DSG discuss preliminary results of Yemen Economic Research

He highlighted the importance of providing regionally-created research on the economies of the Middle East that go beyond those provided by currently available studies and offer policy makers a substantive assessment of the primary economic challenges in regional countries.

Dr. Yousef said, "Research initiatives like the ERF Country Profile on Yemen help assess the strengths and weaknesses of economic policy in each sector and give policy makers important information in designing policies that overcome economic challenges, based on clear, well-researched understandings."

The ERF Yemen Country Profile workshop was organized to inform Yemeni stakeholders about the content of the forthcoming report. The meeting also allowed the authors of the report to receive important feedback from the Yemeni research and policy community on the profile's first draft.

During the workshop, presentations were made by the authors of individual chapters, including Dr. Mutahar Al-Abbasi, Yemeni Deputy Minister for Development Plans, who is writing the chapter on Macroeconomic and Fiscal Issues and a chapter on Finance; Dr. Ahmed Ghoniem, Cairo University, who is writing the chapter on trade; and Dr. Ali Shatter, Sana'a University, who is writing the chapter on labor.

Paul Dyer, Research Associate at the Dubai School of Government, served at a moderator during the workshop. Mr. Dyer noted, "The workshop in Yemen provided a unique opportunity for academics and policy makers in Yemen to meet, discuss and provide valuable input to forthcoming research on the country. The group not only gave valuable advice to the report's authors, but provided important perspectives that will feed into Yemen's economic development policies in the future."

The Yemen Country Profile is a report in a series of Country Profiles published by the ERF. To date, the ERF has published Country Profiles on Palestine, Jordan, Egypt and Syria. Work on the Oman and Bahrain Country Profiles, of which Dr. Yousef also serves as Project Director, continues. The Country Profiles for Oman, Bahrain and Yemen will be published in the coming months, both in English and Arabic, and will be available to the wider public.