The region’s many problems require structured solutions

The president of the World Bank Group outlines some of its initiatives in the Middle East.

When we look across the world today and think about the most pressing issues, the upheaval that is taking place in the Middle East demands our attention.

The war in Syria has claimed more than 100,000 lives. It has displaced four million people and forced another two million to seek refuge in neighbouring countries, adding great burdens to Jordan and Lebanon in particular. The impact of broken lives and broken economies only grows as the fighting continues.

It is not the time to look away from the Middle East.

The World Bank Group has been playing several roles. At times, we are in the back rooms with diplomats and at others we are on the front lines with humanitarian aid workers. Always, we are working with governments, companies or civil society groups to help build strong and sustainable foundations for development.

We know that you cannot have development without peace. But inclusive development is the only way of meeting the aspirations of millions in the Middle East, and billions around the world for a good job, a good education and access to quality health care. Without it, there can be no stability and peace cannot last.

In the decade before the Arab Spring, most of the countries in the region experienced relatively strong growth of four to five per cent each year. Yet beneath the surface of these statistics there lurked serious problems.

An increasingly educated young middle class was frustrated that the few available jobs were reserved for those with more connections than talent. The private sector operated by earning privileges from the state, leading to a form of crony capitalism that only helped a few, and undermined exports and jobs.

When prosperity is reserved for the select few, all of those left out feel the burn of inequality. It leads to ever rising levels of frustration, and the current upheavals in the Middle East have made us all well aware of the consequences.

Many countries in the region now face a triple challenge. First is restoring macroeconomic stability; second is reforming their economies to meet the high expectations of the people who marched in the streets; and third is managing the transition to new constitutions and more open, contested, multiparty elections.

These challenges would be daunting for any single country. But they have all come together in one region. That makes it all the more important for the international community to marshal its resources to support those young women and men in their demand for the basic human dignity that is their due.

That also makes it important to come to the aid of Jordan and Lebanon today. The World Bank provided $150 million in emergency aid to Jordan just a few months ago, and we just completed a comprehensive economic and social impact assessment of Lebanon that found the country has lost billions of dollars due to the war in Syria. Donors pledged some funds for the country, but we need to do much more or we risk catastrophe in Lebanon.

Just six months ago, our board endorsed the two goals of the World Bank Group: the first is to end extreme poverty by 2030; the second is to boost shared prosperity by promoting real income growth for the bottom 40 per cent of the population.

The goal of ending extreme poverty stands on its own as the moral underpinning of everything we do. Boosting shared prosperity is more complex but relevant both to the entire world and to the Middle East in particular.

One of the lessons of the recent upheaval is that we should pay much more attention to whether growth reaches all the population, and not just the elites. We need to look beyond overall GDP growth and directly monitor the income gains among the bottom 40 per cent.

There are a number of ways of boosting shared prosperity, but it is vital that the path chosen is both economically and environmentally sustainable.

One path is through increased opportunities driven by greater economic growth. Another is through a stable social contract, which focuses on raising the living standards of the poor and the disadvantaged. Both paths can lead to improved opportunities for citizens if societies can become more dynamic and productive with greater room for social mobility.

We have no illusions about the challenges ahead. To achieve our ambitious targets, we have developed a strategy that marshals all our resources and focuses them exclusively on the twin goals of ending extreme poverty and boosting shared prosperity by 2030.

We will bring this same focus to our own ongoing support for the Middle East. The World Bank Group will partner with the private sector to use their expertise and capital to create good jobs for the poor.

We will take more risks and commit more resources to laying the foundations for development in fragile and conflict-affected regions.

Finally, we will be as ambitious as possible on issues that are of global importance, including investing in women and girls and combating climate change.

The Middle East should not face its many challenges alone. Our efforts in support should be commensurate with the scope of the problem.

Dr Jim Yong Kim is the 12th president of the World Bank Group