Arab Knowledge Report 2009

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Table 3Incidence of extreme poverty in a sample of Arab countries 3CountryGroupSurveyYearPovertyIncidence(%)Numberof Poor(million)SurveyYearPovertyIncidence(%)Numberof Poor(million)Diversified economy(six states)Mixed oil economy(one state)Primary exporteconomy(two states)1991-1999 14.7 18.4 2000-2005 16.8 22.8the proportion of people living below thelowest national income poverty line in theArab region reached approximately 18.4per cent. Wealth is also badly distributed,for rural areas suffer much more povertythan urban ones. In rural Egypt andMorocco, one in four people is poor,compared with one in ten in urban areas.Similarly, families supported by womenare much more affected by poverty thanthose supported by men. Table 3, whichis based on the results of field research in1995 14.1 4.1 2000 12.1 3.81996-1998 41.3 8.0 2000-2006 36.2 8.1Overall Average 17.9 30.5 18.4 34.7Source: League of Arab States and UNDP, 2008nine Arab countries, shows that there wasa slight increase in the poor as a proportionof the population in the first decade of themillennium in comparison with the 1990s(18.4 and 17.9 per cent respectively).Regarding the Human Poverty Index,we find an improvement in the Arab statesfrom the end of the 1990s until 2007. Egypt,Syria, Tunisia, Jordan, Oman, Djibouti,Qatar, and the UAE have reduced theirscores on the Human Poverty Index by atleast 25 per cent over the first decade ofIn rural Egypt andMorocco, onein four people ispoor, comparedwith one in ten inurban areas, andfamilies supportedby women are muchmore affected bypoverty than thosesupported by menFigure 1Decline in human poverty rates by country (per cent): 1996-200750%45%40%35%30%25%20%15%10%5%0%LebanonEgyptSyriaJordanAlgeriaMoroccoTunisiaLibyaComorosDjiboutiMauritaniaSudanYemenSaudi ArabiaQatarOmanUAESource: League of Arab States and UNDP, 2008PREAMBLE11
Figure 25045403530252015105080706050403020100UAEWorldUnemployment rate among Arab youth (A) andtheir share in total unemployment (B)(per cent) in 2005/2006MoroccoQatarYemenLibyaUAEKuwaitQatarMoroccoOccupied Palestinian TerritoriesOmanSyriaBahrainLebanonKuwaitWorldSource: League of Arab States and UNDP, 2008The Arab poor aremore affected thanothers by changesin world food pricesEgyptSaudi ArabiaTunisia(A)(B)SomaliaSaudi ArabiaEgyptMauritaniaSudanYemenSyriaLebanonBahrainArab countriesLibyaArab countriesOccupied Palestinian TerritoriesDjiboutiJordanSudanDjiboutiSomaliaMauritaniaAlgeriaJordanTunisiaIraqIraqAlgeriathe millennium (Figure 1). However, whenwe compare the performance of thesecountries with that of other countries ofthe world with similar rankings on theHuman Development Index, we find thatit could have been better.The Arab countries also constituteone of the regions of the world mostdependent on imports for the food securityof their inhabitants. International reportsshow that most Arab states fall in theband of states with very low sovereigntyin terms of food supply, with an ArabFood Sovereignty index of 1.6. 4 Somesee the aridity of large swathes of Arabterritory as the determining factor in thisarea. However, much evidence points topoor management of available resources,including environmental resources. Thedata point to significant facts, perhapsthe most important of which is thatfood imports formed 15 per cent of totalimports to the region in 2006. Worse, whileArab countries are mostly self-sufficientin terms of producing foodstuffs for thewealthy, such as meat, fish, and vegetables,foodstuffs for the poor classes, such asgrains, oils, and sugar, are largely imported.Thus, the Arab poor are more affected thanothers by changes in world food prices.From the 1980s until now, unemploymentrates have remained at high levels, or evenincreased in many Arab states. In the1980s, for countries like Algeria, Egypt,Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia, and Syria(which comprise about 57 per cent of theArab labor force), the weighted averageunemployment rate was 10.6 per cent. Thehighest rate at that time was in Algeria (16.5per cent), and the lowest in Syria (4.8 percent). In the 1990s, however, the weightedaverage unemployment rate was 14.5 percent, with the highest level in Algeria (25.3per cent) and the lowest in Syria (8.1 percent). Preliminary evidence for the 2000decade indicates that the weighted averageunemployment rate in these states has risento 15.5 per cent (League of Arab Statesand UNDP, 2008).Studies indicate that Arab womensuffer more than men in relation tounemployment (International LaborOrganisation, 2009).The youth unemployment rate remainsvery high: in 2005 it varied from 46 percent in Algeria to 6.3 per cent in the UnitedArab Emirates (see Figure 2). The Arabstates still face a major challenge in thecreation of job opportunities for youth.Table 4 refers to forecasts made in a recent2008 study carried out by the UNDP incooperation with the League of Arab Stateswhich clearly show the tangible need to findwork opportunities for the ever growing12 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 and 26: Intercommunicationwith the self mea
Page 27: Table 2CountryGroupGroup 1: Oilecon
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
Page 77 and 78: Freedom is the basisof development.
Page 79 and 80:
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
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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
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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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