GERPA

GERPA is situated within the wider structure of the Sustainable Advance of Gender Equality in MENA Initiative of the World Bank (SAGE-MENA), (an initiative which also supports a Persian Gender Network), Under SAGE-MENA, two components, address women in the Middle East and North Africa Region, namely CAWTAR in Tunis, with the task of promoting Arab women’s participation in development and GERPA, with the task of promoting gender research.

GERPA is executed by CAWTAR and is managed by a Research Director who reports to a Steering Committee (SC). The SC is made up of seven highly reputable scholars . An Advisory Committee (AC) made up of up to ten members under the chairmanship of the Research Director provides technical advice to GERPA.

Ismail Serageldin, (Chair) Director, Library of Alexandria, also chairs the Boards of Directors for each of the BA's affiliated research institutes and museums and is Distinguished Professor at Wageningen University in the Netherlands. He serves as Chair and Member of a number of advisory committees for academic, research, scientific and international institutions and civil society efforts which includes the Institut d'Egypte (Egyptian Academy of Science), TWAS (Third World Academy of Sciences), the Indian National Academy of Agricultural Sciences and the European Academy of Sciences and Arts. He is former Chairman, Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR, 19942000), Founder and former Chairman, the Global Water Partnership (GWP, 1996-2000) and the Consultative Group to Assist the Poorest (CGAP), a microfinance program (1995-2000). Dr. Serageldin has also served in a number of capacities at the World Bank, including as Vice President for Environmentally and Socially Sustainable Development (1992-1998), and for Special Programs (1998-2000). He has published over 50 books and monographs and over 200 papers on a variety of topics including biotechnology, rural development, sustainability, and the value of science to society. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in engineering from Cairo University and Masters' degree and a PhD from Harvard University and has received 18 honorary doctorates.

Fatima al-Balooshi is the Bahraini Minister of Social Development. She was previously Dean of the College of Education at the University of Bahrain and the Chairman of the Department of Educational Technology. She has been granted many fellowships and awards including the Excellence of Achievement Award Conferred by His Highness the Late Amir of Bahrain (1992) and the International Volunteer Day Award Granted by Children & Mothers Welfare Society (1998). She was a member of the Board of Trustees of the Information Center for Women and Children (Bahrain) and the Bahrain Information Technology Society, as well as Chairman and founding member of the "Women and Information Technology Special Interest Group." She was appointed as a member of the Supreme Council for Women by His Majesty The King of Bahrain and served on the Supreme Council between 2001 and 2004. Dr. al-Balooshi received her Doctorate of Education from Columbia University and holds a Master of Education as well as a Master of Arts from the same university. The foci of her Master studies were "Instructional Technology and Media" and "Computing in Education."

Gary S. Becker won the Nobel Memorial Prize for Economic Science in 1992. He is a University Professor of Economics and Sociology at the University of Chicago and the Rose-Marie and Jack R. Anderson Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. Professor Becker is recognized for his expertise in human capital, economics of the family, and economic analysis of crime, discrimination, and population. His current research focuses on habits and addictions, formation of preferences, human capital and population growth. Dr. Becker serves as a Research Associate of the Economics Research Center at the National Opinion Research Center and as an Associate Member of the Institute of Fiscal and Monetary Policy for Japan's Ministry of Finance. He was a professor at the University of Chicago from 1954 to 1957 and taught at Columbia University for twelve years before returning to the University of Chicago in 1968. In 2000 he received the National Medal of Science for his work in social policy. Professor Becker attended Princeton University as an undergraduate and earned a Masters and a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago.

Rahma Bourqia is President of Hassan II Mahommedia University. The first woman appointed to the presidency of a Moroccan university after a long academic carrier as a professor of sociology and anthropology, and Dean of the School of Humanities. Bourqia has written books and many articles on Moroccan society, culture, women, youth and values. She is an expert on women's rights in Morocco and the Arab World. As a member of the committee created to discuss the status of women in Morocco, Professor Bourqia contributed in the adoption of the country's New Family Law in 2003 that recognized the equality between men and women. She has been actively involved in the reform of higher education in Morocco, and has been active in breaking traditional cultural, social and gender roles throughout her professional career. Dr. Bourqia’s publication include “Femmes et Fécondité” Afrique/Orient, Casablanca, 1996. - in collaboration with Mounira Charrad (University Of Pittsburgh) and Nancy Gallagher (University of California at Santa Barbara) and "Femmes, Culture et Société au Maghreb” Afrique/ Orient, 1996.

Shirin Ebadi is human rights and democracy activist, and a lawyer, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003. She is the first Iranian and the first Muslim woman to receive the prize. Born in 1947 in Hamadan, Iran, she received a law degree from the University of Tehran and became the first female judge in Iran. Ms. Ebadi now lectures law at the University of Tehran, and is a campaigner for strengthening the legal status of children and women. In 1996, Human Rights Watch honored Ms. Ebadi as a leading human rights defender for her contribution to the cause of human rights in Iran. Ms. Ebadi recently established a nongovernmental organization in Iran, the Center for the Defense of Human Rights. She has written a number of academic books and articles focused on human rights. Among her books translated into English are “The Rights of the Child. A Study of Legal Aspects of Children's Rights in Iran” (Tehran, 1994), published with support from UNICEF, and “History and Documentation of Human Rights in Iran” (New York, 2000).

Mustapha Nabli has been the Regional Chief Economist and Director of the Social and Economic Development Group within the Middle East and North Africa Region of the World Bank since 1999. Dr. Nabli joined the World Bank in 1997 as Senior Economic Advisor with the Development Prospects Group, Development Economics. Prior to joining the Bank, Dr. Nabli was an international consultant, before which he served as Minister of Economic Development and Minister of Planning and Regional Development in the Government of Tunisia from 1990 to 1995. From 1988-1990, Dr. Nabli held the position of Chairman of the Tunis Stock Exchange. Prior to 1988 he was Professor of Economics, Faculté de Droit et des Sciences Politiques et Economiques, Universite de Tunis and served as Visiting Professor at various universities in Canada, USA, Belgium and France. Dr. Nabli holds a Ph.D. and an MSc in Economics from the University of California at Los Angeles.

Advisory Committee

Heba Handoussa (Chair) is currently Research Director of the Gender Economic Research and Policy Analysis Initiative (GERPA). She is Advisor to the Economic Research Forum for the Arab Countries, Iran and Turkey (ERF), and previous to this was Managing Director of ERF. Professor Handoussa obtained her Ph.D. in Economics from the University of London in 1974 and taught at the American University in Cairo where she was twice elected as Chairperson of the Economics and Political Science Department and was subsequently appointed as Vice Provost. Professor Handoussa has been a member of the Higher Coordinating Committee for Monetary Policy in Egypt and a member of Egypt's National Specialized Councils, which report directly to the President. She is a former member of Egypt’s Shura Council, and the Board of the Central Bank of Egypt. She has served on the boards of international institutions including CEDEJ, IFPRI, UNRISD, and has been a member of the World Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalization initiated by the ILO. She currently sits on the WBI External Advisory Board of the World Bank, where she has also served as a consultant on numerous occasions. Dr. Handoussa was Director and Lead Author of the 2004 and 2005 issues of the “Egypt Human Development Report” for Egypt’s Institute of National Planning and UNDP. Other publications have covered the areas of employment, industrial policy, productivity growth, foreign aid, institutional reform and comparative development models. She has edited more than ten books on economic development in the Middle East and North Africa.

Ali Abdel Gader Ali is the Deputy Director General for the Arab Planning Institute (API) in Kuwait. Before his appointment, he was the Economic Advisor at API and coordinated a country case study-based research project on the "Relationship Between Education and the Labor Market and the Estimation of Returns to Human Capital in Arab Countries." Prior to his post at API, Dr. Ali directed the Economic and Social Policy Analysis Division of the UN Economic Commission for Africa, 1997 to 2000. Dr. Ali was educated at the University of Khartoum, Sudan and later received his MSc and Ph.D in Economics from the University of Essex, UK. Dr. Ali has been a consultant to numerous international and regional development organizations such as the World Bank, UNDP, and the Arab Organization for Agricultural Development. He has published widely on poverty and the economy in the Sudan. His research interests include development strategies, agricultural pricing issues, dual economy models, empirical growth models and their policy implications, comparative static models, political economy models and empirical investigations of development policy analysis including evaluation of adjustment programs. His most recent publications include “The Challenges of Poverty Reduction in Post-Conflict Sudan”; "Rediscovering Development Policy"; “Prospects for Sustainable Peace and Post-Conflict Economic Growth in the Sudan”; “On Incorporating Policies for Poverty Reduction in Development Policies in the Arab Countries”; “The State and Social Justice in an Era of Globalization: An Arab Regional Perspective”; and “The Effect of the Incidence of Poverty on Women Empowerment in the Arab Countries".

Leila Ahmed holds an MA and Ph.D from the University of Cambridge. She came to the Divinity School of Harvard University in 1999 as the first Professor of Women's Studies in Religion and was appointed to the Victor S. Thomas chair in 2003. Prior to her appointment at HDS, she was Professor of Women's Studies and Near Eastern Studies at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. While at the University of Massachusetts, she was Director of the women's studies program from 1992 to 1995 and Director of the Near Eastern studies program from 1991 to 1992. Her latest book, “A Border Passage” has been widely acclaimed. Her other publications include the books “Women and Gender in Islam: The Historical Roots of a Modern Debate” and “Edward William Lane: A Study of His Life and Work and of British Ideas of the Middle East in the Nineteenth Century” as well as many articles, among them "Arab Culture and Writing Women's Bodies" and "Between Two Worlds: The Formation of a Turn of the Century Egyptian Feminist". Her current research and writing centers on Islam in America and issues of women and gender.

Soukeina Bouraoui is Professor of Law at the Legal, Political and Social Department, University of Tunis. She achieved her doctoral thesis, in 1982 and holds a Civil Law and Criminal Sciences Aggregation. From 1987 to 1991 Professor Bouraoui headed the Civil Law and Criminal Sciences Department, and put in place an “Environment Diploma” taken before completing a PhD on ‘’Development - Town Planning’’ at the university. This is a pioneer project in the Arab and African world. Dr. Bouraoui founded and has headed the Center of Research, Documentation and Information on Women (CREDIF). Additionally, she has been Chairman of the Women’s Development Plan Committee for the Eighth Plan of the Tunisian government’s Economic and Social Development Plan. Presently, she is the Executive Manager of the Center of Arab Women for Training and Research (CAWTAR). She has taught a number of subjects including criminal law, criminal politics, civil law, environmental law and human rights, She has authored several studies and publications, in particular on issues relating to environment law and women’s rights, and has lectured at a number of foreign universities, Dr. Bouraoui is a member of the Board of Directors of the Tunisian Association of the Criminal Law, the International Association of Economic Law and the International Comparative Law of the Environment Center. In 1997, She was elected as Regional Governor of the International Environment Council. Since 2000, she has been a member of the International Court of Environment Arbitration.

Nadereh Chamlou is Senior Advisor at the World Bank's Middle East and North Africa Region for Knowledge and Economic and Sector Work. In this capacity she leads the Region's gender agenda and advises on the Bank's policy and advisory work. Mrs. Chamlou has extensive cross sectoral and cross country experience. In her 25 years with the World Bank, she has worked in technical and managerial positions across the World Bank Group in such areas as economic management, private sector development, financial sector development, oil and gas, telecom, power, infrastructure, environment, accounting and auditing, corporate governance, and the knowledge economy. In addition to countries in the Middle East and North Africa, she has also worked on Mexico, republics of former Yugoslavia, Turkey, Pakistan, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, and Papua New Guinea. She co-authored a World Bank flagship report on “Corporate Governance: A Framework for Implementation” and was the principal author of” “Gender and Development in the Middle East and North Africa Region – Women in the Public Sphere.” Born and raised in Iran and educated in Europe and US, she brings a multidimensional perspective to gender that is beneficial to addressing equality and women's empowerment issues in the Middle East and North Africa. She is a graduate of Georgetown's School of Foreign Service and holds a Masters Degree in Economics.

Mouna Cherkaoui is a Moroccan national with a Ph.D in Economics from Arizona State University. Dr. Cherkaoui has worked with the USAID mission to Morocco, conducting economic research on significant economic trends and undertaking economic policy analysis projects. She later joined the Ministry of Education of Morocco. Dr. Cherkaoui is now Professor of Economics at the University Mohammed V. In addition, she has been a Visiting Professor and Scholar at Arizona State University, the University of Montreal, and at Duke University's School of Business. She specializes in international trade and finance, and her research interests include emerging financial markets, economic growth and international trade, with a focus on North Africa.

Taïeb Hafsi is Professor of Strategic Management at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales at the University of Montreal, where he holds the Walter J. Somers Chair of International Strategic Management. Professor Hafsi has been awarded several prizes of which the 1989 P. Laurin Research Prize, the 1998 Coopers-Lybrand Best Business Book award, the 2000 Outstanding Teacher award, the 2001 François-Albert Angers Best Teaching Book award, and the Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences’ 1990 and 2004 Best Paper awards. In addition to an MSc in chemical engineering, Dr. Hafsi holds an MSc in management, from the Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a Ph.D in Business Administration, from Harvard Business School. He has conducted research programs on divestment in public and private sectors, on organizational responses to globalization of markets, on strategic change, on issues of competitiveness and national strategies, on strategic management of highly dependent organizations, and on strategic management and institutional theory of organization. He has written numerous articles in several academic or professional management journals. He is the founder, and was until 2004 the editor of a trilingual academic journal, “International Management”. He is a member of the Academy of Management, of the Academy of International Business, of the Administrative Science Association of Canada, a founding member of the Strategic Management Society and of its French speaking counterpart AIMS, and a member of the Advisory Board of the World Association of Case Research and Application. He collaborates, as a reviewer, to many journals. He also sits on the Board of Directors of several small technology firms, and has conducted consulting assignments in large firms in Canada, Europe, the United States and in a variety of emerging countries.

Mona Khalaf is Assistant Professor of Economics and the former Director of the Institute for Women's Studies in the Arab World, Lebanese American University. She is an economist by training and undertakes research on women in the labor force and its impact on family dynamics. Dr. Khalaf is coordinator of the World Bank's Gender Consultative Council in the MENA region (June 2000 till present), a member of the Lebanese NGO Commission for the Preparation of the 1995 Beijing World Conference on Women, a member of the Lebanese National Commission for Women Affairs, (1996- 1999), and a member of the Board of Trustees of the United Nations International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (INSTRAW), (1996 – 1999). Her major publications include “Evaluating the Status of Lebanese Women in Light of the Beijing Platform for Action”, (United Nations Development Fund for Women, 2002), “Women in Post War Lebanon”, in Kail, C.Ellis, “Lebanon’s Second Republic, Prospects for the Twenty-first Century”, (University Press of Florida, 2002), “Arab Women in the Labor Market: Dismantling Stereotypes”, in Globalization and Gender: Economic Participation of Arab Women, (CAWTAR, 2001), “Women’s Studies: Middle East and North Africa”, (Routledge International Encyclopedia for Women, 2000).

Golnar Mehran is an Associate Professor of Education at Al-Zahra University in Tehran, Iran. Since 1991, she has also been an education consultant for UNICEF in Jordan (1995), Oman (2000), and Iran. Her specialization is gender and education, an area in which Dr. Mehran has published extensively, particularly on female education in the Islamic Republic of Iran and in the Middle East and North Africa region. Professor Mehran received her Ph.D. in Education from the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA), where she has frequently been Visiting Assistant Professor at the Graduate School of Education.

Guity Nashat is a Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution and Professor of History at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Her current research focuses on women in Iran. She has coauthored (with Nobel Laureate Gary Becker) “The Economics of Life” (McGraw Hill, 1997), “Women in the Middle East: Restoring Women to History” (with Judith Tucker – Indiana University Press, 1999 ), “Women in Iran from 1800 to the Islamic Republic” (with Lois Beck Indiana University Press, 2003 and 2004). Among other books, she is author of “The Origins of Modern Reform in Iran, 1870-1880” (University of Illinois Press, 1982) and is editor of Middle Eastern History (Markus Wiener Publishing, 1988). She also published “Women and Revolution in Iran” (Westview Press, 1984). She has contributed chapters to the “Encyclopaedia of the Modern Islamic World” (Oxford University Press, forthcoming) and has written sections for the “Encyclopaedia Iranica” (Mazda Publishers, 1993). Dr. Nashat has published in numerous academic journals and historical publications and is a member of the editorial advisory board for World Civilization (since 1992) and a member of the Middle East Studies Committee at the University of Illinois (1991–). She was a member of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Chicago (1988-94) and is a member of the Mont Pelerin Society, the Iranian Studies Association, the Middle East Studies Association, and the Council of the Society of Iranian Studies. She received a B.A. from Barnard College in 1958, an M.S. from the Columbia University School of Journalism in 1959, and a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1973.

Nemat Shafik is Director General Regional Programmes, DFID since 2004. Prior to this, she was Vice President for Infrastructure in the World Bank. She also managed, jointly with the International Finance Corporation, the Global Product Groups for Information and Technology, and for Oil, Gas, Chemicals and Mining. She has chaired several international consultative groups, and has been Vice President for Private Sector Development, Infrastructure and Guarantees, and managed a network of more than 1,000 specialists in private sector development, energy, telecommunications, urban, water, sanitation, transport, and guarantees, providing expertise to all parts of the World Bank Group. She also served on the senior management group of the International Finance Corporation. Prior to this, she was Director for Private Sector and Finance in World Bank’s Middle East and North Africa Region. Dr. Shafik has held a number of academic appointments, notably as Visiting Professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and Adjunct Professor in the Economics Department at Georgetown University. She attained her BA in Economics and Politics from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and her MSc in Economics from the London School of Economics and holds a DPhil in Economics from St. Antony's College, Oxford University. She has authored, edited, and co-authored a number of books, including “Prospects for the Middle East and North African Economies: from Boom to Bust and Back?”, “Challenges Facing Middle Eastern and North African Countries: Alternative Futures, and Reviving Private Investment in Developing Countries”. She has also written articles for a number of publications, including Oxford Economic Papers, Colombia Journal of World Business, The Middle East Journal, Journal of African Finance and Economic Development, World Development, and the Journal of Development Economics.

Tarik Yousef a Libyan and a UK national, received his Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University in 1997. He has worked as an economist in the International Monetary Fund between 1997 and 1999 and joined Georgetown University in 1999 as Assistant Professor of Economics in the School of Foreign Service, and Shaykh Al-Sabah Chair in Arab Studies in the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies. Dr. Yousef specializes in development economics and economic history with a particular focus on the Middle East. In addition to his academic work, he is a consultant on Middle Eastern affairs to government institutions and international organizations. He has been an Economic Research Forum Research Fellow since 2001 and in December 2003 was voted Chairperson of ERF Fellows. Dr. Yousef is the lead author of the Flagship World Bank Report “Unlocking the Employment Potential in the Middle East and North Africa: Toward a New Social Contract” which was prepared for the 2003 Annual Meetings of the IMF and the World Bank in Dubai. Other recent publications include: “Development, Growth, and Policy Reform in the Middle East, 1950-2000” forthcoming in the Journal of Economic Perspectives; “Democracy, Inequality, and Inflation,” in the American Political Science Review (Aug. 2003); “Intraregional Trade Integration in the Middle East: Past Performance and Future Potential,” in H. Hakimian and J. Nugent, eds. “Trade Policy and Economic Integration in the Middle East and North Africa: Economic Boundaries in Flux” (Routledge: 2003); and “Egypt’s Growth Record Under Economic Liberalism, 1885-1950: A Reassessment Using New GDP Estimates,” the Review of Income and Wealth, (Dec 2002).