**TRANSCRIPTION OF THE TEXT:**
We also committed $35 million in grants to support emergency relief in Gaza. Working with the World Food Programme, the World Health Organization, and the UN Children’s Fund, the grants supported the delivery of emergency food, water, and medical supplies. In the West Bank, we approved a $200 million program for the continuation of education for children, $22 million to support municipal services, and $45 million to strengthen healthcare and hospital services.
**Enabling green and resilient growth**
To help policymakers in the region advance their climate change and development goals, we published Country Climate and Development Reports for the West Bank and Gaza, Lebanon, and Tunisia. In Libya, the catastrophic flooding in September 2023 devastated eastern localities, particularly the city of Derna. The World Bank, together with the UN and the European Union, produced a Rapid Damage and Needs Assessment to inform recovery and reconstruction efforts.
We signed a new Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Islamic Development Bank to promote further collaboration between our institutions. The MoU focuses on joint knowledge and operational engagements around the energy, food, and water nexus, climate impact, empowering women and youth to engage with the private sector, and advancing the digital transition and regional integration. The MoU aims to achieve a co-financing value of $6 billion through 2026, 45 percent of which has already been met.
**Expanding economic opportunities for women**
The World Bank has drawn on a variety of instruments to support Jordan’s commitment to increase female labor force participation, including through the recently approved Country Partnership Framework. Through operations, technical assistance (such as Mashreq Gender Facility; Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative; and the Women, Business and the Law report), and policy dialogue, we have contributed to legal reforms in Jordan that removed job restrictions on women, prohibited gender-based discrimination in the workplace, and criminalized sexual harassment in the workplace. In fiscal 2024, we approved the first women-focused Bank project in the region: the Enhancing Women’s Economic Opportunities Program for Results aims to improve workplace conditions, increase financial inclusion and entrepreneurship, make public transport safer, and increase access to affordable, quality childcare services.
**Analyzing critical infrastructure needs**
We published an Interim Damage Assessment for Gaza in partnership with the UN and with financial support from the EU. This found that a preliminary estimate of the cost of damages to critical infrastructure from the conflict in Gaza between October 2023 and the end of January 2024 was around $18.5 billion—equivalent to 97 percent of the 2022 GDP of the West Bank and Gaza combined. When the situation allows, a full-fledged Rapid Damage and Needs Assessment will be conducted.
**COUNTRY IMPACT**
Egypt: The Bank-supported Takaful and Karama social protection program has reached 4.7 million vulnerable households, benefitting approximately 20 million individuals, 75 percent of them women.
Lebanon: A roads project has rehabilitated over 500 km of roads in 25 districts across the country and generated 1.3 million labor days for Lebanese workers and Syrian refugees.
Morocco: Our programs have benefited more than 400,000 people directly and more than 33 million people indirectly, through more than 230 disaster risk reduction projects.
**DESCRIPTION OF THE IMAGE OR CHART:**
The image is a pie chart titled "FIGURE 6: MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA IBRD AND IDA LENDING BY SECTOR - FISCAL 2024 SHARE OF TOTAL OF $4.6 BILLION." The chart breaks down the sectors as follows:
- Public Administration: 24%
- Social Protection: 13%
- Health: 13%
- Education: 17%
- Agriculture, Fishing, and Forestry: 8%
- Water, Sanitation, and Waste Management: 8%
- Transportation: 5%
- Energy and Extractives: 3%
- Financial Sector: 1%
- Industry, Trade, and Services: 2%
- Information and Communications Technologies: 6%
**TRANSCRIPTION OF THE TABLE:**
TABLE 13: MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA REGIONAL SNAPSHOT
| INDICATOR | 2000 | 2012 | CURRENT DATA* |
|----------------------------------------------------------|--------|----------|---------------|
| Total population (millions) | 283.9 | 356.2 | 430.9 |
| Population growth (annual %) | 2.0 | 1.8 | 1.5 |
| GNI per capita (Atlas method, current US$) | 1,595.5| 4,600.4 | 3,968.1 |
| GDP per capita growth (annual %) | 4.0 | 1.7 | 1.2 |
| Population living below $2.15 a day (millions) | 9.7 | 8.2 | 19.1 |
| Life expectancy at birth, females (years) | 70.8 | 73.9 | 74.8 |
| Life expectancy at birth, males (years) | 66.5 | 69.6 | 69.9 |
| Carbon dioxide emissions (megatons) | 813.2 | 1,297.7 | 1,370.9 |
| Extreme poverty (% of population below $2.15 a day, 2017 PPP)| 3.4 | 2.3 | 4.7 |
| Debt service as a proportion of exports of goods, services, and primary income | 15.1 | 5.2 | 12.4 |
| Ratio of female to male labor force participation rate (%) (modeled ILO estimate) | 24.5 | 26.2 | 23.2 |
| Vulnerable employment, total (% of total employment) (modeled ILO estimate) | 35.4 | 31.7 | 31.4 |
| Under-5 mortality rate per 1,000 live births | 46.7 | 29.0 | 20.9 |
| Primary completion rate (% of relevant age group) | 81.4 | 88.9 | 86.7 |
| Individuals using the Internet (% of population) | 0.9 | 26.0 | 73.4 |
| Access to electricity (% of population) | 91.4 | 94.7 | 96.9 |
| Renewable energy consumption (% of total final energy consumption) | 3.0 | 3.6 | 2.9 |
| People using at least basic drinking water services (% of population) | 86.5 | 90.6 | 93.7 |
| People using at least basic sanitation services (% of population) | 79.4 | 86.2 | 90.4 |
*Note: ILO = International Labour Organization. PPP = purchasing power parity. a. The most current data available between 2018 and 2023; visit [https://data.worldbank.org](https://data.worldbank.org) for data updates.
For more information, visit [www.worldbank.org/mena](http://www.worldbank.org/mena).