The Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan and Pakistan could create 5 million new jobs by 2050 by investing in their agriculture and food systems and reforming the business climate, according to a World Bank Group report released on June 29, 2026. The report, Building Food Security, Creating Jobs, argues that the region has clear opportunities to strengthen food security, improve nutrition and absorb the young people entering its labour market.

The need is pressing. Eighteen percent of the region's population now faces some level of food insecurity, a historic high, and 42 percent cannot afford a nutritious diet, including many people in middle-income countries. Conflict is the chief cause of outright hunger, but the report says food affordability and poor nutrition are widespread problems, and food demand in the region is projected to rise by 67 percent by 2050.

The central recommendation is money for water and innovation. The report estimates that raising regional investment in water-efficient irrigation and agricultural innovation by US$12 billion a year, supported by ambitious and coherent policy reform, could more than double fruit and vegetable production and raise cereal yields by 72 percent by 2050, while beginning to ease pressure on groundwater. Resilient, well-managed trade, it adds, can open export markets, balance water needs and secure food at a lower fiscal cost.

Agrifood already employs about 63 million people in the region, nearly three in ten workers. On-farm employment is declining, but jobs in processing, logistics and food services are growing at twice the global rate. Surveys carried out for the report found that, contrary to a common assumption, large majorities of people see agrifood work as a way to earn good money, especially for the young.

The report also points to logistics investment and better consumer incentives as ways to cut food waste, which it says could feed millions and free up fiscal and natural resources, and it calls for decisive action to tilt supply and demand towards healthier, more nutritious food.

"This report demonstrates that the region can take concrete, near-term action to boost food security, build the foundations for stronger agriculture and food systems, and create millions of new jobs," said Mesky Bhrane, World Bank Regional Director for the Planet Department. Bhrane said the Bank Group is supporting countries by investing in innovative technologies and next-generation irrigation and agriculture, and by linking farmers to new opportunities through AgriConnect, its global initiative to transform farming for 300 million smallholders.

For a farmer or an agribusiness from Morocco to Pakistan, the report's message is that growth is moving off the farm and along the value chain, into processing, logistics and food service, and that public money is expected to go towards using water more efficiently rather than using more of it.

Source: World Bank