High uncertainties are looming large over prospects for economic development in the MENA region, with escalating conflicts, geoeconomic fragmentation, and commodity price volatility. Socioeconomic indicators are deteriorating across the region, while inequalities are widening. As indebtedness is rising and growth forecasts have been substantially downgraded, the need for structural reforms, especially in governance, is increasingly urgent to unlock the economic potential of the region.   

How the war in Gaza, with its regional reverberations, has been impacting the economies of the region? What reforms need to be pushed forward to encourage private sector investments and advance financial development? How to increase productivity, boost job creation, and labour market participation? How could cooperation with countries on the Northern shore of the Mediterranean and with multilateral institutions help to facilitate this process?