Middle East and North Africa region
The Middle East and North Africa region of Nexus Consortiums addresses severely water-stressed systems, the transition of major energy economies, extreme heat, and maritime and overland corridors of global importance. Regional work compares desalination, groundwater, power, food-import and heat dependencies while each country keeps control of its data and its decisions. The region is forming. Two hubs are planned as coordination roles; none operates, and none is an office. This page sets out the region from the perspective of The Global Risks Forum (GRF).
- Institution
- The Global Risks Forum (GRF)
- Service level
- R0: information and enquiries
Deliberation desk
Middle East and North Africa region · Council of members · Round 4 of 5
Deliberation
- Frame the questionagreed
- Evidence briefindependent
- Hear positionsall members
- Optionswith trade-offs
- Recommendreasons
- Decidemandate holder
Positions
| Member state A | Support | Neutral | Object | Funding concern |
| Member state B | Neutral | Support | Support | |
| Regional body | Support | Support | Neutral | Prefers phasing |
| Civil society | Object | Support | Support | Equity |
Rules
- Quorum
- 2 thirds
- Dissent
- recorded with reasons
- Evidence
- brief EB-73
- Decision
- not GRF's
GRF · Deliberation deskDeliberation desk, in outline: domain structure with placeholder names and illustrative values, not a record.
The short answer.
The Middle East and North Africa region, seen from GRF, is the forming Nexus Consortiums region of water-stressed systems, major energy economies in transition, extreme heat and corridors of global importance. Heat, water and power questions are a clear case for GRF's convening role, and two hubs are planned as coordination roles.
Water security in Middle East and North Africa.
Rivers, lakes and how far each division sits from mapped surface water, in Middle East and North Africa.
Water scarcity, heat and transition as regional agenda.
- The Arab Strategy for Disaster Risk Reduction and the Arab Regional Platform under UNDRR.
- Shared aquifer and river arrangements, many of them bilateral or still under negotiation, alongside the UN Watercourses Convention, to which only some regional states are party.
- Maritime frameworks for the Red Sea, the Gulf and the eastern Mediterranean, including regional seas conventions under UNEP.
- National transition plans in hydrocarbon economies and the NDCs that frame them.
Where cooperation is most needed.
| Question | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| How are shared groundwater bodies monitored and allocated when most use is unmetered? | Aquifers deplete without a visible signal at the border |
| How do states coordinate public health and labour protections during extreme heat? | Heat stress crosses labour, health and urban planning mandates |
| How are shipping disruptions in regional chokepoints communicated to the importers that depend on them? | Food and energy security rest on a small number of routes |
Evidence on heat and water comes from GCRI climate hazards and Water Nexus.
Coordination roles, not offices.
No regional host is on record. North African states also take part in the Africa region. Programme engagement is not offered where sanctions and eligibility rules restrict it, and restricted countries have no desk or call to action.
| Planned hub | Programme focus | State |
|---|---|---|
| United Arab Emirates | Heat, desalination, power, compute, ports, logistics and development readiness | Planned |
| Saudi Arabia | Heat, water, cities, industrial systems, compute and Red Sea dependencies | Planned |
A planned hub is a proposed coordination role for shared-system work across a group of countries. It is not an operating site, an office or an exclusive territory, and countries listed in a hub's scope do not, by that fact, have constituted programmes.
Leadership and dialogue in the region.
Heat, water and power questions are a clear case for GRF's convening role in the region: desalination, electricity and public-health institutions depend on each other under the same extreme conditions.
Shared-system dialogues
Documented dialogues among the authorities, operators and communities who share a system, with agreements and dissent recorded.
Regional roles in formation
Regional leadership roles are in formation; their scope is published only once adopted. See Regional leadership.
Regional missions
Regional missions can be proposed to Nexus Universe and admitted at gate G1 against published criteria.
What is in place, and what is not.
- Programme state: forming. No regional programme decision, host agreement or hub is described as operating.
- National structures keep agenda authority and may decline participation or data sharing.
- No regional body binds a country, and withdrawal never erases other parties' lawful work.
- GRF convenes and records. It does not regulate, finance, procure or certify.
Where to go next.
The regional desk, run by the Consortium Secretariat, is middleeastnorthafrica@therisk.global. The acknowledgement gives a reference and names the next step. The technical view of the region is on GCRI's Middle East and North Africa region page, and its financial-system questions on GRA's Middle East and North Africa region page. Other regions on this site include Africa and Asia and the Pacific, all listed on Regional cooperation.
Terms used on this page.
Each term as this page uses it. Where a standard-setting body defines the term, the wording follows that body.
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Water stress | Freshwater withdrawn by all sectors as a share of the renewable freshwater available once environmental flow requirements are met; SDG indicator 6.4.2 measures it. |
| Heat-health action plan | A plan that links heat forecasts to warnings and protective measures for people at risk. |
| Energy security | The uninterrupted availability of energy sources at an affordable price, in the IEA's definition, with long-term and short-term dimensions. |
Where this page's references lead.
The bodies and documents this page is read against. Status and editions change; each link goes to the issuing body.
Questions and answers.
Do all countries in the region have a country desk?
Does each country keep control of its data?
How does my institution take part in the Middle East and North Africa?
Are there results for this region yet?
Around GRF.
Start with an enquiry.
The current service level is R0: information and enquiries. An enquiry receives a reference and names the next step; applications, payments, compute allocations and registrations open only when their team, terms and review capacity exist.