Environmental Strategies That Sustain Development In Middle East to Be Discussed

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The World Bank has proposed a strategy to promote environmentally sustainable development in the Middle East and North Africa, a region that is beginning to suffer from environmental degradation as a result of pollution, poor resource management and industrial development.

Sherif K.F. Arif, coordinator of the World Bank Global Environmental Facility for Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, will present a talk about this proposed strategy at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 7, in 201A Hayes Hall on the University at Buffalo South (Main Street) Campus.

The event will be sponsored by the Center for Comparative Studies in Development Planning in the UB School of Architecture and Planning. It will be free of charge and open to the public. A reception will follow.

Arif, who also coordinates the World Bank's Mediterranean Environmental Technical Assistance Program, will focus principally on the issues of water and natural resource management, urban environment and sustainable industrial and energy development. He also will address some of the quantifiable costs of the new proposals.

Ibrahim Jammal, associate professor of planning and director of the UB center, said several specific recommendations will be discussed: strengthening the capacity of the region's environmental institutions, intensifying management of natural resources scarcity and arresting emerging pollution problems.

Arif has said that in order to implement workable environmental strategies, it may be necessary to reformulate and restructure institutions of planning, budgeting and economic development throughout the Eastern Mediterranean region. He will present ways in which the World Bank and other agencies are trying to increase public awareness and develop targeted investment plans. His talk also will identify ways in which private investors, bilateral donors and international organizations and financing institutions can support the local efforts of countries in the region.