Following the Hollings Center Post-Pandemic Inclusive Economic Recovery in the Middle East and North Africa workshop in May 2022, the Center had an opportunity to interview workshop participant Khalid Abu-Ismail on his research on economic inequality in the MENA region. How do we move forward in reducing those inequalities?

Khalid Abu-Ismail is a senior economic affairs officer at the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA). He was the MDG/poverty and macroeconomic policy advisor at the United Nations Development Program Regional Center in Cairo, Egypt for three years from 2009 to 2012. From 2002 to 2009, he worked as a macroeconomics and poverty specialist with the UNDP Regional Office for Arab States in Beirut. Before joining the UN, he held various research positions with the Egyptian government. Dr. Abu-Ismail is a policy affiliate at the Middle East Economic Research Forum and a former guest lecturer at the Faculty of Economics of the Lebanese American University.