting growing food demand in the region and the world.
Food Safety in Africa
World Bank Group
At the February 2022 Assembly of AU Heads of State and Government (HoSG) Summit, the HoSG committed to exercise leadership to advance the vaccination agenda and urge the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) to ensure greater coordination and collaboration to support Member States in achieving the goal of vaccinating at least 70% of the continent's population by year 2022.
Report of the High Level Ministerial Meeting Partnerships to Accelerate COVID-19 Vaccination in Africa
African Union
This report presents findings and recommendations intended to assist the government of Iraq and its international partners in improving political, social, economic, and security conditions in order to enhance national stability, stabilize Iraq's democratic processes, and promote broad-based, Iraqi-generated economic growth.
Iraq: Implementing a way forward
Atlantic Council
The Impact of Peace & Security on Culture & Heritage Protection in Africa
OXFAM
This paper seeks to understand the potential for existing NBS-centered initiatives to better incorporate climate adaptation, thereby contributing to broader adaptation efforts needed to combat the climate emergency.
The Potential for Narute Based Solutions Initiatives to Incorporate and Scale Climate Adaptation
World Resources Institute
Transitional justice is a tried and tested approach in post-conflict peacebuilding. It presents challenges and opportunities in regions plagued by violent extremism, such as the Lake Chad Basin.
Transitional justice Testing the waters in the Lake Chad Basin
Institute for Security Studies
The marine fish supply is increasing but the current positive growth is at a rate that cannot match the increasing population's per capita consumption demands.
The Future of Marine Fisheries in the African Blue Economy
African Development Bank Group
This report presents findings and recommendations intended to assist the government of Iraq and its international partners in improving political, social, economic, and security conditions in order to enhance national stability, stabilize Iraq's democratic processes, and promote broad-based, Iraqi-generated economic growth.
Iraq: Implementing a way forward
Atlantic Council