Sustainable States

Environment, Governance, and the Future of the Middle East

For tens of millions in the Arab world, shortages of power, water and waste collection are more than a daily inconvenience. They are a persistent sign that the systems around them have failed. The failure to provide reliable utilities reaches beyond inconvenience, however. It harms nutrition and health, weakens economies, and poisons politics. Left unaddressed, the problems build on themselves and create a downward spiral.

And yet, technology and innovation provide pathways out of the cycle. New methods of providing services contribute to increased environmental sustainability, greater resilience, and healthier relations between governments and their citizens.

The CSIS Middle East Program explored how new methods of providing utilities—often more decentralized, and often emphasizing renewable technologies—offers significant opportunities for the Middle East. The CSIS team also found more sustainable service delivery is an important vehicle to address the corrosive lack of trust in many Middle Eastern societies.

To execute this project, CSIS worked with a senior-level advisory board and drew from the expertise of a working group of regional experts. The main report focuses on Jordan, Lebanon, and Tunisia, and working group members contributed additional analysis.

This project was made possible by a donation from the Embassy of Qatar in Washington, D.C. The shape of this project, as well as the opinions, conclusions, and recommendations expressed in its findings are those of the authors and do not represent the view of the embassy or the government of Qatar, which did not review the project’s findings before publication.

External Experts


Advisory Board

Advisory Board for the Sustainable States project.

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Photo: CSIS

Photo: CSIS



Working Group

Working Group for the Sustainable States project.

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Photo: CSIS

Photo: CSIS


Notes from the Field: Commentaries from External Experts


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Photo: iLab/CSIS

Photo: iLab/CSIS

Decentralized Waste Management in MENA Countries: Lessons from Tunisia

The amount of waste produced in the MENA region increases year on year. Wassim Chaabane argues that Tunisia’s experiment with decentralized solid waste management holds promise for other countries in the region.

Commentary by Dr.-Eng. Wassim Chaabane — May 6, 2021