21 March 2014: The World Bank has released a report, titled ‘Natural Disasters in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA): A Regional Overview,’ which highlights disaster risk management (DRM) and the World Bank’s response in the region. The report identifies urbanization and associated increased flood risk, water scarcity and impacts of climate change as the main challenges facing the region.

The report includes sections on: natural disasters in the MENA region; regional progress; World Bank DRM programming in the MENA Region; and proposed way forward. The report includes examples from a range of countries, including: Algeria, Djibouti, Lebanon, Morocco, and Yemen.

The report identifies a number of activities in the MENA region to strengthen disaster resilience, including the launch of country programmes through the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR), but calls for a “more strategic and collaborative framework” to engage international organizations on disaster risk reduction (DRR) in the region. [World Bank Press Release] [Publication: Natural Disasters in the MENA: A Regional Overview]