In one of the most unequal regions in the world, the distance between the rich and the rest is ever-widening.

This inequality divide in the MENA region has festered for decades as austerity policies become the norm. They have allowed the rich to get richer while insecure work, poor quality healthcare, lack of education, and harmful economic policies have threatened to plunge - and keep - millions into poverty across the region.

The poorest half of the MENA population owns only 3% of total personal wealth. One-third of Egyptians, 16 percent of Tunisians, and 82 percent of Lebanese live below the poverty line or in multidimensional poverty.

Meanwhile, MENA's billionaires club keeps growing. Fourteen men have amassed huge fortunes, doubling their wealth in three years at the expense of the rest, while millions of others struggle for the most basic of services.

As Lebanon continues to reel from a historic economic collapse, the country’s richest doubled their net wealth between 2020 and 2022, despite the worst economic and financial meltdown in the last 100 years. Their wealth soared from US$18.7bn to almost US$35bn.

While the richest piled up wealth, the public accumulated debt all across the region last year, in Morocco’s case it increased from 45% to 69%.

Despite this, Morocco’s elites experienced a boom, where the net wealth of the richest grew US$28.6bn to US$31.5bn in only three years.

This is a stark contrast with the rest of Morocco, where unemployment grew from 14% in 2020 to 20% in 2021 and more women left the labour force.   Sectors that rely on informal work, such as retail, agriculture, manufacturing, transport, tourism, and sales all downsized rapidly.

Sixteen percent of Tunisians live below the poverty line, while massive wealth and income concentration are enjoyed by very few.

Universal social protection is a vital cushion in a crisis and a fundamental human right, but MENA countries have highly fragmented and underfunded social protection systems, and the poorest people are often the most affected. In Tunisia, only 50 percent of the total population is covered by at least one social protection benefit.

Tunisian schools are falling apart. Thousands have no basic services like water and an estimated 100,000 students drop out of school every year.

Tunisian women’s access to social protection-especially pensions- is severely limited. Only 17 percent who are at retirement age have a pension scheme.