Arab Knowledge Report 2009: Towards Productive

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esearchers prefer to remain in universities,turn to other professions that realise higherreturns, or join the caravan of migrationfrom the Arab region.The data available on the Arab countriesdemonstrates clearly that the relationshipbetween the quality of research centres andthe number of researchers is not alwayspositive; Tunisia is an exception. Tunisia,Qatar, and Morocco are distinguished bytheir relatively high numbers of scientificresearchers, as shown in Table 5-3.According to World Economic Forumstatistics, Tunisia holds the highest rank forthe number of researchers, both amongArab countries and globally, ranking ninthamong 134 countries. Jordan, Algeria,Libya, and Saudi Arabia hold acceptableranks (less than forty-fifth), while theremaining countries hold lower ranks.A recent study that relies primarily ongovernment data from ten Arab countries(Nabil ‘Abd al-Majid Salih, 2008, inArabic) shows Egypt as having the highestnumber of full-time researchers (13,941at universities and research centres) andthat these researchers show the greatestdiversity of research interests (agriculture,materials sciences, manufacturing, metals,oil, water, energy, and medicine). In thisstudy, Egypt was followed by Algeria(5,943), Tunisia (5,625), Morocco (4,699),and Jordan (2,223), while the number offull-time researchers was less than 1,000BOX 5-5BOX 5-4Pioneering Arab Innovators in Genetic ScienceLihaz al-Ghazali, who works in thepaediatrics department of the medicalschool at Al-Ain University in the UAE,helped establish the first Arab medicalcentre for clinical genetics in Dubai andthe Arab Centre for Genome Studies,which is dedicated to studying geneticcomposition from the biological andmedical perspectives. Her regionalacademic and medical experience isapparent in her research, which hasuncovered the natural history of manyof the genetic syndromes found inthe Arab region. The internationalmedical journal Lancet devoted itsbiographical page on famous doctorsin each of Qatar (789), Kuwait (634),Oman (548), Yemen (486), and Mauritania(411). On the basis of a survey of nineArab countries, women accounted for40 per cent of researchers in Egypt andKuwait, 30 per cent in Algeria and Qatar,and 20 per cent in Morocco and Jordan.Their numbers fell to as low as between14 and 4 per cent in Oman, Yemen, andMauritania.Despite the low percentage of womenamong scientific researchers, female Arabresearchers have excelled globally innumerous fields. Among them are AlgerianAsya Jabbar, elected to the French Academy,Jordanian Huda al-Zughbi, elected to theThe Ten Commandments for Researchers in Low-income Statesto her in its 25 March 2006 issue, andshe was awarded the 2008 UNESCO-L’OREAL award for the Arab region.The statement accompanying this awardpraised the team she supervised forits identification of fifteen regressivegenes and the mapping of seven genes.It stressed the need to know what genesare and the effect on society of geneticdiseases such as haemoglobin disorder,birth defects resulting from regressivegenes, and metabolic disorders, andtheir relation to the high percentage ofconsanguineous marriages in the Arabworld.The lack of clearguidelines andincentives for fulltimescientificresearch may explainwhy most researchersprefer to remain inuniversities, turn toother professionsthat realise higherreturns, or join thecaravan of migrationfrom the Arab regionScientific research shares common academiccharacteristics around the world. These include thecapacity to study the natural world, a commitmentto the concerns of society, acceptance of criticism,productivity, and transparent teamwork based onsolid scientific methodology. In a number of Arabcountries, success in the profession requires thatscientific researchers additionally meet a number ofother specifications that can be summarised by thefollowing Ten Commandments:• Fully understand the conditions of the countryand society.• Focus on beneficial scientific research, and do notbecome preoccupied with trivial matters.This text draws on Moreno and Gutiérrez, 2008.• Carefully select research projects and methodologies.• Improve communication skills in foreign languages(English is a must).• Build local and regional/international networks ofcooperation.• Commit to involving young researchers in researchprojects, and also to training them.• Write highly competitive research proposals,and submit them in requests for support frominternational institutions.• Publish in respected international journals.• Persistently pursue self-education.• Believe in and be proud of the scientific researchprofession.Despite the lowpercentage of womenamong scientificresearchers, femaleArab researchers haveexcelled globally innumerous fieldsARAB PERFORMANCE IN RESEARCH AND INNOVATION191
Average expenditureon scientific researchdoes not exceed0.3 per cent ofthe GDP in mostArab countriesThe annual shareper Arab citizenof expenditure onscientific researchdoes not exceed$10, compared,for instance, to theMalaysian citizen’sannual share of $33American Academy of Sciences, LebaneseRabab Karidiya, elected to the CanadianAcademy of Science, and Iraqi Zuha’Hadid, who has won global awards. Theperformance of female Arab researchershas also been distinctive in medical andpublic health research, with femalesappearing in higher numbers than malesin Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, and Oman.These indicators are significant in thatthey reflect the development of the roleof Arab women in building the field ofresearch and innovation, as well as theirdirect participation in the development ofsocial sectors, particularly by eradicatingsome forms of discrimination and securingequal employment opportunities in a fieldthat requires many years of effort andpersistence.It is clear from the above that the numberof Arab countries that have invested humanresources in full-time scientific researchremains limited, and they score lower onthe basis of this criterion than similarcountries around the world. Yet the failureof these statistics to include Arab countrieswith extensive research experience and thelack of a unified instrument for surveyingresearchers may have led to anunderestimation of the critical scientificmass that is capable of directing futureresearch and development.SCIENCE RESEARCH FUNDINGIN THE ARAB WORLDAverage Arab expenditure on scientificresearch does not exceed 0.3 per cent ofGross Domestic Product (GDP) in mostArab countries, exceptions being Tunisia,Morocco, and Libya, whose spendingrates are in excess of 0.7 per cent. 10However, averages reach 3.8 per cent inSweden, 2.68 per cent in the USA, 3.51per cent in Finland, and 3.18 per centin Japan. Rarely is average expenditureon scientific research lower than 1.8 percent of the GDP in the European or theyoung Asian countries. 11 Yet added to thisfunding crisis for government and privateresearch institutions in the Arab world arecomplications created by the administrativeand financial systems that most of themdeal with and which make them captiveto bureaucratic routines in approvingexpenditures, equipment procurement,salaries, and bonuses. Some countrieshave additionally placed new restrictionson science-related expenditure such asappropriating a percentage of foreign aidallocated for scientific research projects andimposing taxes on science-related purchasessimilar to those imposed on commercial orconsumer goods. In Egypt and Lebanon,for example, tariff laws and statutes do notdistinguish between consumer goods andresearch materials. Such modest fundingcannot help to improve Arab performancein innovation and research. What Arabresearch institutions need most are financialresources to fund the infrastructure ofresearch and development.In contrast to advanced industrial states,funding of scientific research in Arabcountries depends on a single source—the government. This amounts toapproximately 97 per cent of the fundingavailable for scientific research in the region(Sasson, 2007). In contrast, governmentfunding does not exceed 40 per cent inCanada, 30 per cent in the USA, and is lessthan 20 per cent in Japan. 12To get an idea of the status of Arabcountries in comparison to developed stateswith regard to the extent of governmentspending on research and development,we provide data that shows that spendingby the private sector in developed states(Britain, France, Germany, and the USA)is nearly twice that by the public sector. InArab countries, the situation is not merelyreversed; the private sector contributionamounts to barely 5 per cent, even thoughtotal spending on research amounted to ameagre 0.2 per cent of GDP in 2002 (AdibKulu, 2006, in Arabic). In the Arab world,support for research and developmentprogrammes is generally concentrated indirect government funding and in officialuniversity programmes. There is a clearinability to attract substantial funding fromforeign programmes or the private sector.192 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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show educational accomplishments am
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inroads well beyond their current f
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FIGURE 3-6aMaths performance of eig
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BOX 3-8The Contribution of Non-Publ
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Kuwait, and the worst performers su
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emained encumbered by the prevailin
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eveal the breadth of the gap that c
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countries and providing a picture o
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information systems. The available
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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
Page 176 and 177: as the implementation of programmes
Page 178 and 179: BOX 4-2Evaluating the Performance o
Page 180 and 181: of common principles that guarantee
Page 182 and 183: data from various sources and then
Page 184 and 185: FIGURE 4-11Paper consumption and in
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Page 188 and 189: TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCEAND FUTURE INI
Page 190 and 191: within bounds that do not hinder bu
Page 192 and 193: preservation and the consolidation
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
Page 203 and 204: It has become clearthat the wager o
Page 205 and 206: Joint researchprojects among Arabsc
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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
Page 237 and 238: The most conspicuousfeature of thek
Page 239 and 240: A review of nationalplans in the Ar
Page 241 and 242: The positiveachievements inthe Arab
Page 243 and 244: One of the keyfoundations of thevis
Page 245 and 246: Freedom andinstitutionalisationare
Page 247 and 248: Priorities are subjectto a great de
Page 249 and 250: If we admit thatlanguage is avehicl
Page 251 and 252: The major challengelies in changing
Page 253 and 254: Deployment is linkedto the creation
Page 255 and 256: 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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