IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/fpr/fprepo/9780896292956.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Agriculture and economic transformation in the Middle East and North Africa: A review of the past with lessons for the future

Author

Listed:
  • Nin-Pratt, Alejandro
  • El-Enbaby, Hoda
  • Figueroa, Jose Luis
  • ElDidi, Hagar
  • Breisinger, Clemens

Abstract

The agriculture sector is key for economic and social development, but the sector’s potential has not received enough attention from policy makers and stakeholders in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Political transitions, instability, and the resulting refugee crisis have shifted focus away from other pressing development challenges, including slow progress in economic diversification, high unemployment, and persistent high food insecurity and rural poverty. Despite its small contribution to GDP, agriculture is strategic for sustainable development in the MENA countries. Agriculture, for example, is central to achieve food and water security in a region characterized as one of the most food insecure and water scarce in the world. The sector’s role in employment is also central, given the region’s high structural unemployment. However, it will not be possible for MENA countries to develop agriculture without a pathway to structural economic transformation. The region has already started the process of transformation but longstanding challenges remain. This report aims to examine the drivers, constraints, and social implications of agricultural development in MENA and to explore possible cornerstones for new and sustainable development strategies in the context of economic transformation. More specifically, the report provides answers to the following questions: • What development strategies and policies did governments in MENA put in place over the past three decades and how did they affect the performance of agriculture? • How did the structural characteristics of the MENA countries affect agricultural development and the economic transformation process in the region? • What did we learn from the past performance of agriculture? What should be the central elements guiding future agricultural policies? • What are elements of a new and sustainable development strategy in MENA countries? • What is the role of agriculture and agro-industries for development in MENA?

Suggested Citation

  • Nin-Pratt, Alejandro & El-Enbaby, Hoda & Figueroa, Jose Luis & ElDidi, Hagar & Breisinger, Clemens, 2018. "Agriculture and economic transformation in the Middle East and North Africa: A review of the past with lessons for the future," Food policy reports 978-0-89629-295-6, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    • Handle: RePEc:fpr:fprepo:9780896292956
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.ifpri.org/cdmref/p15738coll2/id/132725/filename/132936.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Mohannad Alobid & Bilal Derardja & István Szűcs, 2021. "Food Gap Optimization for Sustainability Concerns, the Case of Egypt," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(5), pages 1-17, March.
    2. Evan Borkum & Anitha Sivasankaran & Elena Moroz & Matt Sloan, "undated". "Evaluation of the Fruit Tree Productivity Project in Morocco: Final Report on Irrigation Activities," Mathematica Policy Research Reports 09644639569a4e0a8cb85cee5, Mathematica Policy Research.
    3. Evan Borkum & Anitha Sivasankaran & Elena Moroz & Matt Sloan, "undated". "Evaluation of the Fruit Tree Productivity Project in Morocco: Final Report on the Catalyst Fund Activity," Mathematica Policy Research Reports d90e0c50304f4a71bb747d9ca, Mathematica Policy Research.
    4. Assem Dandashly & Christos Kourtelis, 2020. "Classifying the Implementation of the EU's Normative Power in its Southern Neighbourhood: The Role of Local Actors," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(6), pages 1523-1539, November.
    5. Sergio René Araujo‐Enciso & Thomas Fellmann, 2020. "Yield Variability and Harvest Failures in Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan and Their Possible Impact on Food Security in the Middle East and North Africa," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 71(2), pages 493-516, June.
    6. Raouf, Mariam & Kassim, Yumna & Kurdi, Sikandra & Mogues, Tewodaj & Mahmoud, Mai & Randriamamonjy, Josée & Thurlow, James & Wiebelt, Manfred & Breisinger, Clemens, 2018. "The (Arab) Agricultural Investment for Development Analyzer (AIDA): An innovative tool for evidence-based planning," MENA working papers 6, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:fpr:fprepo:9780896292956. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ifprius.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.