Socioeconomic Conditions:

• The Human Development Index (HDI) (composite index measuring a long and healthy life, knowledge, and a decent standard of living).
• Sub-indices within the HDI: The Education Index and The Gender Inequality Index.
• Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita.
• Size of Economy.
• GNI per capita and percent growth in GDP per capita.
• Economic Complexity Atlas.
• The Economist reports on the Middle East and North Africa.

Political Situation:

• CIA World Factbook: Type of government (autocracy or monarchy), significance of oil reserves, number of political parties. permitted in each country, nature of the countries’ legislative bodies (elected or appointed).
• Freedom House country rating: civil liberties, political rights, and overall freedom.
• 2016 Corruption Perceptions Index from Transparency International.
• 2016 Global Peace Index Score from the Institute for Economics and Peace.
• 10 Years of Arab Youth Survey: A Decade of Hopes and Fears.
• Arab Barometer: Insight on social, political, and economic attitudes and values across the Arab world.

Technological Connectivity:

• Internet users (per 100 people) (World Bank).
• Mobile cellular subscriptions (per 100 people) (World Bank).
• Internet users, percent population penetration, and Facebook statistics (Internet World Stats).
• Internet and Smart Phone use by age, Pew Research Center report  (only available for Palestine, Jordan, and Israel).

Impact of Civil Society:

• The number of newspapers as listed on Arabic Media website.
• Civil Society Impact. 
• Arab Barometer.

• Civil Society Organization Sustainability Index for the Middle East and North Africa

Economic Reporting Tools:

1. Doing Business Report (World Bank).
2. Women, Business and the Law (a new report that tracks data on laws and regulations constraining women’s employment and entrepreneurship) (World Bank).
3. Index of Economic Freedom (Heritage Foundation).
4. Women at Work Trends 2016 (International Labour Office) (PDF 4,947 KB).
5. The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) provides country, risk and industry analysis, across 200 countries worldwide.
6. International Data & Economic analysis (IDEA) from USAID allows access and use of country-level data from different third-party sources simultaneously.