Middle East / North Africa and the Millennium Development Goals ...

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Markus Loewe
Figure 18 cont’d: Trends in the implementation of MDG8 / Target 12
Source:
For the indicators: see Kaufmann / Kraay / Zoido-Lobaton (1999)
The date used are taken from the website of the World Bank Institute at:
http://info.worldbank.org/governance/kkz2004/tables.asp (27 June 2006).
Abbreviations:
MENA = Middle East and North Africa
EAP = East Asia and Pacific
EECA = Eastern Europe and Central Asia
LAC = Latin America and the Caribbean
SA = South Asia
SSA = Sub-Saharan Africa
Notes on the indicators:
The indicators may take on values ranging from -2.5 (very poor) and +2.5 (very
good). They are made up of numerous indicators from 13 different research institutions,
NGOs, and commercial rating agencies (including UNDP, the World
Competitiveness Yearbook, Gallup International, Freedom House, the Heritage
Foundation, the Economic Intelligence Unit, and Standard and Poor’s). The
World Bank Institute staff who designed the indicators emphasize themselves
that these indicators can be used at best to come up with trends, since the individual
components are based on subjective expert assessments.
Still, entrepreneurs in all Arab countries – including, e.g. Jordan – point to
inefficiency and corruption in administrations, overregulated markets, a
lack in the rule of law, and complicated government approval procedures
as major problems with which they have to contend – in addition to other
factors like difficult access to capital or inadequate workforce qualification.
They indicate, though, that they have less problems with inflation,
crime, infrastructure, and stability (Loewe et al. 2006; Lopez-Claros /
Schwab 2005, 179 ff.).
The fact that the markets in the region are anything but open, and nondiscriminatory
is also evident in the low volume of foreign direct investment
(FDI) flowing into the MENA countries – although, of course, numerous
other factors of course also pay a role here. Only a fraction of global FDI
goes to the MENA region (UNDP AFESD 2003, 102). In no other part of
the world – except sub-Saharan Africa – is the volume of FDI anywhere
near as low as here. In Eastern Europe and Central Asia the figure amounts
German Development Institute