World Bank financial assistance in the region more than doubled from $1.7 billion in FY09 to $3.8 billion in FY10, with more than $3.6 billion in commitments from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), which provides financing, risk management products, and other financial services to middle-income countries, and a little more than $200 million in commitments from the International Development Association (IDA), which provides interest-free loans and grants to the world's poorest countries. Spending on knowledge and technical assistance also increased from $6 million in fiscal 2007 to nearly $12 million, resulting in over 100 analytic and advisory products.

“As the global economy stabilizes and revives further, the outlook for the region will continue to brighten,” said Shamshad Akhtar, Regional Vice President for the Middle East and North Africa. “Our strategy to support the region continues to focus on generating growth and jobs as well as improving social protection for those people most in need.”

The World Bank Group committed more than $72 billion in fiscal year 2010 worldwide, an unprecedented level of assistance for developing countries as the world faces a fragile and uneven recovery. An estimated 875 projects around the world were designed to promote economic growth, overcome poverty, and encourage private enterprise, with record commitments in education, health, nutrition, population, and infrastructure providing much-needed investments in crisis-hit economies. Annual investments by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the World Bank Group's private sector arm, in the Middle East and North Africa increased to $1.6 billion for 59 projects in 13 countries in fiscal year 2010. In addition, 40 percent of the investment and advisory services projects carried out by the IFC, were in the region's poorest and conflict affected countries.

'There is a significant number of new entrants coming into the labor force every year,” said Michael Essex, IFC Director for the Middle East and North Africa.

“Private sector development is critical to creating new jobs for the region's young population. IFC's strategy is to implement an integrated investment and advisory services program to increase income generating opportunities that the region's private sector can offer.'

In FY10, The Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), the Bank Group's non-commercial risk insurance agency, continued to support the Arab World Initiative, which aims at fostering greater economic integration among Arab countries. MIGA partnered with the Dubai International Financial Center (DIFC) to launch a joint MIGA-DIFC Political Risk Insurance Program for the Arab World to encourage foreign direct investment into the Middle East and North Africa by providing a means for investors to mitigate non-commercial risks.

Izumi Kobayashi, MIGA's Executive Vice President, said: “This initiative responds to business demand for a program aimed at enhancing market confidence in the Middle East and could help facilitate much-needed foreign investment into credit worthy enterprises and projects.”

Despite the severity of the global crisis, the downturn did not result in an emerging market sovereign debt crisis of the type seen in the 1990s and 2000s, thanks mainly to prudent macro-economic management and debt management on the part of developing countries. In addition to financial commitments, the Bank assisted governments and sub-national entities in reducing their vulnerability to market volatility through technical assistance and by making risk management tools available to them. In FY10, the volume of risk management transactions executed by the Bank increased more than threefold compared to pre-crisis levels as member countries sought to more actively manage the risk on their debt portfolios.