Economic Research Forum (ERF)

Noha El-Mikawy

Author

Noha El-Mikawy
Dean, School of Global Affairs and Public Policy (GAPP), American University in Cairo (AUC)

Noha El-Mikawy is the Dean of the School of Global Affairs and Public Policy (GAPP) at the American University in Cairo (AUC). Noha is the former Regional Director of the Ford Foundation, Middle East and North Africa office (2012-2022). From 2005-2007 and again 2009- 2012 Noha served as Team Leader for Governance at the UNDP Regional Center (based in Lebanon then Egypt) where she provided support on governance reform in Egypt, Tunisia, Sudan, Somalia, Yemen, Jordan, Kuwait. In June 2011, her team organized UNDP’s first international conference on transitions to democracy. That was an occasion for officials and civil society actors in Egypt, Tunisia, and Yemen to share experiences with counterparts from Latin America, Asia, and Africa. From 2007-2009, Noha was policy advisor at the UNDP Oslo Governance Center (Norway), where she supervised UNDP’s global project on governance assessments, organized international convenings on UNDP’s legal empowerment of the poor and edited a UNDP-UN Women guidebook on governance and gender sensitive service delivery. Before 2005, Noha led comparative research on the political economy of MENA at the Centre for Development Research at the University of Bonn (Germany) and lectured on politics of the Middle East at the American University in Cairo, Free University of Berlin, and Erlangen-Nuremberg (Germany). Noha holds a Ph.D. and M.A. from the University of California, Los Angeles (USA), and has three books and multiple articles published by reputable international publishers on institutional reform and governance in MENA.Noha El-Mikawy

Content by this Author

It’s too early to tell what happened to the Arab Spring

Did the Arab Spring fail? This column presents a view the consensus view from ERF’s recent annual conference in Morocco: careful analysis of the fundamental drivers of democratic transitions suggests that it’s too early to tell.

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The green transition in MENA economies: challenges and policy pathways

The economies of the Middle East and North Africa are at a critical turning point. Global decarbonisation pressures, energy market volatility and technological transformation are increasingly challenging hydrocarbon-based growth models. This column argues that the green transition is not only an environmental necessity but also a strategic economic imperative.

Beyond job creation: how can Egypt’s gender gap in work be closed?

More than 2 million jobs are needed each year to absorb new entrants into Egypt’s labour market and raise the country’s employment rate. The job challenge is even more acute for women, whose labour force participation remains low despite recent gains in education. This column reports on the second Development Dialogue, an ERF–World Bank Group joint initiative, which brought together students, scholars, policy-makers and private sector leaders at the American University in Cairo to consider how the country’s gender gap in work can be closed.

The political economy of algorithms in the Middle East

The Middle East is entering a new political-economic era – one in which algorithms, data and artificial intelligence may become as strategically important as oil once was. Across the region, governments are investing heavily in digital infrastructure, smart governance and AI-driven economic transformation. This column outlines how AI and algorithmic governance are reshaping power, inequality and state capacity in the region.

Digitalisation, global value chains and regional integration in MENA & SSA

Participation in global value chains is vital for countries pursuing structural transformation and inclusive economic development. This column summarises new evidence on how much production processes have been globalised in Africa and the Middle East relative to other regions; whether this process has taken place with partners within or outside the region; and whether it has taken place more in manufacturing or services.

How trade policy can reduce MENA’s cereal import vulnerability

Heavy dependence on imported cereals, combined with climate change, water scarcity and geopolitical uncertainty, continues to threaten food resilience across MENA. This column explains how an inclusive trade policy can play a key role in making the region’s food security less vulnerable to shocks.




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