Blogs

Submission Guidelines

The ADP Blog is an open platform for practitioners and researchers working on development issues in Arab countries. The ADP welcomes blogs in Arabic, English and French.

Interested contributors are encouraged to submit their blog entries (word format, up to 700 words) by e-mail [email protected], mentioning/including the following:

1Title of the blog

2Name of the author

3Link to source, if previously published

4Photos (if any – up to 500KB)

5Translated version of your blog (if available)

Please note that we reserve the right to introduce minimal edits to the submitted article to enhance the clarity of the text. Major edits will be shared with the contributors ahead of publishing.

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Revisiting Health Inequalities in the Arab Region

02 Nov 2020

Arab countries have committed to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with the ultimate goal of “LEAVING NO ONE BEHIND”. Health is at the heart of the SDGs grounded in the value of heath equity.[1] The outbreak of the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) underlined the long-existing health inequities in the Arab region. Inequalities in health are clearly an endemic feature in the Arab region despite the progress in health in past decades.[2][3][4][5] This blog builds on Arab countries’ commitments to, and investigates the degree of, progress made in achieving improved health...Read More
COVID-19 in the Arab region: An opportunity for a transformative change

19 Oct 2020

This blog aims at illustrating the COVID-19 experience in the Arab region. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) Situation Report of August 1, 2020[1], the Arab Region has detected 962,861 COVID-19 positive cases representing 5.5 percent of the world detected cases. Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Iraq carry over half of the reported cases. The spread of the infection is significant and the number of reported cases has doubled in the month of July 2020. Some countries show clusters of infected cases, while others are moving with large strides towards community transmission. The...Read More
The Macroeconomic Outlook for the Arab Region: Navigating Fiscal Distress during COVID-19 Crisis

23 Jul 2020

The impact of the outbreak of COVID-19 and the resulting lockdown measures on the economies of the whole world—including those of Arab countries— is devastating. The level of fiscal distress the pandemic has been causing for governments around the globe is unprecedented. In the Arab region, the channels that traditionally cause such effect are additionally overwhelmed by exogenous and endogenous variables that exacerbate the situation. The first fiscal channel is associated with the decline in government revenues arising from the slowdown of the world economy and...Read More
The MIT LEGATUM CENTER FOR DEVELOPMENT and ENTREPRENEURSHIP: WILL COVID-19 CHANGE INVESTOR BEHAVIOR? THE HOPE WE HOLD ON TO

Dina H. Sherif, Executive Director, Legatum Center and Adel Boseli, Investor in Residence, Legatum Center and CEO of VFlock, 11 May 2020

If we had a dollar for every time we read an article or attended a webinar that spoke about how the Coronavirus will change the world order, it is likely that we both would be able to retire by the end of this global pandemic and rapid economic decline. As two individuals who have been working in the entrepreneurship and innovation space for over a decade, consistently advocating for more impact-driven investing, the biggest hope that we hold on to is that this global pandemic will force investors to take a step back, pause, reflect and come to the realization that they too, must...Read More
Exploring the Potential Impact of COVID-19 on Trade in the Arab Region

AHMED GHONEIM, 07 May 2020

Though the Corona virus is dealing an unprecedented shock to the global economy, the extent of its relative impact on Arab countries is still not clear. This blog aims to identify the particular characteristics of that shock on Arab countries, with special focus on trade prospects, and to identify the channels through which its impact is likely to spread. One factor that will condition the way Arab countries experience the pandemic’s disastrous economic consequences is their relationship to oil, and the shock to that commodity’s markets. Arab countries are highly...Read More
Is Lebanon Ready for the Fourth Industrial Revolution?

Ghassan Dibeh, 28 Jan 2020

Dismantling the Myths of Digital Technologies Blog Series Ghassan Dibeh is contributing with a series of blogs aimed at initiating an informed discussion on the knowledge economy and the digital revolution. The blogs aim at deconstructing some of the generic narratives around these issues and to inform readers about various dimensions that need to be considered for Arab countries to benefit from the value-added and the competitive edge that digital technologies would create. In an article on the Second Machine Age, the authors said "Many of the biggest ideas in...Read More
An Interview with the General Authority for Statistics in Saudi Arabia on the web portal and statistical database

General Authority for Statistics in Saudi Arabia, 28 Nov 2019

This blog is part of a series of blogs that the Arab Development Portal is conducting with the Arab National Statistical Offices to provide updates on the reforms and plans taking place at the NSOs. There is no doubt that the traditional reporting platforms no longer match the aspirations of internet users, whose percentage—in the Arab region— more than doubled since 2010, reaching 49.5% by the end of 2018, up from 24% in 2010[1]. As such, it became necessary for National Statistical Offices (NSOs) to develop open electronic platforms and statistical databases that adopt...Read More
On the Digital Revolution and Inequality in the Arab World

Ghassan Dibeh, 06 Nov 2019

Dismantling the Myths of Digital Technologies Blog Series Ghassan Dibeh is contributing with a series of blogs aimed at initiating an informed discussion on the knowledge economy and the digital revolution. The blogs aim at deconstructing some of the generic narratives around these issues and to inform readers about various dimensions that need to be considered for Arab countries to benefit from the value-added and the competitive edge that digital technologies would create. The world is currently in the midst of a new technological revolution: the 4th industrial...Read More
The 2019 Visualize 2030 - Youth from the Arab region VISUALIZE their concerns on inequalities

Arab Development Portal Team, 29 Oct 2019

October 14, 2019 – After months of planning and preparation, Visualize 2030 paved its way through success for the third year in a row! Organized by the Arab Development Portal (ADP) – an initiative of the Coordination Group of Arab, National and Regional Development Institutions (CG), the Islamic Development Bank and the OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID), in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)— the third edition of Visualize 2030 data-camp was held in Beirut from 10 to 14 October. Visualize 2030, the first regional SDGs data...Read More
Technology-driven entrepreneurship pushes youth to think beyond limits: The Case of Tunisia’s EVOCRAFT

Arab Development Portal Team, 17 Oct 2019

Young people around the globe are powerful catalysts for positive change, committed to driving growth, achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and changing the world. Today, 16 percent of the world population are aged between 15 and 24, accounting for 1.2 billion young people in 2019, of which 73.8 million originate from the Arab region.[1] Therefore, empowering youth in the Arab states to become drivers of change and unlocking their potential is central to establishing regional collaboration and promoting more inclusive and stable societies. However, more often...Read More