In 1957, the World Bank’s department for Asia and the Middle East was divided into a department of the Far East and a department for South Asia and the Middle East. Ten years later, a Middle East and North Africa (MENA) department was created. Within a year, in 1968, that department was merged with the Europe department, resulting in an entity known by the acronym EMENA. Another reorganization in 1991 resulted in the creation of a separate department for Europe and the Soviet Union (now Europe and Central Asia), which meant that the World Bank once again had a MENA department.

Sources: World Bank Group Archives, “World Bank Group Historical Chronology,” World Bank, http://siteresources.worldbank.org/EXTARCHIVES/Resources/World_Bank_
historical_chronology.pdf; “Middle East & North Africa: Countries,” World Bank, retrieved from http://web.worldbank.org