High-Level Meeting on Global Responsibility Sharing Through pathway for Admission of Syrians Refugees In light of the magnitude, scope, and complexity of the Syria crisis, and its impact on neighbouring countries as well as those further afield, there is an urgent need for the international community to recommit to the fundamental principle of...

Senior governmental representatives, World Bank specialists and United Nations officials as well as members from the civil society gathered on February 15, 2016 in Paris for a cross-regional exchange between Middle Eastern and European countries hosting refugees, on the analytical findings, and policy implications, of the World Bank/UNHCR study “...

Senior governmental representatives, World Bank specialists and United Nations officials as well as members from the civil society gathered on February 15, 2016 in Paris for a cross-regional exchange between Middle Eastern and European countries hosting refugees, on the analytical findings, and policy implications, of the World Bank/UNHCR study “...

Report from a “Moving” Mission in the Mediterranean (2) Movements of refugees and migrants have always existed. Due to the protracted conflict in Syria and increasing fragility, they are turning into an enormous challenge for the Mediterranean region. The instability which is most severely affecting the Middle East has started to spillover...

The World Bank Group, the United Nations and the Islamic Development Bank Group launched a new financing initiative to scale-up financing in the Middle East and North Africa to help countries hosting significant refugee populations, countries impacted by conflict, as well as countries that have significant investment needs to achieve economic...

Syria is the world’s biggest humanitarian crisis. Billions of dollars in international aid are needed to support people caught up in the conflict. The Supporting Syria and the Region conference brought together world leaders from around the globe to rise to the challenge of raising the money needed to help millions of people whose lives have been...

France has just hosted COP21 to a very successful conclusion: the 2015 Paris Agreement. This achieved consensus among 196 countries on the most complex and challenging global issue of our time – climate change. It reconciled the widely different perspectives and interests of developing and developed countries, the North-South divide which has been...

Although very vulnerable to the effects of climate change, the countries of the southern Mediterranean shore are struggling to implement climate change mitigation and adaptation programs. Climate investment scale-up is necessary, together with better targeting of financing and eliminating investment barriers, to ensure sustainable development and...

The ‘social contract’ is an idea that dates back to the ancient Greeks, and refers to the implicit agreement among members of a society that defines their relationship with each other and the state. That relationship holds the key to unravelling the puzzle of the ‘Arab Spring.’   To development economists (like myself), the uprisings...

Roughly half of the World’s 60 million plus displaced people - 19 million refugees and 41 million internally displaced people (IDPs) - are female. This the highest number ever recorded and the numbers continue to rise. According to the UN’s High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Gutierrez “we are witnessing…an unchecked slide into an era in which...