The Report was prepared by the OECD Public Governance Directorate (GOV) under the leadership of Elsa Pilichowski, Director for Public Governance. It was developed under the strategic direction of Martin Forst, Head of the Governance Reviews and Partnerships Division, and of Miriam Allam, Head of the MENA-OECD Governance Programme. The report was co-authored by Yusuf Ashmawi, Guillaume Biganzoli, Charlotte Denise-Adam, Manon Epherre-Iriart, Pietro Gagliardi, Paulina Lopez Ramos, Arnault Prêtet, Rémy Roisnel and Gonzalo Rosillo Odriozola. Ciara Muller, with the support of Francesca Romani, prepared the manuscript for publication and provided editorial support.
Major contributions were received from the Public Governance Directorate divisions: the Regulatory Policy Division (under Anna Pietikainen), the Anti-Corruption and Integrity in Government Division (under Julio Bacio Terracino), the Innovative, Digital and Open Government Division (under Carlos Santiso), the Division for Policy Coherence for Sustainable Development Goals (under Tatyana Teplova) and the Public Management and Budgeting Division (under Jon Blondal). The authors also thank the Director’s Office, the Infrastructure and Public Procurement Division (under Paulo Magina) and SIGMA (under Gregor Virant) for their valuable inputs and review of the Report, as well as Adam Ostry and the Middle East and Africa Division from the Global Relations and Co-operation Directorate.
The OECD would like to thank MENA partners for their continuous support and feedback throughout the development of the report, in particular during the MENA-OECD Governance Programme working group meetings, the MENA-OECD Initiative Steering Group meeting in May 2023 and the dialogue session around the key findings and areas of opportunity of the report organised in July 2024.
The authors would like to thank Tunisia and Italy for co-chairing the MENA-OECD Governance Programme and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of Italy for the financial support provided through the regional project COVID-19 Response and Recovery in the MENA region and support to the OECD Training Centre on Public Governance in Caserta. In particular, they are grateful to Ambassador Luca Sabbatucci, Co-Chair of the MENA-OECD Governance Programme and Permanent Representative of Italy to the OECD, Palma D'Ambrosio, Deputy Permanent Representative; and Rafaella Campanati, Counsellor at the Permanent Delegation of Italy to the OECD.