According to the World Development Indicators, infant mortality rates dropped from 98.7 deaths per 1 000 live births on average1 in 1970 to 17 deaths per 1 000 live births in 2011. Likewise, life expectancy at birth rose from 58.5 years in 1970 to 75.2 years in 2012, with women living on average 2 years longer than men in both 1970 and 2011. In fact, literacy rates in the MENA region for females has jumped a little more than 10 percentage points, from approximately 61% in 2000 to 72% in 20112 (Figure 1.1), with significant improvements in gross tertiary enrolment in Egypt and Lebanon and in literacy rates in Jordan, the Palestinian Authority and Qatar.