Middle East and North Africa

The region has no standardized definition and groupings may vary, but the term typically includes countries like Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, the UAE, and Yemen.

[4][5] Moreover, it shares a number of cultural, economic, and environmental similarities across the countries that it spans; for example, some of the most extreme impacts of climate change will be felt in MENA.

Ultimately, MENA can be considered as a grouping scheme that brings together most of the Arab League and variously includes their neighbors, like Iran, Turkey, Israel, the Caucasian countries, Afghanistan and Pakistan, and a few others.

Historians Michael Dumper and Bruce Stanley stated in 2007: 'For the purposes of this volume, the editors have generally chosen to define the MENA region as stretching from Morocco to Iran and from Turkey to the Horn of Africa.

[16] For its December 2012 global religion survey, the Pew Research Center grouped 20 countries and territories as 'the Middle East and North Africa', namely: 'Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, the Palestinian territories, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, Western Sahara and Yemen.

[21] The United Nations geoscheme used by the UN Statistics Division for its specific political geography statistics needs, does not define a single WANA region, but it does feature two subregions called Western Asia and Northern Africa, respectively:[15] In a 1995 publication, the then-Aleppo-based International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) defined its West Asia/North Africa (WANA) region as 25 countries, including: 'Afghanistan, Algeria, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey and Yemen.

[23] In a 2011 study, ICARDA stated 27 countries/territories: 'The WANA region includes: Afghanistan, Algeria, Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gaza Strip, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen.

In a preparatory working paper for the June 2004 G8 Summit, the U.S. government (at the end of the George W. Bush administration's first term) defined the Greater Middle East as including the Arab states, Israel, Turkey, Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Some organisations and scholars insist on still using 'Near East' today, with some including North Africa, but definitions range widely and there is no consensus on its geographical application.

The 18 nations in the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East are: Bahrain, Cyprus, Egypt, Greece, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, UAE, and Yemen.

[35] These emissions are mostly from the energy sector,[36] an integral component of many Middle Eastern and North African economies due to the extensive oil and natural gas reserves that are found within the region.

[39] The MENA region is especially vulnerable to such impacts due to its arid and semi-arid environment, facing climatic challenges such as low rainfall, high temperatures and dry soil.

[citation needed] According to Pew Research Center's 2016 "Religion and Education Around the World" study, 40% of the adult population in MENA had completed less than a year of primary school.

How often countries/territories are included in MENA/WANA definitions:
Usually included
Often included
Less commonly included
Variations on definitions of the Middle East and North Africa region.
Traditional definition of the Middle East
Greater Middle East (2004 U.S. Government paper) [ 7 ]
Areas pundits sometimes associated with the Middle East around 2004 [ 7 ]
The MENA region as defined by the World Bank (2003) [ 8 ] [ 9 ]
The MENA region as defined by UNAIDS , which includes Sudan and Somalia, but excludes Israel, Palestine and Malta [ 10 ]
The MENA region as defined by the IMF (2003), which includes Afghanistan, Mauritania, Pakistan, Palestine, Sudan and Somalia, but excludes Israel and Malta [ 11 ]
Western Asia and Northern Africa according to the UN political statistics geoscheme [ 15 ]
The WANA region according to ICARDA (2011) [ 22 ]