Maria Sarraf, Bjorn Larsen, Marwan Owaygen (World Bank, 2004)
This report was prepared under the METAP program as a first step in a process toward using environmental damage cost assessments for priority setting and as an instrument for integrating environmental issues into economic and social development in the Middle East and North Africa region. Cost of environmental degradation reports were also prepared for Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and Syria during the period 2001-2004. Based on the reports, regional training programs were conducted in Egypt (December 2002), Lebanon (August 2003) and Morocco (January 2004) with participants from the ministries of environment, sector ministries, research institutes, and the private sector.
The reports represent one of the first attempts in the region to quantify and monetize the cost of degradation across a wide range of environmental issues. The assessments therefore had in some cases to rely on health impact studies from other countries, and in other cases were not able to provide quantitative estimates of health effects.
