Arab growth hurdles listed

Arab states have made headway in efforts to tackle their economic pains and promote development, but such a process has remained obstructed by lack of freedom and limited women's participation, according to the United Nations.

Despite intensifying economic and political reforms in the region, Arab countries are still far behind all other nations in human freedom which is decisive in the achievement of a comprehensive human development, the UNDP said.

"Scrutiny of Arab socio-economic systems from the perspective of human development in its broader sense encompassing freedom and human rights shows that the region is hampered by three key deficits that can be considered defining features," the UNDP said in its 2002 Arab /Human Development Report, distributed here.

"They are: the freedom deficit, the women's empowerment deficit and the human capabilities/knowledge deficit relative to income."

The report, which is prepared by the UN and the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development, said the measurement of freedom is of paramount concern in the analysis of development in any country. It said both civil and political freedoms should be taken into consideration when assessing human development.

"However, since civil and political freedoms are considered among the most important instrumental freedoms, what follows focuses on these dimensions of freedom, using the freedom index to characterise the extend of freedom in Arab countries compared to other regions in the world and among Arab countries themselves," it said.

"At this level of aggregate analysis, this approach would seem to be acceptable. Out of seven world regions, the Arab countries had the lowest freedom score in the late 1990s."

It said the low level of human freedom in the Arab region is confirmed by a set of indicators of what it called 'voice and accountability' derived from an international database.

This set includes a number of indicators measuring various aspects of the political process, civil liberties, political rights and independence of the media.

"According to that database, the Arab region also has the lowest value of all regions of the world for voice and accountability," the report said.

A breakdown showed the North American region had the highest score in human freedom with an average 1.0 points in the index.

It was followed by the Oceana region with 0.9 points, Europe with just over 0.8 points, Latin America and the Caribbean with a little higher than 0.6 points, South and East Asia with around 0.4 points and Sub Sahara in Africa with just below 0.4 points. The Arab region was under 0.2 points.

In voice and accountability, North America also topped the list with 1.5 points. It was followed in the same order by the other regions. The Arab region was again at the bottom.

The report also pointed to a serious flaw in Arab efforts to expand women's participation in politics and other fields. It said a UNDP index dubbed the Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM) showed the Arab region suffers from a 'glaring' deficit in women's empowerment.

"Among regions of the world, the Arab region ranks next to last as measured by GEM. Only sub-Sahara Africa has a lower score," it said.

"It should be noted that Arab countries have scored important successes in girls' education although the share of girls in enrolment is still relatively low, especially in higher education.

"The main reason for the low GEM values of Arab countries is the limited participation of women in political organisations.

"Human capabilities in the Arab region are relatively weak and poorly utilised. A telling indicator of the poor level of education attainment in the Arab countries is the persistence of illiteracy rates that are higher, and educational enrolment rates that are lower, than those of dynamic less developed countries in East Asia and Latin America."

The report stressed that economic growth should not be detached from human development, which it said is vital for social and economic development.

"The basic priority for policy in Arab countries needs to create a virtuous cycle whereby economic growth promotes human development and human development in turn promotes economic growth.

"The starting point for this process must be a focus on people. The backlog of deprivation must be tackled if growth is to be restored on a sustainable basis".