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

Markus Loewe
However, a model of this kind would run counter both to the traditional
patriarchal social structures in the MENA countries and the interests of the
dominant elites. According to the 2003 Arab Development Report, the
main reason for the present state of affairs is an implicit alliance between
the authoritarian regimes and conservative Islamists who have no interest
whatever in seeing the emergence of the critically thinking citizen:
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“An alliance between some oppressive regimes and certain types of
conservative religious scholars led to interpretations of Islam, which
serve the governments, but are inimical to human development, particularly
with respect to freedom of thought, the interpretation of judgements,
the accountability of regimes to the people and women’s participation
in public life.“ (UNDP / AFESD 2003, 6).
One consequence is that research and development appear not to be highly
valued in the MENA countries. Averaged across the region, the MENA
governments spend not more than 0.2 % of GDP for research and development
activities (UNDP / AFESD 2003, 6). The equivalent for the countries
of East Asia and the Pacific is 1.5 % (UNDP 2003). Per one million
residents there are only 317 scientists and engineers in the Middle East and
North Africa (UNDP / AFESD 2003, 6), while there are 619 and 2554, respectively,
in the East Asia and Pacific region and in Eastern Europe and
Central Asia (Word Bank 2004e). Only 0.8 % of all books published
worldwide appear in one of the Arab countries, which account for 5 % of
the world population. Turkey alone publishes more books, even though the
country has only one quarter of the population of the Arab countries. And
in the Arab countries less than one translation of foreign-language books is
published per million population and year – the figures for Hungary and
Spain are 519 and 920, respectively. Moreover, 17 % of all books published
in the Arab world are religious in content – a far higher percentage
than anywhere else in the world (UNDP / AFESD 2003, 6).
3.3 Promoting gender equality and empowering women
(MDG3)
The MENA countries have made good progress in improving the educational
chances of girls. Since 1990 nearly all of them have substantially increased
the enrolment rates of girls at all stages of their school systems.
The region as a whole is therefore likely to reach MDG3 (World Bank
German Development Institute