A New State of Mind: The Learning State
ERF and the office of the Chief Economist, Middle East and North Africa, the World Bank are organizing this seminar to discuss the World Bank’s latest MENA Economic Update, “A New State of Mind: The Learning State”
The MENA region is facing important vulnerabilities, which the current crises—first the pandemic, then the war in Ukraine—have exacerbated. Prices of food and energy are higher, hurting the most vulnerable, and rising interest rates from the global tightening of monetary policy are making debt service more burdensome.
Heightened uncertainty, today, puts heavy demands on the state: to inform and coordinate individual action during a pandemic; to sustain economic production through unprecedented cyclical swings; to protect the most vulnerable from poverty; to dial back the rapid losses in schooling and ramp up the capacity of health systems. As never before, authorities must learn from the past, identify the state’s strengths and weaknesses, and be ready to change the direction of public policy towards increased effectiveness. In Part II of this report we are keen to re-open the conversation about governance, particularly about two of its core dimensions — transparency and accountability. Good measurement and transparent information can shape an understanding of challenges shared across different stakeholders, within and outside the state. Accountability aligns incentives for action. Together, transparency and accountability are essential for a “learning state,” one that is well equipped to measure, experiment, and adjust policy action towards a common goal of inclusive and sustainable development — with reforms that require political will but that are not necessarily costly fiscally.