Arab Knowledge Report 2009

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THE ARAB NATION AND THEWORLD IN 2009The second section of this preambleprovides a set of data to place the ArabKnowledge Report 2009 in context. Thestate of knowledge and the developmentswithin it cannot be approached withouta general contextualisation that explainsthe evolution of the existing knowledgedeficits and without careful observationof their interwoven relationships, whetherthese be with the changes underway in theworld, with internal conflicts, or with thetransformations occurring in the area ofhuman development in the Arab region atthe beginning of the twenty-first century.In this brief preamble, we shall followthe following axes of inquiry: the state ofhuman development in the Arab regionin 2009; the changes and pressures onthe Arab knowledge scene; and the mostimportant developments in the state ofknowledge over the past decade. The dataused and the events referred to extend tothe end of March 2009.THE STATE OF HUMANDEVELOPMENT IN THE ARABREGIONKnowledge is considered a central axis ofhuman development, and its importancehas multiplied thanks to the manytransformations in its numerous forms.Thesame is true of the technology revolutionsof recent decades. Knowledge today, byvirtue of its role in the development process,constitutes an instrument of empowerment.Consideration of human developmentin the Arab region and its relationship toknowledge thus sheds light on some of themost important developmental issues andindicators linked to the establishment ofthe knowledge society.CONCEPTS AND INDICATORS OFARAB HUMAN DEVELOPMENT 2The Report views development as the meansby which an individual expands his or herchoices with regard to the life of dignityhe or she wants (Sen, 1999). Developmentis equivalent to the expansion of choices,freedoms, and individual possibilities invarious aspects of life. This vision startsfrom the view that the prosperity of anindividual is not to be measured only bythe goods and services he or she acquires,but depends in the first degree on theindividual’s capacity to choose the life hewants and can be proud of. Thus capacityis the freedom that enables the individualto transcend and overcome obstacles andattain various degrees of human welfare.In this brief contextualisation werely on the global measures that are bestknown and most pertinent to knowledge,as represented by the UNDP’s HumanDevelopment Index and the HumanPoverty Index. These two indexes consistof indicators such as the capacity toenjoy a long and healthy life and live at areasonable economic level, as well as thecapacity to acquire knowledge and to readand write, a capacity that forms one of themost important pillars of the knowledgesociety.THE MOST IMPORTANTEVOLUTIONS IN ARAB HUMANDEVELOPMENTThe latest data and indicators on humandevelopment in the Arab world show thatthe Arab states have made some slightprogress in human development sinceTable 1Year20012006Knowledge isconsidered a centralaxis of humandevelopment, andits importancehas multipliedthanks to the manytransformations inits numerous formsHuman development indicators for the Arab countries(2001 versus 2006)Lifeexpectancyat birth(years)66.067.8GDPPercapita(PPP US $)50387760LifeExpectancyindex0.700.71Source: UNDP website, www.hdr.undp.org on 13 April 2009Educationindex0.630.70GDPindex0.650.73HumanDevelopmentindex0.6620.713PREAMBLE9
Table 2CountryGroupGroup 1: OileconomiesGroup 2: Mixedoil economiesGroup 3:DiversifiedeconomiesGroup 4:Primary exporteconomiesPopulation and GDP per capita in Arab countries(2008, projections)TotalPopulation(million)PopulationShare(%)GDP(PPP US$billion)GDPShare(%)PercapitaGDP(PPP US$)40.2 13.2 1117 45.9 2778639.9 13.1 332 13.6 8313156.4 51.5 833 34.2 532867.1 22.1 153 6.3 2277Total 303.6 100 2435 100 8020Group 1: Oil economies: the Gulf Cooperation Council states (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman,Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE).Group 2: Mixed oil economies: Algeria and Libya.Group 3: Diversified economies: Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Syria, and Tunisia.Group 4: Primary export economies: Comoros, Djibouti, Mauritania, Sudan, and Yemen.Source: League of Arab States and UNDP, 2008, from the IMF and the CIA World FactbookPoverty in theArab region isincreasing despiteall the efforts aimedat reducing itthe beginning of the current decade, andthat at the beginning of 2006 not a singleArab state fell into the category of lowhuman development (see Table 1). Forthe most part, progress was basic, with,perhaps, the exception of advance in percapita GDP, which has risen from $5,038in 2001 to $7,760 in 2006, and to morethan $8,000 in 2008. However on thelevel of the Arab region, the significanceof this improvement is reduced becauseof the great variation between the Arabstates and the clear concentration ofthe increases in per capita GDP in theoil-exporting countries as opposed toothers of the region (see Table 2). Thisvariation also holds true for the overallHuman Development Index, whichshows that only seven Arab states (theGulf Cooperation Council member statesand Libya), making up 15 per cent of thepopulation of the Arab region, fall withinthe high human development band ( HDIof 0.8 or above).While the Arab Gulf states have achievedthe highest rates in terms of achievementof the Millennium Development Goals,particularly in the fields of health anduniversal education, some other Arab statesare expected to fail to reach these goalsby 2015, the year set by the MillenniumDeclaration. The list of Arab states unlikelyto reach the Millennium DevelopmentGoals covers those that still fall withinthe category of least developed states(Comoros, Djibouti, Mauritania, Sudan,and Yemen), as well as states suffering fromconflict, internal disputes, and occupation,such as Iraq, Palestine, and Somalia.One of the most important negativephenomena to characterise developmentperformance in many countries of theregion is the dutiful compliance with theso-called economic and social reformprogrammes, which for the most partoriginate abroad. It is clear to an observerthat most Arab societies, in the structureof authority and the state, depend on apaternalist social contract which holds thestate responsible for the welfare of societyand the provision of services in exchangefor the political allegiance that impartslegitimacy to the state.Economic and social, as well asdemographic, changes on the Arab scenehave, however, placed such systems andsocial contracts under intense pressuresthat may threaten their survival. Populationgrowth, changes in ways of life withinsociety, weak and falling incomes, andgrowing awareness among citizens areperhaps among the most significant ofthese changes. To deal with these pressures,at least on the economic level, many Arabstates have engaged in economic andsocial structural reform programmes withclear encouragement from internationalinstitutions and the Western world. Thereis near consensus, however, that mostof these corrective programmes, largelylaunched in the 1980s, have not producedthe desired results and have exacerbatedeconomic and social problems. Povertyin the Arab region is increasing despite allthe efforts aimed at reducing it. In 2005,10 ARAB KNOWLEDGE REPORT 2009
Page 1 and 2: United Nations Development Programm
Page 4 and 5: Foreword by the Chairman of the Boa
Page 6 and 7: Foreword by the Regional Director,U
Page 8 and 9: Report Team(Alphabetically)Advisory
Page 10 and 11: The knowledge society and the legit
Page 12 and 13: Partnership with the private sector
Page 14 and 15: LIST OF FIGURESFigure 1 Decline in
Page 16 and 17: Table 5-12 Trade in technological p
Page 18 and 19: PREAMBLEIntroductionThe Arab Knowle
Page 20: knowledge and from the consequences
Page 23 and 24: Arabic istechnologicallypoor in com
Page 25: Intercommunicationwith the self mea
Page 29 and 30: Figure 2504540353025201510508070605
Page 31 and 32: In the period2003-2007, morethan 83
Page 33 and 34: Extremism negatesthe Other, haltsth
Page 35 and 36: The reformisttendency callsfor grad
Page 37 and 38: The current crisismay help to resto
Page 39 and 40: On the ICT axis, theArab states hav
Page 41 and 42: End Notes* Arberry, Arthur J. The K
Page 44 and 45: CHAPTER ONETHE THEORETICAL FRAMEWOR
Page 46 and 47: BOX 1-2“Knowledge” in al-Tahana
Page 48 and 49: phrases that do not display theoret
Page 50 and 51: enabling institutional and legal en
Page 52 and 53: the individual and collective ident
Page 54 and 55: services of seasoned experts and sc
Page 56 and 57: pay too little attention to the qua
Page 58 and 59: egion, greatest among them that the
Page 60 and 61: the values of democratic politicalr
Page 62 and 63: that occupy the lowest rung of the
Page 64 and 65: the Middle Ages, as if all that has
Page 66 and 67: of various ethnic, religious, and o
Page 68 and 69: infrastructure, effort, energy, and
Page 70 and 71: value to the lexicon of ethics, but
Page 72 and 73: limit knowledge exclusively to the
Page 74: CHAPTER TWOARAB KNOWLEDGE PERFORMAN
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Freedom is the basisof development.
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FIGURE 2-1Press freedom in the Arab
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Stringent legislativeand institutio
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Arab creativeproduction,especially
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The Arab countriesmost preparedto p
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TABLE 2-1Arab Countries that realis
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BOX 2-1The Contradictory Nature of
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External pressure,restrictions impo
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The Arab poorsuffer from socialmarg
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Arab countries havebeen absent from
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TABLE 2-3Rights and responsibilitie
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The current state ofknowledge-enabl
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To build andimplementan enablingenv
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Oman’s WorldStudies Instituteaims
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BOX 2-3The communications market in
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The desiredArab index willtranscend
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End Notes1The index divides the Ara
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CHAPTER THREEEDUCATION AND THE FORM
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In the last quarterof a century, Ar
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Knowledge is morethan the informati
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Although thelaws in most Arabcountr
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FIGURE 3-2: 19Basic knowledge capit
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Arab educationalcurricula in genera
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While Arab countriesvary greatly in
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FIGURE 3-390Advanced knowledge capi
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BOX 3-4The Commission for the Delib
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BOX 3-6Higher education in the Arab
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The available dataon the fields ofe
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Literacy ratesamong adults havenot
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Eight Arab countrieshave a critical
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Most Arab countrieshave been unable
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Statistical analysesshow a definite
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FIGURE 3-7Science performance of ei
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BOX 3-9Human Capital Formation to M
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BOX 3-10The Lebanese Association fo
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Clearly, the “lightsof knowledge
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End Notes1“Adult” is defined he
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40Accurate statistics are not avail
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level or the equivalent, post-secon
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CHAPTER FOURINFORMATION AND COMMUNI
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Over the last tenyears the Arabcoun
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FIGURE 4-3Internet users - Arab wor
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FIGURE 4-5Price basket for internet
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The growth ratein Arabic-speakingin
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During the comingdecade thetechnolo
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Strategic decisionstaken in many Ar
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In general, the Arabcountries are c
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FIGURE 4-8Availability of e-governm
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Some Arab stateshave taken initiati
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In contradiction tothe call to rest
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The experiences ofboth developingan
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FIGURE 4-10Paper consumption worldw
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A system formachine parsingArabic s
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BOX 4-7Egypt’s Centre for Documen
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More research shouldbe directed tow
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The possession ofinformation andcom
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End Notes1According to the majority
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Technology research and development
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CHAPTER FIVEARAB PERFORMANCE INRESE
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FIGURE 5-3Per capita GDP and the in
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the import and consumption of ready
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FIGURE 5-4Arab-international cooper
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are characterised by flexibility to
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esearchers prefer to remain in univ
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Arab countries can be ranked in ter
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FIGURE 5-5Arab participation in the
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Institute in the USA. By analysing
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5-6). A tabulation of all the Arab
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partnerships with foreign scientifi
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and anthropology have decreased (Ha
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Arabic). Aversion to reading is con
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to attract a number of invested par
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and security conditions offered by
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driven economies that are in the fi
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• Real and deep-rooted developmen
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of $1.57 billion due to human capit
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CHAPTER SIXBUILDING THE KNOWLEDGESO
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This can only come about through th
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proposals intended to give impetus
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knowledge society must be considere
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the Arab individual’s options to
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and the distribution of the benefit
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FIGURE 6-2Priorities for action to
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priorities in the area of movement
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ACTION TO DEPLOYKNOWLEDGEAction on
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knowledge technologies and their me
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REFERENCES
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Maghrib (Women and Politics: politi
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http://www.moe.gov.ps/intifada/repo
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Washington, D.C. www.heritage.org/i
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The World Bank. 2002. “Constructi
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ANNEX 1. LIST OF BACKGROUNDPAPERS (
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ANNEX 2. PROJECT FOR ADATABASE ON K
Page 272:
include search engines, hyperlinks
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is arrived at by specifying the cou
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the knowledge economy. On this basi
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FIGURE A-3Index values for the pill
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TABLE A-4Availability of knowledge
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even contradictory. For example, da
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STATISTICAL ANNEX
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Table 2: Human Development IndicesC
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Table 4: World Bank Knowledge Econo
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Table 6: Worldwide governance indic
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Table 8: World Bank Economic Incent
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Table 10: Gross enrolment ratio in
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Table 12: World Bank Education and
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Table 14: Regional literacy rates a
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Table 17: Gross enrolment ratios in
Page 305 and 306:
Table 19: Time devoted to education
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Table 21: Time devoted to secondary
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Table 23: Enrolment in tertiary edu
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Table 25: Number of specialists in
Page 313 and 314:
Table 27: School life expectancy in
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Table 29: Government expenditure on
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Table 31: Number of students from s
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Table 33: World Bank Innovation Sys
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Table 35: World Bank indicators for
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(b) The growth of fixed and mobile
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for example, technological under-pr
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Table c-2: Classification of the Ar
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End Notes1For example a news report
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