Arab Knowledge Report 2009: Towards Productive

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TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCEAND FUTURE INITIATIVESMaking progress in the field of knowledgedistribution, generation, and utilisationin the Arab countries requires thatnational development strategies includeinitiatives that seek to realise an integratedvision of knowledge. They must be guidedon this path by studies that analyse thestrong and weak points in the prevailingeconomic, social, and cultural dynamic,that define the requirements needed torevive and accelerate this dynamic, andthat draw up working plans to developtechnology capacity. These initiativesshould press for improvement to legaland regulatory environments and supportfor backbone networks and the means toaccess them to make best use of ICT. Toachieve sustainable goals in these areas,investment in ICT infrastructure shouldbe encouraged, to ensure its conformitywith next generation technologies and itscompatibility with new applications andservices.Many factors hinder the devising ofsuch policies, strategies, and plans. Amongthe most prominent are the absence ofa unified vision, within the limits of thepossible, on the national and Arab levelsto oversee future directions and set theground rules for common action andconstructive interaction within the regionaland global environments. The absence ofsuch a vision leads to a host of difficultiesin drawing up policies for developing ICT.These difficulties are compounded by theaccelerating dynamic towards technologicaladvance on one side and the entanglementof technological development with manyaspects of social development on the other.Many Arab countries are confrontingdifficulties that hinder the prioritizationof technological development on a listof development goals crammed withpressing priorities, foremost of which isthe securing of such basic necessitiesof life as food, water, shelter, and socialservices. Drawing up the open policiesrequired, in particular, by the spread anduse of ICT faces major difficulties, one ofthe most important of which may be thehigh level of government control over thistechnology and its development on thepretext of national security.There is no essential differencebetween sector-based developmentpolicies (which include the social servicessectors including education, health, andothers) before and after the deployment ofICT and its expanded application. A primecharacteristic of the current era is theunprecedented involvement of policies fortechnology capacity development withinsector-based policies–something not takeninto account before by the relevant partiesin most Arab countries. As long as thisweak spot is not treated by integratingtechnology capacity development policieswith sector-based policies, isolatedprogrammes, fragmented efforts, and theirever-growing negative consequences maybe expected to continue.Initiatives aimed at the indigenisationand development of ICT applicationsalso strengthen, and do not conflict with,economic and social development efforts,except when left exposed to exploitationby hardware promotion as an end initself, and to the achievement of varioustemporary gains. These initiatives must beformulated so as to respond to the needsof development rather than to the desire ofthe promoters of technology equipmentand the government officials who supportthem for rapid material returns. It must alsobe aimed at building capacity on variouslevels, with decision making centres andNGOs concerned with developmentmatters taking priority. 43 Also necessaryare capacity building in integrated form tocover both supply and demand, as well asdeepened technological know-how withreasonable possibilities for exploring thehorizons of technological progress in thefuture.The accelerating march of progress inmany aspects of ICT requires, on the onehand, the creation and support of specialistresearch and development institutes ableto compete with their counterparts in theProgress inknowledgedistribution,generation, andutilisation in theArab countriesrequires that nationaldevelopmentstrategies includeinitiatives that seek torealise an integratedvision of knowledge,guided by studies thatanalyse the strongand weak pointsin the prevailingeconomic, social, andcultural dynamicInitiatives aimed atthe indigenisationand developmentof ICT applicationsstrengthen, and donot conflict with,economic and socialdevelopment effortsINFORMATION AND COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGIES IN THE ARAB COUNTRIES171
More research shouldbe directed towardsexploring the effectsof technologicaldevelopment onArabic and hownew technology willhandle recognition,speech, andsemantics to ensurethe preservationof the languageCooperation betweenArab nationalinstitutions mustbe strengthened,and theirintercommunicationwith internationalorganisations mustbe activatedadvanced and emerging nations and, onthe other, an effort to probe the expectedeconomic, social, and cultural effects ofthese new technologies. More researchshould be directed towards exploring theeffects of technological developmenton the Arabic language and how newtechnology will handle recognition, speech,and semantics in a way that ensures thepreservation of the language and dedicatesa pivotal role to it in regional developmentand the building of human civilisation. Theproliferation of ICT applications in fieldsclosely connected with scientific research,education, culture, and social servicesis expected to lead to a boost for Arabicdigital content on the internet in terms ofits volume and content.Arab countries cannot undertake ontheir own the many tasks aimed at utilisingthe continuous and accelerating innovationwithin ICT and thus consolidating therole of knowledge in development onan individual basis, however large theresources available to any one of them.Cooperation between relevant nationalinstitutions must be strengthened,cooperation between the Arab countriesand their intercommunication withinternational organisations must beactivated, and the human resourcesneeded to design and implement commoninitiatives in various fields must be secured.Successful acquisition and deployment ofnew technology is today connected to a greatextent with the ability to cooperate withinmultidisciplinary teams in the concernedstate and with partners at the regionaland the global levels. Most production ofnew forms of knowledge does not nowtake place within the walls of a singleinstitution, but is the fruit of cumulativeefforts made by groups belonging tovarious schools of thought which can bein constant touch with each other and withthe various external sources of knowledge.Herein lies the latent importance of ICT.The role it fulfils in facilitating cooperationbetween institutions, wherever they are,and individuals, wherever they work, isa basic factor in the achievement of thegoals of sustainable development invarious domains. It is therefore essentialthat national policies and regional strategiesdesigned to build capacity in thesetechnologies include elements favourableto the success of the new models ofcooperation provided by ICT, such as“virtual research laboratories.” It is possiblethat such research centres will cooperateto carry out research related to specificaspects of a given problem in priority fieldsat the national and regional level. Amongthe most pressing such problems are thoserelated to broader and smarter uses of theArabic language on the net, developmentof interactive digital content in the variousbranches of knowledge, and broadeningthe scope of Arabic content in the fields ofeducation, 44 scientific research, healthcare,environmental protection, governmentservices, and heritage preservation.It is widely acknowledged that thecreation of an environment favourableto internal and regional cooperationwill generate opportunities to grow anddevelop an active private sector that investsin the means of production of technology,the fields of knowledge related to it, andits applications. It will also open the gatesto Arab investments in joint research anddevelopment projects related to technology,its applications, and the services connectedto it. This is especially the case in relationto the knowledge content required andgenerated by such applications. In this,the creation of legal frameworks and lawsthat contain the open and transparentmeasures necessary to ensure the successof applications and enable all sectorsof society to benefit from access totechnology and its applications must begiven special attention, lest the digital andknowledge gap among countries widen,while an improvement in the familiar overallindices serves simply to improve the imageof these countries relative to others. Hereit is necessary to emphasise support forinitiatives designed to gain acceptance forthe open source methodology while at thesame time guaranteeing data privacy andsecurity and protecting intellectual property172 ARAB KNOWLEDGE REPORT 2009
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United Nations Development Programm
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This Report has been produced throu
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This year’s report may perhapsbes
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ICT in the Arab countries and reinf
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CONTENTSPREAMBLEIntroductionPrelimi
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Quantitative indicatorsTertiary edu
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LIST OF BOXESBox 1 The Effect of th
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Figure 5-7 Published scientific art
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Table 21 Time devoted to secondary
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The knowledgefield and revolutionto
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The literature onhuman rights place
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Arabic istechnologicallypoor in com
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Intercommunicationwith the self mea
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Table 2CountryGroupGroup 1: Oilecon
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Figure 2504540353025201510508070605
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In the period2003-2007, morethan 83
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eversion, in many cases, is not ass
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Thus the Arab region in general, an
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knowledge over recent years. This w
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However, this progress remains limi
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CHAPTER ONETHE THEORETICAL FRAMEWOR
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The successfuldeployment ofthe know
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The knowledgerevolution atthe end o
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Technology, theeconomy, andsociety,
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No one pursuesknowledge forits own
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The Report adoptsa concept ofknowle
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The goal of thiscritical review isn
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In our bidfor economicand humandeve
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The political reformproject remains
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Globalisation isdependent oninforma
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The battle overknowledge in oursoci
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The most obviousexample of the gapb
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BOX 1-9The Virtual as an Interrogat
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The upsurge intechnologicalprowess
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Collective humaneffort must bedirec
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End Notes1Epistemic saturation refe
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CHAPTER TWOARAB KNOWLEDGE PERFORMAN
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current economic crisis in the autu
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FIGURE 2-3Perceptions of corruption
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technology infrastructure, blogs ar
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nations continue to occupy their pr
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to the third oil boom, which reache
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have realised a degree of progress
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FIGURE 2-8Index of global competiti
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FIGURE 2-10Net exports of manufactu
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namely the spread of poverty, socia
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TABLE 2-2Arab Countries according t
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while some of these nine countries
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and political participation. All of
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first INTEL computer club; INTELis
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from the ages of thirteen to twenty
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solutions that allow use of the ava
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to this trajectory, a consumer, not
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specific cases.These flexibilities
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CHAPTER THREEEDUCATION AND THE FORM
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FIGURE 3-1Education and human resou
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of the qualitative knowledge capita
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TABLE 3-1CountryOpportunities for b
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Virtually the only area in which Ar
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must possess if they aspire to part
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TABLE 3-2Opportunities for the form
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General secondary education andthe
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elatively high enrolment rates of b
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Available data shows large discrepa
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TABLE 3-3Comparison of overall resu
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females. According to this data, to
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Page 142 and 143: FIGURE 3-6aMaths performance of eig
Page 144 and 145: BOX 3-8The Contribution of Non-Publ
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Page 148 and 149: emained encumbered by the prevailin
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Page 152 and 153: countries and providing a picture o
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Page 156: 89Finland, for example, whose stude
Page 160 and 161: CHAPTER FOURINFORMATION AND COMMUNI
Page 162 and 163: FIGURE 4-1ICT index values for Arab
Page 164 and 165: countries and the Arab countries. T
Page 166 and 167: Arab countries-Egypt, Algeria, Leba
Page 168 and 169: of Arabic content and its low rate
Page 170 and 171: exchange of future technology servi
Page 172 and 173: of national partnerships aimed at s
Page 174 and 175: TABLE 4-2Readiness of Arab countrie
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Page 178 and 179: BOX 4-2Evaluating the Performance o
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Page 184 and 185: FIGURE 4-11Paper consumption and in
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Page 190 and 191: within bounds that do not hinder bu
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Page 194 and 195: 21As a result of the nature of comp
Page 196: CHAPTER FIVEARAB PERFORMANCE IN RES
Page 199 and 200: FIGURE 5-1Innovation system index f
Page 201 and 202: The extremely lowamounts spentby Ar
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Page 205 and 206: Joint researchprojects among Arabsc
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Page 209 and 210: Average expenditureon scientific re
Page 211 and 212: BOX 5-6Jordan’s “A Professor in
Page 213 and 214: BOX 5-8For the last three decades,
Page 215 and 216: FIGURE 5-7Published scientific arti
Page 217 and 218: A review of theperiod from 2002to 2
Page 219 and 220: Social scienceresearch holds aspeci
Page 221 and 222: Most Arabic-languageperiodicals in
Page 223 and 224: Arab societies arefilled with examp
Page 225 and 226: Human capitalis among Arabcountries
Page 227 and 228: TABLE 5-12Trade in technological pr
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Page 231 and 232: End Notes1UNESCO Institute for Stat
Page 234: CHAPTER SIXBUILDING THE KNOWLEDGE S
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A review of nationalplans in the Ar
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The positiveachievements inthe Arab
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One of the keyfoundations of thevis
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Freedom andinstitutionalisationare
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Priorities are subjectto a great de
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If we admit thatlanguage is avehicl
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The major challengelies in changing
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Deployment is linkedto the creation
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The variousproposals includedin thi
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ReferencesReferences in Arabic‘Ab
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the President of the ICRC Expresses
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al-Duwal al-‘Arabiyya, UNESCO’s
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Sen, Amartya. 1999. Development asF
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Castells, Manuel. (1998/2001). LaSo
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the Age of Technology).• Binsa‘
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egional and international levels an
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ANNEX 3. MEASUREMENT OF THE ARABCOU
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indicators that make up the pillar.
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countries’ rankings among the cou
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of the Arab countries and suffer fr
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Freedom House and Heritage Institut
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Endnotes* This annex was prepared b
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STATISTICAL ANNEXGENERAL INDICATORS
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Table 3: Economic IndicatorsCountry
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KNOWLEDGE PERFORMANCE ENVIRONMENTST
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Table 7: Press Freedom Index in the
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EDUCATIONTable 9: Adult literacy ra
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Table 11: Gross enrolment ratios in
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Table 13: Adult illiterate populati
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Table 16: Net and gross enrolment i
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Table 18: Lessons in basic educatio
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Table 20: Literacy rates among youn
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Table 22: Evolution of enrolment ra
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Table 24: Student enrolment rates i
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Table 26: Distribution of graduates
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Table 28: Estimated educational lev
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Table 30: Enrolment rates in non-go
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RESEARCH AND INNOVATIONTable 32: Nu
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Table 34: Indicators on research an
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INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHN
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FIGURE b-2Growth in average number
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competition between the internet se
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Table c-4: Ranking of a group of Ar
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United Nations Development Programm
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