As architects of the globalized world, international financial institutions (IFIs) - particularly the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank - exert varying degrees of influence over economic policy in the MENA region. They have intervened to address economic crises since the 1960s, promoting a deregulated, private sector-led, and integrated global market in exchange for technical assistance, loans, or financial surveillance. Around a decade after the 2008 financial crisis and 2011 Arab uprisings, an appraisal of this approach is due: What have the IMF, the World Bank, and other IFIs accomplished? Have their recommendations shifted the economic outlook in the region? And if so in what way? Such a discussion is even more relevant in the light of the global Covid19-crisis, as, as MENA countries are expecting the worst economic downturn since independence and many find themselves in the midst of a fiscal crisis. The importance of this historical moment cannot be clearer: Will the crisis enable a new, more inclusive and just economic system, or could the economic shock further exacerbate previous injustices and structural imbalances? What role should the IFIs play in the mitigation of its socio-economic impacts? And how have structural adjustments and years of IFI-inspired and induced policies predisposed different countries in the region to confront and contain the Coronavirus?

Moderation

• Amirah El Haddad, DIE
• Thomas Claes, FES

Introduction to Online Debates series and presentation of FES IFI Study

• Thomas Claes, Project Director „Economic Policies for Social Justice”, Friedrich-Ebert Stiftung

Speakers

• Ahmed Galal, Chair, MENA Health Policy Forum / Former Minister of Finance, Egypt
• Amr Adly, Assistant Professor, American University Cairo
• Bessma Momani, Professor of Political Science, University of Waterloo