Arab Knowledge Report 2009: Towards Productive

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current economic crisis in the autumn of2008.The cluster of freedoms necessary forthe knowledge-enabling environment isnot limited to political freedom; it includeseconomic, social, intellectual, academic,and creative freedoms, all of them linkedto the principles of equality and justiceespoused in the principles of humanrights. While human rights are consideredan integral whole the Arab reality showsa clear disparity in the provision of somefreedoms as opposed to others. Thus, arealistic analysis requires that we studythe state of each facet of freedom on itsown.It is impossible to rely solely uponimprovements in the domain of economicfreedoms to bring about an Arabknowledge revival in development if thereis a continued imposition of curbs on otherfreedoms, especially those of thoughtand expression. Relying on economicfreedoms alone, in fact, leads to diminisheddevelopment whose sustainability cannot be guaranteed. In addition, hopesof achieving a fair distribution ofdevelopment’s social yields will also recedein the shadow of an undemocratic climatein which the people have no oversight andin which corruption burgeons.Limiting political, social, andintellectual freedoms threatens to producenegative repercussions not only on Arabknowledge performance or developmentperformance; it may bring harm tothe body politic as a whole, especiallyin the midst of attempts to containextremism and eliminate terrorism. Aslong as oppression, poverty, and socialmarginalisation remain, extremism andterrorism in all of their forms will abound,with negative impact on the establishmentof the hoped-for knowledge society.Furthermore, in the absence of politicalfreedom accomplied by tranparency,accountability, and oversight by judiciousgovernments whose goal is to realisestructural reform linked to new vision,possibilities for responsible economicdevelopment will dwindle. Freedoms likethese can only flourish in the Arab regionwhen they are linked to leaderships opento the outside world and intent on reformthrough investment in human capital andknowledge industries that rely on Arabhuman and physical potentials.POLITICAL ENVIRONMENTS:THE PARADOX OF POLITICALREFORM DISCOURSE AND THEDECLINE IN FREEDOMSEXPANDING POLITICALPARTICIPATION:THE PATH TO KNOWLEDGEAND CREATIVITYFreedom of thought and expression is aprincipal component, along with politicalparticipation, of the enabling environmentthat contributes to the advancement ofknowledge performance. Despite someimprovement in some Arab countriesin the realms of political participation,democratic reform, and human rights andfreedoms, there has been palpable retreatin others. This is because the democraticopening up in the last decade did notachieve the desired results. Many freedomsof opinion, expression, and participationin Arab countries are bound by fettersboth visible and invisible, some of whichhave turned into a reality that constrainsknowledge and creativity.Talk of reform is common in anumber of Arab countries, but seems inmost instances to be suspended in theair, unable to come to ground in the realworld. Since the events of 11 September2001, and perhaps before them, there hasbeen serious—though also, at times,prevaricating—talk of the necessityof political reform and relaxation ofconstraints on freedoms, without even theleast of these being accomplished. TheArab Human Development Report of2004 on the state of freedoms concludedthat the problem of freedom in the Arabworld was increasing due to the spread ofrepression, the hegemony of censorship,and the proliferation of mechanisms thatThe cluster offreedoms necessaryfor the knowledgeincludes economic,social, intellectual,academic, andcreative freedomsFreedom of thoughtand expression is aprincipal component,along with politicalparticipation,of the enablingenvironment thatcontributes tothe advancementof knowledgeperformanceTalk of reformis common in anumber of Arabcountries, but seemsin most instancesto be suspendedin the air, unableto come to groundin the real worldARAB KNOWLEDGE PERFORMANCE ENVIRONMENTS61
FIGURE 2-1Press freedom in the Arab countries, 2008Number of Arab Countries87654321002Good Satisfactory Noticeableproblems67 7DifficultsituationVery SerioussituationSource: Reporters without Borders, 2008restrict freedoms. That diagnosis continuesto apply, despite a few harbingers ofchange in some Arab countries (see thePreamble).This perception finds support innumerous international statistics andstudies, to which we must have recoursegiven the almost complete absence ofauthoritative and credible Arab scholarshipin this field. The Freedom of the Pressindex published by Reporters withoutBorders ranks all Arab countries amongthose which restrict the press, though todiffering degrees. This index delineates themargin of freedom that both journalistsand media organisations enjoy and theefforts they expend on behalf of pressfreedom. We find that the situation in themajority of Arab countries according tothis index 1 falls between “very serious”FIGURE 2-2Perceptions of corruption in the Arab World 2008Number of Arab Countries76543210008.0-8.99.0-10.0 Least Corrupt07.0-7.916.0-6.945.0-5.924.0-4.963.0-3.962.0-2.931.0-1.9 Most Corrupt0No Data AvailableSource: Transparency International: Corruption Perception Index62 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
Page 27 and 28: Table 2CountryGroupGroup 1: Oilecon
Page 29 and 30: Figure 2504540353025201510508070605
Page 31 and 32: In the period2003-2007, morethan 83
Page 34 and 35: eversion, in many cases, is not ass
Page 36 and 37: Thus the Arab region in general, an
Page 38 and 39: knowledge over recent years. This w
Page 40 and 41: However, this progress remains limi
Page 42: CHAPTER ONETHE THEORETICAL FRAMEWOR
Page 45 and 46: The successfuldeployment ofthe know
Page 47 and 48: The knowledgerevolution atthe end o
Page 49 and 50: Technology, theeconomy, andsociety,
Page 51 and 52: No one pursuesknowledge forits own
Page 53 and 54: The Report adoptsa concept ofknowle
Page 55 and 56: The goal of thiscritical review isn
Page 57 and 58: In our bidfor economicand humandeve
Page 59 and 60: The political reformproject remains
Page 61 and 62: Globalisation isdependent oninforma
Page 63 and 64: The battle overknowledge in oursoci
Page 65 and 66: The most obviousexample of the gapb
Page 67 and 68: BOX 1-9The Virtual as an Interrogat
Page 69 and 70: The upsurge intechnologicalprowess
Page 71 and 72: Collective humaneffort must bedirec
Page 73 and 74: End Notes1Epistemic saturation refe
Page 76 and 77: CHAPTER TWOARAB KNOWLEDGE PERFORMAN
Page 80 and 81: FIGURE 2-3Perceptions of corruption
Page 82 and 83: technology infrastructure, blogs ar
Page 84 and 85: nations continue to occupy their pr
Page 86 and 87: to the third oil boom, which reache
Page 88 and 89: have realised a degree of progress
Page 90 and 91: FIGURE 2-8Index of global competiti
Page 92 and 93: FIGURE 2-10Net exports of manufactu
Page 94 and 95: namely the spread of poverty, socia
Page 96 and 97: TABLE 2-2Arab Countries according t
Page 98 and 99: while some of these nine countries
Page 100 and 101: and political participation. All of
Page 102 and 103: first INTEL computer club; INTELis
Page 104 and 105: from the ages of thirteen to twenty
Page 106 and 107: solutions that allow use of the ava
Page 108 and 109: to this trajectory, a consumer, not
Page 110: specific cases.These flexibilities
Page 114 and 115: CHAPTER THREEEDUCATION AND THE FORM
Page 116 and 117: FIGURE 3-1Education and human resou
Page 118 and 119: of the qualitative knowledge capita
Page 120 and 121: TABLE 3-1CountryOpportunities for b
Page 122 and 123: Virtually the only area in which Ar
Page 124 and 125: must possess if they aspire to part
Page 126 and 127: 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
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CHAPTER FOURINFORMATION AND COMMUNI
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FIGURE 4-1ICT index values for Arab
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countries and the Arab countries. T
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Arab countries-Egypt, Algeria, Leba
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of Arabic content and its low rate
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exchange of future technology servi
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of national partnerships aimed at s
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TABLE 4-2Readiness of Arab countrie
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as the implementation of programmes
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BOX 4-2Evaluating the Performance o
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of common principles that guarantee
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data from various sources and then
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FIGURE 4-11Paper consumption and in
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processing and the methods and tool
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TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCEAND FUTURE INI
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within bounds that do not hinder bu
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preservation and the consolidation
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21As a result of the nature of comp
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CHAPTER FIVEARAB PERFORMANCE IN RES
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FIGURE 5-1Innovation system index f
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The extremely lowamounts spentby Ar
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It has become clearthat the wager o
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Joint researchprojects among Arabsc
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Theoretically, themore researcherst
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Average expenditureon scientific re
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BOX 5-6Jordan’s “A Professor in
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BOX 5-8For the last three decades,
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FIGURE 5-7Published scientific arti
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A review of theperiod from 2002to 2
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Social scienceresearch holds aspeci
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Most Arabic-languageperiodicals in
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Arab societies arefilled with examp
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Human capitalis among Arabcountries
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TABLE 5-12Trade in technological pr
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It is ironic thatalthough the Arabw
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End Notes1UNESCO Institute for Stat
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CHAPTER SIXBUILDING THE KNOWLEDGE S
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The most conspicuousfeature of thek
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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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