ERF 32nd Annual Conference: After the Shock
FromJun 14, 2026 To Jun 16, 2026
Cairo, Egypt
The MENA region is entering a new economic phase, one defined not by episodic shocks but by sustained geopolitical disruption. The recent conflict involving Iran, the United States, and regional actors has exposed deep structural vulnerabilities across trade systems, financial channels, labor markets, and fiscal frameworks. This moment is not merely a crisis to be managed. It is a systemic stress test that is reshaping how economies function, how risks propagate, and how policy must respond.
Disruptions to trade routes, tightening financial conditions, and mounting pressures on firms and employment have revealed both the fragility and the latent strengths of prevailing economic models. Against this backdrop, the policy imperative extends beyond supporting private sector-led growth. The challenge is to undertake comprehensive reform, strengthen resilience, and enable structural transformation under conditions of persistent uncertainty.
It is in this spirit that the Economic Research Forum will convene its 32nd Annual Conference under the theme “After the Shock: Reform, Resilience, and Economic Transformation in MENA”. Held in Cairo from 14 to 16 June 2026, the conference will provide a high-level platform to engage with the region’s most urgent and unfolding economic challenges and to generate timely diagnosis, rigorous evidence, and actionable policy insights.
The three-day program will feature three plenary sessions, three special panels, and more than 60 competitively selected papers across over 20 sessions. Together, they will address pressing and emerging regional economic challenges and offer timely research findings and policy insights to support the region’s future prospects. In keeping with ERF tradition and its commitment to research excellence, the ERF Best Paper Award ceremony will be held at the close of the conference.
Conference Focus
The conference will explore the core dimensions of post-crisis reform and economic transformation in MENA:
- Systemic vulnerabilities: understanding how shocks transmit across trade, finance, labor markets, and firm dynamics;
- Economic resilience: strengthening fiscal, financial, and institutional capacity to absorb and respond to disruption;
- Structural reform: redesigning policy frameworks to enhance speed, coordination, and effectiveness;
- Transformation under uncertainty: adapting growth models to a global environment marked by fragmentation and elevated risk;
- Private sector adaptation: enabling firms to operate, invest, and scale amid heightened uncertainty.
Through these themes, the conference will distil lessons from the current crisis, showcase evidence-based policy responses, and foster dialogue on how to move from short-term crisis management toward long-term economic transformation.
A Regional Platform for Policy and Research Dialogue
The ERF 32nd Annual Conference will bring together leading scholars, senior policymakers, business leaders, and development practitioners in a high-level forum to share evidence, debate strategies, and identify actionable reform priorities.
Building on its strong regional network and policy-oriented mandate, ERF will facilitate a dialogue that moves beyond diagnosis toward reform pathways that can help shape how MENA economies navigate ongoing disruption and position themselves for a more resilient and sustainable future. This formulation is closer in spirit to the invitation draft’s emphasis on convening researchers and policymakers at a critical juncture.
Plenary Sessions
Plenary 1: From Shock to System: What the Crisis Revealed About MENA Economies
This plenary will examine how the current crisis has propagated across MENA economies, revealing deep-seated structural vulnerabilities beneath the surface of recent growth patterns. The discussion will explore transmission channels spanning trade disruptions, tightening financial conditions, pressures on SMEs, and labour market dislocations, with particular attention to the speed, breadth, and asymmetry of impacts across sectors. It will distinguish between temporary disruption and deeper structural weakness, and assess the risk of longer-term economic scarring if vulnerabilities remain unaddressed..
Plenary 2: Reforming Under Pressure: Building Resilient Economic Systems
This plenary will examine the reforms required to strengthen economic resilience and improve the effectiveness of policy responses under conditions of sustained stress. It will explore the robustness of fiscal and financial systems, the behavior of credit under heightened uncertainty, and the role of SMEs as both shock absorbers and transmission channels within the real economy. The discussion will also consider the evolving role of the state, not only as market participant but increasingly as strategic stabilizer and enabler of resilience. By focusing on how systems perform under pressure, the session will identify the structural and policy shifts needed to move from reactive crisis management toward more resilient and adaptive economic frameworks.
Plenary 3: From Resilience to Transformation: The New Economic Model for MENA
This plenary will explore how MENA economies can move beyond resilience toward sustained structural transformation. As the global economy shifts toward regionalization, supply chain diversification, and more risk-aware investment patterns, the foundations of traditional growth models are being reshaped. The discussion will examine how these shifts are redefining opportunities and constraints across trade, industrial policy, and labor markets, and what this implies for the region’s development trajectory. Particular attention will be given to the evolving role of the private sector as a driver of adaptation, innovation, and growth in an increasingly uncertain and fragmented global environment. By linking resilience to transformation, the session will help articulate the contours of a new economic model for MENA, one that is more adaptive, competitive, and better aligned with emerging global realities.
Key Questions for Discussion
The plenary sessions will address a set of core policy questions:
- How has the current crisis transmitted across MENA economies, and where are the main points of vulnerability?
- What distinguishes temporary disruption from structural economic damage in this context?
- How should fiscal and financial systems be redesigned to respond more effectively under stress?
- What role should governments play in stabilizing firms, particularly SMEs, during periods of disruption?
- How is the global shift from efficiency to resilience reshaping trade, investment, and economic policy?
- What reforms are required to sustain growth under persistent geopolitical uncertainty?
- How can MENA economies move from crisis management to long-term transformation?