The Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan and Pakistan region can create five million jobs by 2050 with consistent investment and business reforms, the World Bank has said.
Investment, particularly in the food and agriculture sector, will not only enable these economies to broaden their employment base by the middle of the century, it will also help them address food insecurity, the Washington-based multilateral lender said in its latest report.
“The agrifood sector already employs approximately 63 million people – nearly three in 10 workers across the [Menaap] region,” the World Bank said in its Building Food Security, Creating Jobs report. “While on-farm employment is declining, jobs in processing, logistics and food services are growing at twice the global rate, reflecting a dynamic structural transformation.”
While countries differ widely in terms of resources and the size and make-up of their economies, they all face the same challenges of food security and creating more and better jobs in their agrifood systems.
“More ambitious investment and policymaking are needed to meet the moment,” the World Bank said.
Menaap economies are facing a jobs challenge. The region’s working-age population is projected to grow by 220 million over the next 25 years, a 40 per cent increase from today. This is the second-largest projected increase across all regions, according to World Bank data released in April.
Youth unemployment
The Menaap region has one of the highest youth unemployment rates, hovering between 24 per cent and 28 per cent, according to International Labour Organisation data. More than half of the Menaap population is under the age of 30, which has created a bulge of young people seeking work.
However, the growing youth segment is also an opportunity if those nations institute the right policies and reform the business environment. “Contrary to common assumptions, large majorities of people see agrifood employment as an opportunity to earn good money, especially for young people,” the World Bank said.
Agri sector
Already, the agriculture and food sector employs an estimated 63 million people, or 28 per cent of the Menaap workforce.
Pakistan’s agriculture sector has 34 million workers, accounting for half of the agrifood employment in the region. The sector provides up to one in three jobs in the middle-income countries of the Middle East and North Africa region combined, and fewer than one in 10 jobs in the six-member economic bloc of the Gulf Co-operation Council, the World Bank said.
On-farm jobs account for about 79 per cent of total employment in the sector. The off-farm job segment is growing strongly but is “still well below potential”, the lender said.
Between 2010 and 2023, the region added 2.9 million off-farm jobs to the sector. This represents a growth rate of 28 per cent, which is well above the global average growth of 14 per cent.
“Growth rates were high both in the GCC, with a net increase of 208,000 jobs (43 per cent), and in the Mena MICs [middle-income countries], which added nearly two million jobs (53 per cent),” the World Bank report stated.
“In the GCC, these growth dynamics reflect high demand in the food service industry (restaurants, catering), in keeping with higher incomes and tourism.”
