The World Bank's Grip
A Critical Analysis of Policy Prescriptions in the MENA Region
Between 2010-2024, sovereign nations were compelled to adopt
"Prior Actions" in exchange for financing
This analysis dissects these policy-based conditionalities, uncovering the blueprint of an externally-driven agenda that leverages financial power to steer national policymaking, particularly during periods of economic crisis.
Mapping the Influence: Epicenters of Intervention
The distribution of prior actions is not uniform. A few countries bear the brunt of the World Bank's policy experiments, revealing a deep and prolonged entanglement with its agenda.
Waves of Intervention
The intensity of interventions fluctuates, with clear peaks following periods of regional instability—opportune moments for advancing a policy agenda that might otherwise face domestic opposition.
Anatomy of Influence
A critical examination of the prior action database reveals the contractual language of control. It shows a consistent, ideological framework built on four key pillars.
Enforcing Austerity
Aimed at disciplining national budgets with a rigid, market-oriented model. Mandates include shrinking the state, imposing regressive taxes (VAT), and prioritizing debt servicing over public services.
Privatizing Resources
Dismantling public services by removing subsidies on essentials like fuel and water, and transferring control of these vital sectors to private (often foreign) entities under the guise of "cost recovery."
Deregulation for Capital
Reshaping the domestic economy to serve international investors. This involves implementing investment laws with extensive guarantees for foreign capital and weakening local protections.
Managing Dissent
Presented as social protection, these are palliative measures to make austerity politically tenable. They replace universal rights with targeted handouts and market-based insurance, reducing the's social obligations.
Country-Specific Impositions
Morocco
Actions
A sustained project of reshaping the state. Early demands for austerity and subsidy removal paved the way for a deeper economic restructuring under the guise of "governance" and "green growth."
Egypt
Actions
Post-2016 conditionalities executed a severe macroeconomic program. Energy subsidy removal and VAT introduction directly contributed to a surge in poverty, with "safety nets" serving as meager tools to manage the social fallout.
Jordan
Actions
Conditionalities have been pivotal in forcing open Jordan's energy and water sectors, representing a significant transfer of control over the country's most vital and scarce resources to private interests.