Events

The Upside of Digital for the Middle East and North Africa

March 16, 2022

Virtual

MULTIMEDIA

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OVERVIEW
SPEAKERS
agenda

Yet despite widespread usage of social media, the uptake of digital technologies such as mobile money and digital payments has been low in many countries across the region. How can we explain this digital paradox?
A new report, “The Upside of Digital for the Middle East and North Africa: How Digital Technology Adoption Can Accelerate Growth and Create Jobs,” seeks to understand this paradox. It provides estimates of the economic gains from digitalization and offers policy recommendations on how the region could approach universal coverage. Join this report launch event and hear from the report authors, followed by a lively discussion with policymakers, academics and the private sector.
Roberta Gatti, Chief Economist, Middle East and North Africa, World Bank

Opening Remarks
Roberta Gatti is currently the Chief Economist of the Middle East and North Africa region of the World Bank. In her previous capacity of Chief Economist for Human Development, Roberta co-led the conceptualization and release of the Human Capital Index and oversaw the Service Delivery Indicators data initiative. Roberta is the author of numerous flagship reports and her research, spanning topics in health, labor markets, and growth, is published in top field journals. Roberta holds a B.A. from Università Bocconi and a Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University. She has taught at Georgetown and Johns Hopkins Universities. 

Ana Paula Cusolito, Senior Economist, World Bank

Report Presenter
Ana Paula Cusolito is a Senior Economist currently working at the Markets & Technology Unit of the Finance, Competitiveness, and Innovation Global Practice of the World Bank Group. Her research interests focus on firm-level productivity, the digital economy, innovation, entrepreneurship and trade. More recently, she has been involved in several experiments to evaluate firm-level programs aimed at increasing productivity, improving access to finance, and facilitating access to markets for SMEs. During her career, Ana Paula has conducted analytical work on firm-level productivity, innovation, digital-technology adoption, and international trade. In recent years, Ana Paula had a development assignment with the Chief Economist Office of the Equity, Finance, and Institutions Vice-Presidency to work on the productivity agenda. She is the co-editor of the WBG book Productivity Revisited: Shifting Paradigms in Analysis and Policy. She has also participated as core team member of WBG World Development Report 2019, Changing Nature of Work. Ana Paula has experience working mainly in the Latin America, Europa and Central Asia and Middle East regions. Ana Paula’s work has been accepted for publication/ published at the American Economic Review: Insights, the Review of Economics and Statistics, Journal of Development Economics, World Bank Economic Review, Journal of Banking and Financial Economics, IZA Journal of Labor and Development, and Journal of Development Effectiveness among others. She has a Ph.D. in Economics from Universitat Pompeu Fabra.

Christina Wood, Senior Economist, World Bank

Report Presenter
Christina A. Wood is Senior Economist in the World Bank’s Office of the Chief Economist for the Middle East and North Africa. Previously she was senior economist for Mali and Togo, senior economist in the Office of the Chief Economist for East Asia and the Pacific. She has extensive experience leading complex multisector development policy lending and analyses covering a range of issues, including corporate governance (in banking, electricity, and commodity and natural resources), trade and transport facilitation, public expenditure management, public-private partnerships, and post conflict recovery and reconstruction. She provided support to recovery of heavily-indebted countries and to preparation of their long-term development strategy frameworks. She also led preparation of comprehensive water sector strategy, and high-value irrigation projects, for India. Christina is coauthor of several books, including Overconfident: How Economic and Health Fault Lines Left the Middle East and North Africa Ill-Prepared to Face COVID-19; Trading Together: Reviving Middle East and North Africa Regional Integration in the Post-Covid Era; East Asia: Recovery and Beyond; Mali: From Sector Diagnostics toward an Integrated Growth Strategy; and Mali: Expanding and Diversifying Trade for Growth and Poverty Reduction. Her coauthored research is published in International Economics and Economic Policy and Journal of Development Studies. She holds a BA Honors in economics from McGill University and pursued doctoral studies in economics at Cornell University.

Merissa Khurma, Program director of the Middle East Program at the Wilson Center

Moderator
Merissa Khurma is the program director of the Middle East Program at the Wilson Center. She was a non-resident fellow in the International Security program at New America. She has leadership experience working in a range of development projects in the Middle East that focused on economic development, the Syrian refugee crisis, education, youth, gender development, and governance. Additionally, Khurma served as director of the Office of Jordan’s Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein (2010- 2013) and as press attaché and director of the Information Bureau at the Embassy of Jordan in Washington, D.C. (2003-2010). Khurma has a Master of Public Administration from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, a Master of Science in international security and foreign policy from Georgetown University, and a Bachelor of Art in political science from McGill University. She is also a leadership development practitioner with a focus on Adaptive Leadership, Public Narrative & Community Organizing. Merissa speaks Arabic and French.

Ahmad Hanandeh, Minister of Digital Economy and Entrepreneurship, Jordan

Panelist
Ahmad Hanandeh has been the Minister of Digital Economy and Entrepreneurship in Jordan since October 2020. Before that he was Chief Executive Officer of the Zain Group and prior to that Hanandeh was Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of the successful Zain Sudan mobile operation. He was General Manager for four years of Posta Plus, the Gulf-based company specializing in world-class delivery, courier and postal services across the Middle East. Hanandeh, holds a bachelor’s degree in Banking and Finance from Yarmouk University and an Honorary Doctorate in Business Administration and Innovation from Coventry University.

Hakima El Alami, Director of Payment Systems and Instruments Oversight and Financial Inclusion Department, Central Bank of Morocco

Panelist
Hakima EL ALAMI has been with Bank Al-Maghrib since 1997. She is the current Director of Payment Systems and Instruments Oversight and Financial Inclusion Department, responsible for conducting national strategies related to payment systems and financial inclusion. The Department is also in charge of implementing the regulation and oversight framework of FMIs and means of payment. She joined Bank Al-Maghrib as an executive in charge of financial analyses and corporates ratings, and also assessed the quality of private debt instruments within the context of central bank advances. In 2003, she was appointed Manager in the Monetary and Exchange Operations Department where she spent 13 years in charge of cashless means of payment and payment systems oversight. She holds a higher studies diploma (DES) from the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers, and a Diploma of Advanced Studies from the University of AIX-Marseille III. She is an alumni of the Fletcher School Leadership Program for Financial Inclusion at Tufts University, Boston.

Hesham Safwat, CEO of Jumia Egypt

Panelist
Hesham Safwat joined Jumia in 2013, where he served as Chief Commercial Officer of Jumia Egypt, and since 2014 as CEO Jumia Egypt. He started his career in the Retail Sector at Pan-Arab Regional Retail Mega Store Chain in 2001 in Egypt and contributed to building the Retail Infrastructure of the company while developing both the Internal Merchandising System, and External Partners’ Relationships. In 2019, Hesham was chosen by the Egyptian government as the Chairman of the Special Committee of E-Commerce. Hesham is an Egyptian national with a bachelor’s degree in Engineering from Ain Shams University in Cairo (Egypt), and an MBA from Middlesex University in London (UK).
Opening Remarks:
Roberta Gatti, Chief Economist, Middle East and North Africa, World Bank

Presenters:
Ana Paula Cusolito, Senior Economist, World Bank
Christina Wood, Senior Economist, World Bank

Panelists:
Ahmad Hanandeh, Minister of Digital Economy and Entrepreneurship, Jordan
Hakima El Alami, Director of Payment Systems and Instruments Oversight and Financial Inclusion Department, Central Bank of Morocco
Hesham Safwat, CEO of Jumia Egypt