Jordanians are chattering about how the interim government is facing a number of difficult choices, none of which are of its own making. There is painful medicine for Jordanians in the prescription agreed with the IMF this past week, and people felt it immediately in prices paid for energy and power. No one argues that Jordan needs to take immediate steps to stop its slide into even lower growth, … [Read more...]
Security in the Sahara Not a Shell Game
Threat not Overstated; Remedies Require “Losing Old Paradigms” Contradictions are not rare in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region when it comes to politics and diplomacy. This is particularly evident in the continuing efforts to resolve the Western Sahara conflict. While all of the parties voice concern over the lack of a resolution, most, namely the Polisario and Algeria, are … [Read more...]
Stevens Initiative Launches Grassroots Global Conversations among Youth
The first group of awardees of the Chris Stevens Virtual Exchange Initiative competition, limited to US NGOs in its first year, was announced this week in Washington, DC. The program is part of a multi-year effort to generate cross-cultural communications among young people in the US. Middle East, and North Africa (MENA). An international public-private partnership, the Stevens Initiative is named … [Read more...]
Unemployment Numbers Mask Job Solutions
In an interview published in the newspaper “L’Economiste,” Moroccan Minister of Employment and Social Affairs Abdeslam Seddiki, made it clear that “to solve the problem of unemployment, we should not count only on growth.” He went on to say that “according to estimates, 1 percent of growth rate generates an average of 30,000 jobs, and we have a labor market that is witnessing an annual arrival … [Read more...]
Facing Challenges in the Food-Water-Energy Nexus
The fragility of water resources and how it impacts energy and food are moving rapidly to the top of the world’s environmental agenda. This should come as no surprise. A key principle in understanding core issues in the Middle East is that all Arab societies, bar none, have evolved around maintaining water supplies and managing their relationship to food, land, and survival. This is not … [Read more...]
King of Morocco Promotes Development in Africa by Africa
While much of the news coverage of Western and Central Africa focuses either on security concerns or problems related to balanced growth, the King of Morocco took the debate in another direction, all but unnoticed in the Western media. At the Moroccan-Ivorian Economic Forum, which opened in Abidjan on February 24, King Mohammed VI laid out a compelling vision for Africa’s development. He said that … [Read more...]
USAID Expands Civil Society Capacity Building Programs in Morocco: Part 2
In my previous posting, I previewed some of the key features related to youth employment programs in the recently announced Country Development Cooperation Strategy (CDCS) 2013-2017 for Morocco launched by USAID during the November visit of His Majesty King Mohammed VI with President Obama. The major sections of the strategy with the relevant goals and objectives are: CDCS Goal: Advance … [Read more...]
US partnering with Morocco to support its human development – Part 1
What better way to start a new year than to review events of the last quarter and see what the indicators tell us about how Morocco is progressing. The highlight of 2013 was, of course, the meeting in November between President Obama and King Mohammed VI to renew and upgrade the bilateral partnership. The well-crafted diplomatic statement that was released detailed modes of cooperation and … [Read more...]
Education and Employment: Bridging the Divide (Part 2/2)
East and North Africa, rates of unemployed young women are eight times that of men. This is the last of a two part series. Read part one here.As Jamie McAuliffe, president and CEO of Education for Employment (EfE), remarked at the WEF conference in Jordan: “We are trying to get governments and businesses to identify job-creating sectors and encourage investors to engage in them.” He also spoke of … [Read more...]
Worker incentives: Are MENA employee stereotypes shifting?
In reviewing comprehensive strategies for closing the gap between education and employment—an unresolved agenda of the Arab uprisings—one area where there is no ready agreement is non-monetary compensation. Everyone acknowledges that money is the chief incentive for attracting employees, but there is a dilemma when taking a longer view of the “employee value chain,” that is, from graduation to … [Read more...]