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Acknowledgments

WE ARE GRATEFUL TO several institutions and to a much larger number of individuals who have helped in the preparation of this volume. First and foremost, we are indebted to our case writers—Mark Ahern, Fatema Alhashemi, Adele Barzelay, Mhamed Biygautane, Tristan Dreisbach, Khalid El Massnaoui, Khalid Elashmawy, Tony Goldner, Okan Geray, Deepa Iyer, Fadi Salem, Andrew H. W. Stone, and Simonida Subotic—without whose tireless efforts we would not have been able to capture the fascinating studies that form the core of this book. We are also grateful to Nithya Nagarajan and Khalid Al-Yahya for their many important contributions earlier in the drafting process, and to Khalid for writing the case on the SADAD bill payment system within Saudi Arabia. We are grateful to Fatema Alhashemi, who managed the project over the past three years, overseeing the completion and updating of chapters, and to Anna Jacobs, who provided superb editorial and technical support as we prepared the volume for publication.

Their efforts, in turn, would not have been possible without the active collaboration of the governments and individuals featured in these cases. We very much appreciate their willingness to share their experience, both positive and less so, with a broader audience. It is our hope that this effort will mark a modest but important step toward greater transparency in identifying, documenting, and sharing experience with public sector reform in the countries throughout the Middle East and North Africa region, from which all will benefit.

We are particularly appreciative of the efforts of a number of individuals whose support and good will were essential to this project’s success. This book has been supported by a number of World Bank managers and staff, including Manuela Ferro, Guenter Heidenhof, Renaud Seligmann, and Hisham Waly. From the Brookings Doha Center, we acknowledge the support of Fatema Alhashemi, Anna Jacobs, Nadine Masri, Ghadeer Abu Ali, Rawan Dareer, and Seyda Aydin. Our peer reviewers were Nick Manning, Edouard Al-Dahdah, Hana Brixi, and Mike Stevens. In addition, valuable feedback, advice, and assistance was received on individual chapters by a number of commentators, including Muhyieddeen Touq, Marwan Muasher, Firas Raad, Hala Bsaiso Lattouf, Salam Fayyad, Saddek El Kaber, Ghassan Khatib, Mahmoud Mohieldin, Charles Adwan, Lydia Habhab, Hala Hanna, William Crandell, Salvatore Schiavo-Campo, and others. Lida Bteddini helped at various stages in the preparation process, as did Lina Badawy and Mavo Ranaivoarivelo. Alexandra Sperling and Rebecca Hife provided valuable assistance at numerous junctures as well. A number of the cases drew upon interviews of senior officials by Rami Khouri conducted as part of the World Bank MENA region’s broader governance effort.

Robert Beschel is particularly indebted to the support and encouragement he received from a variety of Kuwait-based colleagues during the production of this volume. Abhijit Barve provided invaluable inputs and went well above the call of duty, as did Alya Al Hamad and Haya Al-Qassar. Zeinab El-Bakri, Bader Al-Saif, Haitham Haddadin, Ayaz Ahmed, Talal Al-Saleh, and Mohammed Al-Zuhair provided comments on various sections, and Amani Nayif has helped at numerous points, as well. Nadir Mohammed has been a major source of encouragement and insight along the way, and his many valuable comments on earlier drafts are deeply appreciated.

The authors are grateful to Professor Jennifer Widner of Princeton University’s Innovations for Successful Societies program for permission to use the two cases on document processing in Jordan, as well as the program’s support in drafting the Tunisia case on Right to Information. We are also grateful to the case writing program at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government for their flexibility regarding the use of the Saudi Arabia SADAD case.

Funding for this effort came through the Norwegian Governance Trust Fund at the World Bank, along with the World Bank’s Global Governance Practice in the Middle East and North Africa Region and the Brookings Doha Center.

Above all, we would like to thank our families, who have borne with the production of this volume with patience and good will.

Robert P. Beschel Jr. | Tarik M. Yousef