Arab Knowledge Report 2009: Towards Productive

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FIGURE 2-3Perceptions of corruption 2003-200876543210QatarUAEBahrainJordanTunisiaOmanKuwaitMoroccoSaudi ArabiaAlgeriaLebanonDjiboutiEgyptMauritaniaLibyaComorosYemenSyriaSudanIraqOccupied Palentian TerritoriesSomaliaMalaysiaSouth AfricaTurkeyChinaBrazilIndia20082003Source: Transparency International: Corruption Perception Index (May 11, 2009)and “difficult” (Figure 2-1). We note toothat in 2008, all but two Arab countriesranked at the very bottom of 173 countriesstudied.In this context, it is possible to compareArab countries to other areas of the worldusing the Democracy Index published bythe Economic Investigations Unit of TheEconomist 2 . This index is based on sixtyindicators which track performance in thefollowing five areas: the electoral processand plurality, civil liberties, governmentperformance, political participation, andpolitical culture. Most Arab countriesreceived rankings on this index thatpoint to a lack of democracy, and onlythree—Iraq, Lebanon, and the OccupiedPalestinian Territories—received relativelyhigher marks.All Arab countries receive a low rankingcompared to others such as Malaysia,India, Brazil, and South Africa. Swedentopped the list of 165 countries includedin the 2008 study with an average of 9.88,while North Korea came last with 0.86 3 .The other side of the coin is theperformance of government itself. Herewe refer to the Corruption PerceptionIndex published by TransparencyInternational, which assesses the magnitudeof corruption in 180 countries on thebasis of experts’ evaluations and opinionpolls. The index depends on statisticsfrom thirteen independent sources inthe public sector and the political sector.Evaluation is based on a normative scalerunning from zero to ten. Every step upon the scale indicates a fall in the averagerate of corruption in the opinion of thosesurveyed. In seventeen of the twentytwoArab countries studied, the level ofperception of corruption was less thanhalf the value of the scale, i.e., less thanfive (Figure 2-2), while Somalia camein last with a score of one. Iraq had thenext lowest score, of 1.3. Thus, we findthat the situation of Arab countries onthe world map according to this index 4is not much better than their situationon the map of freedoms. This implies adirect correlation between the decline inthe levels of freedom and democracy, thespread of corruption, and the decline ofgovernment performance.It should be pointed out thatQatar and the UAE recorded the bestperformance in combating corruptionon the Arab front (Figure 2-3). The mostimportant indication of this is that theymaintained this good performance in theIn the Arabcountries, thereclearly is a directcorrelation betweenthe decline in thelevels of freedomand democracy,the spread ofcorruption, andthe decline ofgovernmentperformanceARAB KNOWLEDGE PERFORMANCE ENVIRONMENTS63
Stringent legislativeand institutionalrestrictions innumerous Arabcountries preventthe expansion of thepublic sphere andthe consolidation ofopportunities for thepolitical participationWhile most Arabconstitutionsstipulate humanrights and freedoms,martial laws such asanti-terrorism lawsserve to limit theserights in practiceCorruption Perception Index from 2003-2008, in addition to achieving a markedimprovement in the 2008 report. Jordan,Morocco, Algeria, and Libya also recordedimprovement, while Lebanon maintainedits status quo, and performance deterioratedin the remainder of the Arab world.CONTINUED CURBING OFPUBLIC FREEDOMSIn the realm of public freedoms, Arabcountries as a whole failed to realisetangible gains in terms of freedomof thought and expression. With theexception of the spread of Arab satellitechannels and internet blogs, which haveprovided a very active outlet for youthin the region, the dossier on freedomof thought and expression continuesto make depressing reading. Arab stateshave imposed additional restrictionson Arab satellite channels and issuedadditional regulations and laws thathave tightened their grasp on the media,journalism, journalists, blogs, bloggers,and even on intellectuals: many Arabdissenters and innovators are targets ofinvestigations, exposed to various formsof restriction on their ability to earna living or travel, to surveillance andpossible arrest. Arab countries lead theworld in arrests of bloggers, imposing onthem fines and prison sentences. Bookshave been impounded, newspapers andinternet sites closed, and some oppositionauthors or those who have promulgatedviews deemed indecent have even beendeclared infidels. Most news media andoutlets of knowledge dissemination inthe Arab world are still state-owned,though a limited number of large newsand entertainment media companies areoperational in the region, most operatingout of the Gulf, or even from outside theArab region.Stringent legislative and institutionalrestrictions in numerous Arab countriesprevent the expansion of the public sphereand the consolidation of opportunitiesfor the political participation of thecitizenry in choosing their representativesin elected representative bodies on asound democratic basis. The restrictionsimposed on public freedoms, alongside arise in levels of poverty, and poor incomedistribution, in some Arab countries, haveled to an increase in marginalisation ofthe poor and further distanced them fromobtaining their basic rights to housing,education, and employment, contributingto the further decline of social freedoms.Given this climate, it is only naturalthat rigid social ideas which reject ‘theother’ should spread and take root, andthat discrimination against women andminorities should be practiced, with allthe negative corollaries for knowledgeand development performance in Arabcountries.FREEDOM OF OPINION ANDEXPRESSION: ADDITIONALRESTRICTIONSWhile Arab countries announce theirdetermination to guarantee publicfreedoms and political reform and toexpand and actualize participation of thecitizenry, they actually provide little scopefor freedom of opinion and political andtrade union activities, thus widening thegap between word and deed. Publiciseddiscourse, especially when addressingmajor powers or world opinion, isreformist and distinctly democratic, butactual practice on the ground differsfrom or even contradicts it. And whilemost Arab constitutions stipulate humanrights and freedoms, martial laws such asanti-terrorism laws serve to limit these inpractice, leaving the door wide open tothe authorities to interpret what is unclearin the legal texts. Some Arab statesacknowledge the principle of a pluralityof political parties while practicingrepression in the name of security and onoccasion throwing leaders of oppositionparties into prison.In addition, we note that at thesame time that lavish investments arebeing made in upgrading information64 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
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 78 and 79: current economic crisis in the autu
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
Page 128 and 129: 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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