The Economic Research Forum and ESCWA are embarking on a joint report on Rethinking Inequality in Arab states. During the ERF 24th Annual Conference, we caught up with Khalid Abu-Ismail, Chief of the Economic Development and Poverty Section at UN-ESCWA, and recorded the short interview below.
The topic of inequality is very challenging and it has many different angles. There's been a lot of research on inequality done in the region and especially by the Economic Research Forum but most of this research has been focused on income inequality.
The purpose of the joint ERF-ESCWA report to make use of micro data that has been made available from demographic and health surveys, in order to say something new about what happened to inequality in health, education, and living conditions.
The report aims to identify policy implications and recommendations that will be useful for the Arab states, both at the regional level and at the national level.
The Economic Research Forum’s 24th Annual Conference is held in Cairo, Egypt, on 8-10 July, 2018. The main theme of the plenary sessions is “The New Normal in the Global Economy: Challenges and Prospects for MENA”. The conference aims to draw on the lessons learned from the restructuring of the economic order across the region, particularly in light of the wide-ranging consequences of the decline in oil prices. With social turbulence and conflict persist in several MENA countries, the main goal is adequately reconciling short-term social and economic concerns with long-term growth and reform efforts. Visit the conference website to find out more about the event and access papers, videos and blogs.
