What if the hokey pokey is really what it’s all about? Last summer, the World Bank (thanks to the Youth Innovation Fund!) teamed up with Reclaim Childhood to host a sports camp for young girls in Jordan. Over the course of four weeks, 400 young girls from refugee communities in Amman attended the camp, learned new sports, and played games. What made camp especially unique was the cultural diversity of its campers and staff.

       

I recall the first time I visited Nakheel Palestine for Agricultural Investments Company fields at Jericho two years ago, when MIGA was still at the early stages of underwriting the project constituting planting date trees. The land was empty and, at the first glance, the first thought that came to mind was “how can this be developed into arable land?”

       

Across MENA countries people are striving to improve their livelihoods in the face of multiple risks, ranging from economic crises, conflict or natural disasters, to unemployment, disability, and illness. For them, institutions that offer a chance to escape poverty and help build their resilience to crisis are essential. Key among these institutions are safety nets. This historic moment inspired our team to prepare the forthcoming report Inclusion and Resilience: The Way Forward for Social Safety Nets in the Middle East and North Africa.

       

It has been a year since WaterHackathon Cairo took place, bringing together Egyptian technologists with water specialists to brainstorm innovative ICT solutions for Egypt’s biggest water challenges. Since then, one of the WaterHackathon winners—Team Abu Erdan—has successfully turned their idea for a mobile farming tool linked to the cloud into a full-fledged mobile platform.