Background Notes - Developing Innovation Scoreboard for the MENA
Summary Note - IPR Workshop
AFD Plan d'Actions 2013-2015
AFD and the European Union in support to Youth employment in Lebanon
Nov 04, 2014 / Highlight
More than 20 percent of youth in Lebanon is unemployed, and more than 40 percent of educated young people leave the country within five years after graduation. Lebanon, like many countries in the Mediterranean, suffers a severe mismatch of skills between demands of the market place and low quality of vocational education and training....
Jordan: Strong Community Commitment … and a School Principal with Veterinarian Skills
Sep 08, 2014 / Blog entry
By Hannah Linnemann*
The blog reports our findings and discoveries from field site visits to schools in Jordan that were conducted from March 17 – March 21 as part of the World Bank Group's regional engagement on governance in social service delivery in the Middle East and North Africa Region. The team consisted of Jumana Alaref (MNSSP), Hannah ...
ARABTERM: A new online technical dictionary in Arabic, English, French, and German
Sep 03, 2014 / Blog entry
By Guido Zebisch*
ARABTERM is a quadrilingual technical dictionary offering glossaries in German, English and French and especially, the translation of terms along with an illustrated definition in Arabic (www.arabterm.org). The project is jointly commissioned by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and the...
A Global Lesson on Educational Reform from Ten Schools in Jordan
Sep 03, 2014 / Blog entry
By Manal Quota*
Zeid Bin Haritha is a school in the Jordanian village of Yarqa. In this school, you’ll witness tiny overcrowded classrooms, old broken furniture and over-worked teachers. These are characteristics common across a number of schools in the Governorate of Al-Salt. But, wait! This is not a tragic story filled with heart breaking...
A Story of Working Together Against all Odds from a Public School in the Palestinian Territories
Sep 03, 2014 / Blog entry
By Jumana Al Aref*
This blog was written prior to the current conflict in Gaza and serves as a reminder of the critical importance of education, regardless of the circumstances, in building a path to a more hopeful future.
What is Mrs. Abla’s secret? How has one principal managed to mobilize teachers and parents into becoming one harmonious...
Experts’ Meeting: An Innovation Scoreboard for the MENA
Sep 03, 2014 / Highlight
The European Investment Bank (EIB) through the Centre for Mediterranean Integration (CMI), in collaboration with ISESCO and UN-ESCWA Technology Center, organized a regional experts’ meeting on the 19th and 20th November 2014 at the League of The Arab States (LAS) in Cairo, Egypt. This meeting aimed to initiate and develop an innovation...
Economic Transitions in the Mediterranean
Aug 04, 2014 / MDF
At the initiative of academics from both the Northern and Southern Mediterranean who are convinced that there is a common destiny for the nations and peoples of this region, a working group met to consider the transitions underway in the Arab nations. This initiative was launched in November 2013 and is facilitated by the Center for Mediterranean...
Creating the Right Ecosystem for Knowledge Valorisation: A Case Study of ODTÜ Teknokent
Jul 07, 2014 / Highlight
Ankara, Turkey
The CMI and the EIB, in collaboration with the ISESCO and the UN-ESCWA Technology Centre, are organising a regional workshop about the contribution of the Quadruple Helix actors to knowledge transfer within Science and Technology Parks (STPs) on June 16th-18th, 2014 in Ankara, Turkey.
ODTÜ Teknokent, a Science Park that...
Embracing Skilled Migration: Global Skills Partnerships to Solve Global Skills Shortages
May 02, 2014 / Blog entry
This article is the third in a 3 part blog series on brain drain in the context of international labor mobility. Its aim is to question the conventional wisdom and help devise win-win solutions to age old problems.
By Manjula Luthria*
Earlier in this series we marked the omnipresent concern about brain drain and noted that because the term...
Regional Event: 12-13 June 2014 - From Vision to Action - Strengthening the Governance-Quality Assurance Nexus in Higher Education in MENA
Apr 30, 2014 / Highlight
The last two decades have witnessed a strong push for more university autonomy around the globe, paired with a request for higher education institutions to be accountable not only to those directly involved– the academic community, students and their families – but also the wider public. As such, the topic of quality assurance has played a...
Workshop on Patents and Structural Intangibles in the Mediterranean
Dec 23, 2013 / Highlight
The European Investment Bank, in its role as lead of the Center for Mediterranean Integration (CMI) programme “Innovation Capacities”, organised a workshop on the development of Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) in the Southern Mediterranean on the 7th of June, 2013 in Paris. This workshop was part of the annual “World Conference on Intellectual...
Learning to Compete Globally: Maghreb Universities look to Malaysia for Inspiration
Sep 18, 2013 / Highlight
With newspaper headlines focused on violence and political upheavals across the Middle East and North Africa region, it is easy to forget that an annual beginning is also underway. Children from the Mashreq to the Maghreb have started going back to school. Parents are buying school supplies for little ones and millions of teenagers are going...
Rencontre Valmer: “Transforming the Arab Economies: The Knowledge and Innovation Road”
Aug 14, 2013 / Highlight
The event included a brief presentation of the findings of the report as well as interventions from high-level “practitioners” from the South of the Mediterranean. The event also discussed concrete ways and means to take forward the Knowledge Economy agenda. The 60 participants included decision makers from countries bordering the South and North...
Participation in the International Conference on Mediterranean Countries and EU Opportunities, ETC Final Conference (Tunis)
Aug 14, 2013 / Highlight
The EU-funded FP7 bilateral project EU-Tunisia ETC (European Tunisian Cooperation) a network for the coordination of science and technology cooperation, organized an EU-Med conference event in Tunis which brought together experts, policy makers, and practitioners in research and innovation to reflect on and analyze innovation support mechanisms...
Consultation: “Tunisia: Moving towards the Knowledge Economy” (Tunis)
Aug 14, 2013 / Highlight
The CMI, UTICA, ISESCO, and other partners organized the high-level knowledge economy consultation, “L'Economie de la connaissance et de l'innovation: Un nouveau modèle de développement pour la Tunisie.” This was another example of timely policy advice that was delivered at the request of Tunisian counterparts, especially from the private sector,...
Workshop: “Moving towards the Knowledge Economy” (Cairo)
Aug 14, 2013 / Highlight
The event was jointly organized with the Egyptian Ministry of Scientific Research and partners such as the EIB and ISESCO. As a follow-up to a request from the Egyptian Ministry of Scientific Research, the objective was to organize a consultation and workshop on ways to move ahead on a knowledge and innovation–based strategy for Egypt with...
Global Innovation Index 2013
Aug 08, 2013 / Highlight
Launch of the Global Innovation Index 2013 - The Local Dynamics of Innovation.
This GII 2013 report contains Chapter 6: Local Innovation Dynamics: Examples and Lessons from the Arab world, by Jean-Eric Aubert, Tamer Taha, and Anuja Utz, CMI, 2013.
Full report available HERE.
Key Messages "Transforming Arab Economies: Towards Knowledge and Innovation" report
Jun 19, 2013 / Highlight
Anuja Utz, CMI Task Team Leader and main contributor to the report said its approach reflects the rich differences in challenges and opportunities across the MENA region. “Given the diversity of the Arab world, the study does not provide a cookie-cutter approach.” she said. “It offers examples of good practice from countries around the world and...
Rabat Declaration - Moving Towards New Development Strategies for Countries in the Arab World
Jun 15, 2013 / Highlight
Knowledge has always been central to development. To cope with the daunting challenges they face, particularly the need to create jobs and to develop more productive economies, Arab countries would do well to embrace a strategy for a knowledge-and innovation-driven economy. This is the main issue that is examined in the new report: “Transforming...
Cairo University Social protection and employment workshop Reflections from international experiences
Morocco: National KE Consultation in Rabat
Apr 25, 2013 / Highlight
As a follow up to demand from the Moroccan Ministry of Economy and Finance, the CMI organized a national consultation: "Un nouveau modèle de développement pour le Maroc: Quelle feuille de route pour l’économie fondée sur la connaissance?" on April 9 at ISESCO HQ in Rabat.
This high level consultation brought together policymakers (Director...
Natural Capital Accounting for Green Growth in MENA
Feb 18, 2013 / Highlight
Egypt, Lebanon and Morocco have expressed interest in joining the WAVES Natural Capital Accounting (NCA) initiative. They are among the first countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region to consider natural capital accounting as a means to encourage green growth, poverty reduction and job creation.
These countries, along with...
Governance and Public Sector employment in the Middle East and North Africa
Oct 04, 2012 / Blog entry
This blog has been co-authored by Lida Bteddini and Guenter Heidenhof
This blog is part of a weekly series that we hope will provide some food for thought on the critical questions outlined in the forthcoming MENA Flagship Report on Jobs.
Recent events across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region have underscored the urgent need to...
Why Jobless? The Growth Pattern
Oct 04, 2012 / Blog entry
This blog is part of a weekly series that we hope will provide some food for thought on the critical questions outlined in the forthcoming MENA Flagship Report on Jobs.
High unemployment in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) largely reflects the growth deficit. While China has been growing at 10 percent for a decade and has unemployment...
Why Jobless? Privilege Not Competition in the Private Sector
Oct 04, 2012 / Blog entry
This blog is part of a weekly series that we hope will provide some food for thought on the critical questions outlined in the forthcoming MENA Flagship Report on Jobs.
Several years ago, when I first came into the region, my department produced a Private Sector Flagship report titled, “From Privilege to Competition: Unlocking Private-Led...
Let’s Have a Conversation About What Exactly I Should Tell Your Finance Minister
Oct 01, 2012 / Blog entry
An invitation to a live web-chat on jobs in the Middle East and North Africa
This blog is part of a weekly series that we hope will provide some food for thought on the critical questions outlined in the forthcoming MENA Flagship Report on Jobs.
The Arab World faces a great opportunity with large numbers of educated youth entering the labor...