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Renewing the Dialogue on Inclusive Growth in MENA: Re-Framing the Debate and Setting the Agenda

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10:30 am June 2023
Add to Calendar 2023-06-16 10:30:00 2025-05-02 16:20:24 Renewing the Dialogue on Inclusive Growth in MENA: Re-Framing the Debate and Setting the Agenda Description Location Policy Center Policy Center Africa/Casablanca public

Location: PCNS

For Registration.

 

PCNS IMF

 

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Policy Center for the New South (PCNS) are organizing a joint event titled “Renewing the Dialogue on Inclusive Growth in MENA: Re-Framing the Debate and Setting the Agenda” taking place on Friday 16th of June 2023, starting at 10:30 am (Rabat time GMT+1) at the Policy Center for The New South’ HQ, at Mohammed VI Polytechnic University campus, Rabat, Morocco. The event will be held in two sessions: a panel discussion under the theme “The Political Economy of Inclusive Growth in MENA: Understanding the Challenges and Opportunities” and a closed-door experts roundtable to delve deeper on “The Role of Multilateral Organizations in Promoting Inclusive Growth in the Region.”

Despite gains in poverty reduction, literacy and lifespans, many MENA economies have struggled to ensure that the benefits of economic development accrue equally to all segments of their population. Among the main issues that remain unresolved are the high share of inactive youth, large gaps in economic opportunities for women, fragmented social protection systems, and underdeveloped private sectors with tight regulation and limited access to credit that stifle the creation of new firms and growth in output, employment, and incomes.

The recent confluence of negative shocks threatens to widen these gaps. The pandemic has pushed additional 75 million people over the world into extreme poverty in 2021, and its impact has been felt especially by the low-skilled, the young, women, refugees, and migrant workers. Higher commodity prices and the spike in inflation have exacerbated this phenomenon, adding to the challenges facing the poor and resulting in increased food insecurity. The greater demand for protection and recovery against these shocks is running up against the constraints from weaker fiscal positions and the need to tighten monetary policy conditions.

A few global trends are also weighing on MENA prospects for strong and inclusive growth. Climate change is already posing significant challenges to many economies in the region, by causing more frequent and intense weather-related disasters. And the increased use of automation and artificial intelligence in production processes mean that MENA labor markets will look quite different in the future, with new challenges and opportunities that are still difficult to appreciate fully.

The roundtable provides an opportunity to reassess the inclusive growth agenda in the MENA region considering the rapidly changing world.

*All times indicated are GMT+1.

10:30 – 10:45  

Opening Remarks

 

Karim El Aynaoui, Executive President, Policy Center for The New South

Taline Koranchelian, Deputy Director of the Middle East and Central Asia Department, IMF

10:45 – 11:50        

Session 1: “The Political Economy of Inclusive Growth in MENA: Understanding the Challenges and Opportunities”

 

Moderator                  

Nour Amache, Journalist, Asharq TV

 

Speaker                      

Ibrahim El Badawi, Managing director, Economic Research Forum

Joseph Bahout, Director, Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs

Ziad Bahaa Eldin, Former Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Development and Minister of International Cooperation, Egypt

Larabi Jaïdi, Senior Fellow, Policy Center for the New South

Lina Khatib, Director, SOAS University Middle East Institute

 

11:50 – 12:30  

Q&A/Discussion

13:30-14:30    

Session 2: Closed Experts Roundtable: “The Role of Multilateral Organizations in Promoting Inclusive Growth in the Region.”

 

Moderator                  

Taline Koranchelian, Deputy Director of the Middle East and Central Asia Department, IMF

 

Speakers                     

Jeffrey D. Sachs, Director of the Center for Sustainable Development, Columbia University

Karim El Aynaoui, Executive President, Policy Center for the New South

Alejandro Werner, Founding Director, Georgetown Americas Institute

Christian de Boissieu, Senior Fellow, Policy Center for The New South

14:30 – 15:15 

Q&A/Discussion

 

Speakers
Nour Amache
Journalist, Asharq TV
Nour Amache is Business News expert and Economist who anchors the show "Mo'asherat Asharq- Asharq Indices” on Asharq Business with Bloomberg, while covering with other anchors other daily business news shows. Her main show “Mo'asherat Asharq -Asharq Indices” is a daily two-hours show that covers GCC, MENA, and Global Markets, with a focus on economic and geopolitical developments.  The other shows she anchors also follow global markets, with a daily focus on GCC & emerging markets', in addition to U.S., Asian & European markets and economies. Amache was formerly an economics lecturer at the Lebanese American University, where she taught Macroeconomics, Microeconomics, Fiscal Policy, and Public Finance. Amache holds a Masters' degree in Public Policy from Northwestern ...
Ziad Bahaa Eldin
Former Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Development and Minister of International Cooperation, Egypt
Dr. Ziad Ahmed Bahaa-Eldin is an Egyptian lawyer and expert on financial law, investment and company laws, governance, compliance, and economic legislation. He is currently the managing partner at Thebes Consultancy and a non-executive member on several company boards of directors including the National Bank of Egypt UK, Arabian Cement Company, AXA Egypt, Allam Holding, MTI, Samcrete for Industrial Development, and Saray Capital (Dubai International Financial Centre). He previously held several public positions including the Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Development and Minister of International Cooperation (2013-2014), Member of Parliament representing South Assiut (2012), Chairman of the Financial Regulatory Authority “FRA” (2009-2011), and Chairman of the General Autho ...
Joseph Bahout
Director, Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs
Joseph Bahout, PhD, is the director of the Issam Fares Institute and an associate professor of practice in the PSPA Department at AUB. Until recently, Joseph Bahout was a scholar at Carnegie Endowment in Washington DC, professor at Sciences-Po Paris, and consultant to the policy planning unit of the French MoFA. Prior to that, he was an assistant professor at USJ, and researcher at CERMOC. He also had political and consultancy activities with various ministries and public bodies in Lebanon. In France, he was a senior advisor to the SG of Académie Diplomatique Internationale.  Bahout has been a fellow with the Crown Center for Middle East Studies at Brandeis University, with the Geneva Center for Security Policy, and a member of the Scientific Board of IFPO. He is the author of ...
Christian de Boissieu
Senior Fellow
Senior Fellow at the Policy Center for the New South, Christian de Boissieu is emeritus Professor of Monetary and Financial Economics at the University of Paris I (Panthéon – Sorbonne). In the past, he taught at the College of Europe (Bruges) and at Sciences Po Paris. He is Fellow of the Academy of Technology (France) and the Royal Academy of Belgium. He is vice-Chair of the “Cercle des économistes”.   Former Consultant to the World Bank, the European Commission and the European Parliament, he is honorary President of the French Finance Association. In 2011-2019, he was member of the Board of the French SEC (Autorité des Marchés Financiers AMF).   Professor de Boissieu was Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers which advises the French Prime Minister (2003-2012). He has ...
Karim El Aynaoui
Executive President
Karim El Aynaoui is Executive President of the Policy Center for the New South. He is also Executive Vice-President of Mohammed VI Polytechnic University and Dean of its Humanities, Economics and Social Sciences Cluster.   Karim El Aynaoui is an economist. From 2005 to 2012, he worked at the Central Bank of Morocco where he held the position of Director of Economics, Statistics, and International Relations. At the Central Bank of Morocco, he was in charge of the Research Department and equally a member of the Governor’s Cabinet. Previously, he worked for eight years at the World Bank as an Economist for its regional units of the Middle East and North Africa and Africa.   Karim El Aynaoui has published books and journal articles on macroeconomic issues in developing countr ...
Ibrahim Elbadawi
Managing Director, Economic Research Forum
Ibrahim Elbadawi is the Managing Director of the Economic Research Forum (since January 2017- August 2019; August 2020- present). Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Republic of Sudan (Sept 2019-July 2020). Professor Emeritus, University of Khartoum. Before that he was Director at the Economic Policy & Research Center, the Dubai Economic Council (2009-2016); Lead Economist at the Development Research Group of the World Bank, which he joined in 1989; and Professor of economics at the University of Gezira in Sudan. He holds a PhD in economics and statistics from North Carolina State and Northwestern universities in the USA. During his work at the World Bank he also served as Research Director of the African Economic Research Consortium (Nairobi, 1993-1998), on externa ...
Larabi Jaïdi
Senior Fellow
Larabi Jaïdi is a Senior Fellow at the Policy Center for the New South and an Affiliate Professor at Mohammed VI Polytechnic University. His areas of expertise include international economy, economic policies, international economic relations, regional economies, social development, international relations, and Mediterranean studies. He also served on the Special Commission on the New Development Model of Morocco, a consultative body created in November 2019 to formulate the country's new developmental guidelines. Jaïdi is a former Professor at Mohamed V University in Rabat-Agdal and a founding member of both the Centre Marocain de Conjoncture and the Groupement d’Etudes et de Recherches sur la Méditerranée.   Prof. Jaïdi previously served as Advisor to the Prime Minister an ...
Lina Khatib
Director, SOAS University Middle East Institute
Lina Khatib is an internationally renowned authority on the Middle East. Before becoming Director of the SOAS Middle East Institute, she directed policy research programs at some of the world’s leading policy institutes. She served as director of the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Chatham House and was director of the Carnegie Middle East Center at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Prior to that she co-founded and led the Program on Arab Reform and Democracy at Stanford University’s Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law. Before moving to Stanford, she lectured at Royal Holloway, University of London. Her work is firmly interdisciplinary, spanning the study and practice of international affairs, political transitions, and visual culture ...
Taline Koranchelian
Deputy Director in the Middle East and Central Asia Department, the International Monetary Fund (IMF)
Taline Koranchelian is the Deputy Director in the Middle East and Central Asia Department of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), where she oversees the regional work of the department as well as the IMF’s work in Algeria, Djibouti, Iraq, Mauritania, Morocco, Tunisia, and Yemen.Prior to her appointment as Deputy Director in the Middle East and Central Asia Department, Koranchelian was Director of the IMF’s Middle East Regional Technical Assistance Center since June 2016. Between 2012 and 2016, Koranchelian was Assistant Director of the IMF’s Strategy, Policy, and Review, leading the IMF surveillance policy and reviewing the work of the IMF for around 30 countries across all regions.Throughout her more than 15 years of experience at the IMF, Koranchelian has held various posi ...
Alejandro Werner
Founding Director, Georgetown Americas Institute
Alejandro Werner joined the Georgetown Americas Institute as founding director in March 2022. His expertise is in economic outlook, emerging markets, monetary policy, currency, financial crises, and fiscal policy in Latin America. He Served as director of the Western Hemisphere Department of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) from January 2013 to August 2021. A Mexican citizen, Mr. Werner has had distinguished careers in the public and private sectors as well as in academia. He served as Undersecretary of Finance and Public Credit of Mexico (December 2006–August 2010) and Head of Corporate and Investment Banking at BBVA-Bancomer (August 2011 until end-2012). Previously, he was Director of Economic Studies at the Bank of Mexico and Professor at ITAM, Instituto de Empresa, an ...
Jeffrey D. Sachs
Director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University
Professor Sachs is widely recognized for bold and effective strategies to address complex challenges including the escape from extreme poverty, the global battle against human-induced climate change, international debt and financial crises, national economic reforms, and the control of pandemic and epidemic diseases.  Sachs serves as the Director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University, where he holds the rank of University Professor, the university’s highest academic rank. Sachs was Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University from 2002 to 2016. He is President of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network, Co-Chair of the Council of Engineers for the Energy Transition, academician of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences at the Va ...