Spring Meetings Seminars
The Political Economy of Transition in the
Thursday, April 18, 4:30 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.
IMF HQ2, Conference Hall 1
Watch a webcast of the seminar
Deputy Managing Director, IMF
Director for Africa and the Middle East, Center for International Development, Harvard
Director, Atlantic Council’s Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East
Dean of PSIA, professor at Sciences-Po and Columbia University
Economic Adviser to the Finance Minister, Egypt
Photos from the Event
The complex political and social transformations in the Arab countries in transition—Egypt, Jordan, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia, and Yemen—continue amid economic challenges. Policymakers will need to maintain macroeconomic stability and respond to the growing impatience among restless populations for quick improvements in their livelihood at the same time as managing political transitions, including contentious elections. Can economic reform take place in the middle of political transition? What is needed?
Questions this session will address:
- If there is consensus about reform priorities, what is holding governments back from initiating those reforms?
- What can be done to overcome obstacles to reform?
- Do reforms need to be sequenced? If so, how?
- How will relationships between the new governments and various economic stakeholders need to change?
- How will engagement with international actors be different?
- What are some examples of success in implementing reform during political transition?