Ibrahim Elbadawi is Director of the Macroeconomics Research Department, Dubai Economic Council and Visiting Fellow at the Center for Global Development (CGD) in Washington, DC. He has been the thematic leader for the Economic Research Forum (ERF) research work on 'Natural Resources and Economic Diversification in the Arab World' since 2010. Until February 2009 he was Lead Economist at the Development Research Group of the World Bank and he also served as Research Director of the African Economic Research Consortium, Nairobi from 1993 to 1998. Elbadawi has published widely on several areas of macroeconomic and development policy. His regional specialization covers Africa and the Middle East, where he is widely networked with academic research and policy forums. Hoda Selim is currently an economist at the Economic Research Forum (ERF), Cairo. Previously, she worked for five years at the World Bank's Cairo Office in the Poverty Reduction and Economic Monitoring department. For the past four years, she has been managing research projects and conducting research work under the theme of 'natural resources and economic diversification'. She has conducted research on macroeconomic issues in Egypt and the Arab region including economic development, economic growth, monetary and exchange rate issues.