This report was developed in the Global Relations and Co-operation Directorate (GRC) of the OECD, led by Andreas Schaal, Director, and benefitted from the financial support of the German Development Co-operation. It was prepared in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) Division under the strategic guidance of Carlos Conde, Head of MEA division. The drafting team, led by Mariarosa Lunati, included Jaroslaw Mrowiec, Roger Forés Carrión, Shannon Monaghan and Zoé Ryan.
The OECD is grateful to Mohammed Elrazzaz from the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) and Johannes Laepple, Alicia Figueroa Romero and Andreas Garbade from Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH for their useful comments to the draft report. Nevertheless, the report presents the views of the authors and does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the UfM Secretariat nor of the German Development Cooperation nor of the authorities of the countries concerned. The names used in the report to designate any territory, city or area are without prejudice to the official terminology used by the UfM Secretariat.
Two lead reviewers from the Global Relations and Co-operation directorate, William Tompson and Alexander Böhmer carefully reviewed the draft report, while Kate Lancaster, Communications Manager of the Directorate provided editorial advice. Numerous experts in the Organisation provided advice on specifc topic areas, notably from the Centre for Entrepreneurship, SMEs, Regions and Cities: Lucia Cusmano, David Halabisky, Tadashi Matsumoto, Jonathan Potter, Stephan Raes, Oriana Romano, Jane Stacey; Environment Directorate: Kathleen Dominique, Eija Kiiskinen, Deger Saygin; and the Directorate for Science, Technology and Innovation: Mario Cervantes. Finally, valuable comments were received from experts and policy makers from MENA countries who participated in seminars on recovery strategies in the MENA region where findings of the draft report were discussed.
Wendy Stokle, Communication Lead in the MEA Division, managed the production of the publication, with support from Ismail Aykin, Kamil Chehayeb, Alexandre Nachef, Maxime Ozoux, and Khaoula Yahiaoui.