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

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Markus Loewe
The situation is similar for Egypt, Libya, Qatar, and Kuwait, each of which
is very likely to reach four, possibly seven, of the eight MDGs. All four
countries have their main deficits in good governance (MDG8).
Major problems in implementing the MDGs have been noted for Algeria,
Jordan, and Morocco (MDG8, but also MDG1), Bahrain (especially with
respect to MDG2, and MDG8), and the Palestinian Territories (MDG1,
MDG7, and MDG8).
Iran, Lebanon, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia, and Oman
are faced with even greater difficulties in reaching most of the MDGs by
2015 (see Table A1, Annex).
The prospects of the region’s three low-income countries, Yemen, Sudan,
and Mauritania, are particularly poor. The way it looks at the moment, Iraq
and Yemen are likely to miss all eight goals, and Mauritania and Sudan are
not expected to reach more than one or two of the eight MDGs (Mauritania
probably MDG3 and conceivably MDG8, Sudan possibly MDG1 and
MDG3).
These findings will be discussed in more detail in the following sections,
which address all eight MDGs in turn. The statistical data cited stem
nearly exclusively from international organizations such as UNDP, the
World Bank, the WHO, and UNESCO. Only in a very limited number of
cases use has also been made of the data given by the national MDG reports.
In very many cases, these data diverge sharply from the figures cited
by the international organizations. The data presented by the World Bank,
UNDP, and UNESCO are by no means always in agreement, which goes
above all for the indicators used for MDG2, MDG5, and MDG7, but the
international organizations are at least at pains to cite only data that are
based on similar standards (definitions, classification criteria, and survey
methods). In other words, these data on different countries are more useful
for purposes of comparison. Another striking fact here is that the data presented
in national MDG reports show, almost invariably, positive deviations
from the statistics published by the international organizations. This
would seem to indicate that many governments in the Middle East and
North Africa have succumbed to the temptation to use their MDG reports
to brighten up the situations in their countries.
German Development Institute