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The Digital West Bank and Gaza Project. On March 26, following a year of analytical work and discussions with the Ministry of Telecommunications and Information Technology (MTIT), the World Bank approved a $20 million grant to support the Palestinian territories’ transition to the digital economy. The “Digital West Bank and Gaza” project ...

In Gaza, job prospects are even more grim. In that area, electricity is available for only four to six hours a day, and draconian movement restrictions limit what goods can move across borders. Economic activity is severely restricted, driving the youth unemployment rate to about 60 percent. Women face even higher barriers.

In Gaza, the drinking water tastes like seawater. Years of neglect and poor management, due in large part to recurring conflicts, has led to the steady depletion of Gaza’s natural aquifer. The empty aquifer has been invaded by seawater and, alarming for public health, untreated sewage. A series of droughts that ...

The webinar took place in preparation for a recently effective World Bank operation in the Palestinian territories, called the Digital West Bank and Gaza Project, which will support the Palestinian Authority (PA) in developing various areas of the digital economy, including enabling the regulatory, policy, and technical environment for e ...

The ‘social contract’ is an idea that dates back to the ancient Greeks, and refers to the implicit agreement among members of a society that defines their relationship with each other and the state. That relationship holds the key to unravelling the puzzle of the ‘Arab Spring.’. To development economists (like myself), the uprisings ...

It is my great pleasure to be here at the UN 2023 Water Conference. Water is the lifeblood of society. We need water for a thriving economy that can run farms, businesses, and factories. We need water for sustainable development—to produce food and deliver low-carbon growth. And we need clean water for healthy children and adults to realize ...

The global economic costs of water insecurity estimated at nearly $500 billion per year. Worsening droughts and flooding due to climate change and a burgeoning population compound the problem. There is an urgent need to accelerate change—to go beyond "business as usual" to address the water crisis. As the world’s largest multilateral source ...

The challenge of water scarcity is closely tied to energy and agriculture, and a broader view is needed to develop policies that address this relationship. A new wastewater plant was recently inaugurated in Gaza that illustrates how water management, energy and agriculture are intertwined. Ongoing instability in Gaza has meant that water and ...

Beirut, March 20, 2023 – Further to a request by the Ministry of Education and Higher Education, the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), the World Bank, and UNICEF have agreed to repurpose grant funding to support productivity allowance payments on an exceptional basis for the academic year 2022-2023 to eligible teachers and school personnel suffering from the severe ...

The MENA region of the World Bank has decided to integrate its GBV prevention and response into a comprehensive plan of action. GBV has devastating effects on the health and well-being of individuals and societies. As a source of psychological and physical trauma, it is also costly for economies, affecting the human capital of survivors, labor ...