Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries and territories are facing complex economic, social, political and environmental challenges that vary in scope and extent across the region. Dwindling oil reserves, global energy prices and inflation are exerting mounting economic pressures. Climate change is likely to have a profound impact on the already scarce natural resources in the region, in particular on water availability and food supply. Demographic pressures in the region are putting a strain on education systems and labour markets, which were already fragile before the COVID-19 crisis. These issues are compounded by evolving regional and global conflicts and their social, human and economic costs, affecting the delivery of vital public services and disrupting livelihoods across groups in society.

Achieving long-term strategic development objectives while meeting citizens’ immediate needs requires revamping governance arrangements to ensure more coherent and efficient policy responses.

Most MENA governments have developed multi-annual strategic visions – and increasingly involve citizens and other stakeholders in their preparation – to guide policymaking over the long term and address cross-cutting challenges such as climate change, gender equality and intergenerational justice. To operationalise these visions, governments have strengthened strategic planning functions and developed governance mechanisms around planning units, guidelines, monitoring platforms, multi-level strategic planning frameworks and inter-ministerial committees. However, the effective establishment of co-ordination mechanisms to steer whole-of-government strategies and support the mainstreaming of cross-cutting objectives remains a key challenge. In many countries and territories, governance frameworks and mandates tend to lack clarity and are not always conducive to pooling and co-ordinating government action. Efforts to promote a more systematic use of tools such as risk management, strategic foresight, public communication, monitoring and evaluation and data governance could better inform planning and ensure buy-in for public action in the long term.

Managing and allocating public financial resources in an efficient, sustainable and informed way in line with national development objectives calls for more comprehensive budgetary governance reforms.

The introduction of medium-term budget approaches by several MENA governments, together with the implementation of performance-related budgetary tools and practices, represents an important step towards developing a long-term strategic vision of public expenditures. Nevertheless, progress remains uneven across the region, with reforms pending and efforts fragmented in most countries and territories. While governments are increasingly shifting towards budgeting approaches that take into account societal outcomes, green and gender budgeting as well as other phenomenon-based budgeting approaches could be more widely adopted. Additionally, transparency and accountability could be enhanced by the development of tools and practices for a more comprehensive, systematic and user-centered disclosure of budget documents, institutionalised stakeholder participation in budget decisions and strong internal and external oversight functions and mechanisms. The application of sound budgetary governance is particularly important to guide spending decisions in infrastructure projects, which are often led by the public sector in the MENA region and where important investments are needed to sustain development objectives.

To address persisting government performance challenges, MENA governments could build on existing efforts to ensure the design and delivery of high-quality and user-centered services and policies.

Most governments have adopted structural reforms designed to reinforce public integrity and improve public procurement processes, by developing legal, policy and institutional frameworks as well as tools and practices for greater oversight, transparency and stakeholder participation in these processes. Other initiatives have aimed to accelerate the digital transformation of the public sector, including developing and reinforcing institutions, strategies, capabilities and data governance frameworks. Efforts to develop a fit-for-purpose civil service have focused on the renewal of human resource management structures, processes and mandates and the development of capabilities of civil servants to support strategic planning, decision- and policymaking in a rapidly evolving environment. Important advances have also been made to shift towards regulatory reforms that establish whole-of-government policies to improve laws and regulations. Overall, governments are aiming to offer more accessible, simple and responsive public services, both on- and offline, to deliver better for citizens with diverse needs and priorities. There is scope to further develop legal and institutional frameworks and adopt whole-of-government approaches on these issues across the region.

Finally, there is room to further apply open government principles to improve public sector effectiveness and sustainable prosperity.

Governments in the MENA region have undertaken reforms over the past decade to progressively place citizens at the centre of public policies and services with a view to building more open and inclusive societies. Some advances have been made to embed and mainstream transparency, accountability and stakeholder participation in public life. MENA governments have adopted initiatives, including through digitalisation, which allow citizens and other stakeholders to make their voices heard as well as observe, understand and monitor the activities of the government on decisions that affect their daily lives. Efforts have also focused on improving governance arrangements to promote better opportunities for all, especially for women and young people, and mainstream their needs in policymaking. While progress has been achieved, the path towards open and inclusive societies is still hampered by significant challenges in terms of governance arrangements, fragmentation of policy frameworks and inadequate resources. There is an opportunity to strengthen the enabling environment for open government, to better co-ordinate efforts and to ensure impact for citizens, including through legal and institutional consolidation, and to further institutionalise existing practices across all levels of government. In addition, a number of specific legal, institutional and administrative obstacles, including high minimum age requirements for elected officials and limited work-life balance arrangements, must be addressed if the views of all parts of the population are to be taken into account.