World Bank tracks how governments are responding to Middle East crisis

The World Bank has compiled data on how different countries are changing their social policies—welfare, healthcare, education, unemployment support—in response to the Middle East conflict and its global economic spillovers. This matters because it shows, in real time, which governments are absorbing costs themselves, which are cutting programs, and where social safety nets are being tested or abandoned.

When governments respond to regional crises by cutting social spending or changing eligibility rules, that shift often persists long after the crisis ends—and this dataset makes those choices visible and comparable across countries, revealing which populations are being protected and which are being exposed to economic shock.