A New Social Contract for Post-Conflict Middle East and North Africa

The civil wars in Libya, Syria and Yemen arose from the Arab Spring that, in turn, was triggered by a broken social contract. In the old social contract, the state would provide free health and education, subsidized food and fuel, and jobs in the public sector, in return for which citizens would keep their voices low, despite widespread cronyism and corruption. By the 2000s, the state could no longer provide jobs, so the citizens took to the streets in protest. In Libya, Syria and Yemen, the aftermath was civil war that has lasted over a decade. When these wars end, the post-conflict reconstruction strategy should be geared towards a new social contract so as not to recreate the conditions for the resumption of conflict. Yet, the experience with postconflict reconstruction in MENA and elsewhere has been to reproduce the old social contract, where the centralized state commands all the resources and the citizens are passive recipients of its largesse. The new reconstruction strategy should be one where the citizens hold the state accountable, rather than the other way around. In practice, this means having education and health services managed by communities; private goods such as food and fuel sold at market prices; and fiscal resources transferred to households so that they can decide what to buy, where to live, and what services to demand from the state.