Poverty in the Middle East and North Africa

Abstract

In the five years since the completion of the World Bank’s World Development Report 1990: Poverty, poverty assessments have been completed for four Middle East and North African countries — Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, and Tunisia. These assessments provide data that yield insight into the extent of and government response to poverty throughout the region. The analysis here supplements that information by drawing on household expenditure surveys from six countries (Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia, and, supplementarily, Algeria and Iran) to derive lessons about poverty in the region. The analysis indicates that economic growth has been the most important determinant

Compared with the rest of the developing world, poverty in the Middle East and North Africa — whether expressed in levels of spending or consumption — is limited. Only about 5 percent of the region’s population is classified as poor, and the region compares favorably with the rest of the world in terms of income equality. Still, the countries in the region have the potential — and, with the right strategies, can develop the resources#x2013;to do even better.