While the IMF is meant to serve as a lender of last resort offering short term stabilization programs, for many MENA countries, the Fund is becoming a regular source of financing with several consecutive loan programs undertaken. This panel seeks to explore some of the reasons why IMF programs often fail to put MENA countries on a sustainable path of economic development that reduces inequalities. It will suggest ways for the IMF to meaningfully change its approach to the region and integrate more country-specific data, while engaging a wider array of stakeholders in order to successfully support countries of the region on the path of economic transformation.
On Thursday, April 18 at 4:00pm in Washington, DC, join the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy (TIMEP), Human Rights Watch (HRW), the Arab Watch Coalition (AWC), the Arab NGO Network for Development (ANND), and Oxfam International for an in-person conversation in Washington, DC featuring Timothy Kaldas (TIMEP); Sarah Saadoun (HRW); Hussein Cheaito (AWC); and moderated by Nabil Abdo (Oxfam).
Timothy Kaldas
Deputy Director, the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy (TIMEP)Timothy E. Kaldas is the Deputy Director of the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy. He is also an adjunct professor of international relations at the Autonomous University of Barcelona where he is pursuing his PhD. His current research interests focus on the political economies of MENA countries, regime competition and survival strategies and Egypt’s foreign policy. He lived in Cairo, Egypt for 12 years from 2008 to 2020 where he worked in several fields including as a visiting professor of politics at Nile University, a wedding photographer, an independent risk consultant, a consultant at UN Migration, and Director of Communications at the Munathara Initiative. His writing has been published by Mada Masr, Bloomberg, Foreign Policy, CNN, World Politics Review and a number of other publications and institutions.
Hussein Cheaito
Equitable Economic Recovery Program Coordinator, Arab Watch Coalition (AWC)Hussein Cheaito is the Equitable Economic Recovery Program Coordinator at the Arab Watch Coalition (AWC). He is a former Nonresident Fellow at TIMEP focusing on governance and economic development in Lebanon. He was previously a Development Economist at The Policy Initiative, a Beirut-based research center that aims to empirically assess existing policies and generate viable alternatives. Hussein is interested in the economics of decentralization (specifically fiscal federalism), gender and queer economics, and development economics. In his current work, he has been diagnosing regional economic development in three different districts in Lebanon using various quantitative methods.
Sarah Saadoun
Senior Researcher and Advocate, Economic Justice and Rights Division, Human Rights WatchSarah Saadoun is a senior researcher and advocate working on the economic drivers of human rights abuses. Her work investigates the impact of government policies and allocation of public resources on people’s ability to realize their rights, including to health, education, and social protection, and examines how corruption and moneyed interests capture public funds. In recent years, she has focused on IMF lending both as an opportunity to strengthen public oversight over government spending and as a driver of reforms that can exacerbate poverty and inequality. Her worked has focused on Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, United States, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, and elsewhere.
Nabil Abdo
Senior Policy Advisor – International Financial Institutions, Oxfam InternationalNabil Abdo is Senior Policy Advisor for Oxfam International’s Washington DC Office. His work focuses on the IMF and inequality. Nabil is also a researcher and has focused on austerity policies globally and the MENA region, as well as unions and labor movements in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and Lebanon, and the informal economy and fiscal and socioeconomic policies.