Arabs achieve mixed success

Sustainable development seems to be the only solution to the dilemma of survival of the world's growing population on limited, non-renewable resources.

Indeed, the concept of sustainable development as defined by the World Commission on Environment and Development is that which meets the needs of the present without compromising the needs of future generations.

This concept is a combination of interdependent elements, including environmental, social, economic and political factors.

Thus, the future of the planet depends on the balance between these needs or, in other words, the rational management of natural resources.

Efforts to link environment and development on an international scale began in 1972 at the pioneering Stockholm conference on human environment, which initiated international recognition of environmental issues.

This vision was developed during the Earth summit held in Rio in 1992 by linking the planet's environmental problems to economic and social problems.

Furthermore, the summit adopted an action plan on environment and developmental issues known as Agenda 21 to be implemented globally, nationally and locally by UN organisations, governments and major groups.

The World Summit on Sustainable Development starting today in Johannesburg is expected to concretise the Rio declaration by turning plans into action.

The summit will also afford an opportunity to evaluate the results and the progress achieved since the 1992 summit, in order to provide the most appropriate remedies to reduce wasteful consumption, combat poverty and protect the atmosphere.

Thirty years have passed since the Stockholm conference and, despite the tremendous social, economic and political changes, the world still faces huge challenges. An assessment of the state of the world clearly indicates that the planet is suffering from many problems.

Among these are poverty and deprivation, global warming, pollution, desertification, deforestation and scarcity of water.

According to a UNDP report published in 2001, 1.2 billion people live on less than $1 a day, which represents approximately one-fifth of the world's population, while 2,8 billion people, or almost half of the world's population, live on less than $2 a day.

Yet, poverty is not a phenomenon limited to developing countries, as about 130 million people living in developed countries are considered to be poor.

More than one billion people lack access to safe drinking water. The consumption of energy is still inequitable, with 2 billion people still lacking access to energy resources.

Nearly 2 million hectares of land worldwide has been degraded since the 1950s. Seventeen million hectares of forests disappear each year and the reduction in the number of trees aggravates greenhouse gas emissions, resulting in global warming. These figures are just a sample of the alarming magnitude of the dangers that menace the earth.

In essence, the huge gap between the developing countries and the developed must be bridged, because that is what the development process is all about. Indeed, countries develop at different rates, and the role of the international community is to bring these closer together.

This disparity in development among different countries is reflected in the Arab nations. In fact, the level of development here is so varied that these countries are classified into several categories.

In order to classify countries according to their level of development, the UN developed a composite index, the human development index (HDI), which comprises four variables – life expectancy, adult literacy rate, combined enrolment rate at the primary, secondary and tertiary levels and, finally, the real GDP per capita.

According to the Arab Human Development Report issued by the UNDP in 2002, four oil exporters – Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and the UAE – are in the high human development category, while Sudan, Mauritania, Yemen and Djibouti fall into the low human development category.

The remaining countries fall into the medium human development group.

On a global scale, the Arab region is rich rather than developed, with respect to basic human development indicators.

According to the report to be presented by the UAE at the Johannesburg Summit, the UAE government has made great efforts to develop the country.

The population increase in the country from 557,887 in 1975 to 3,488,000 in 2001 was interlinked with the development of social services and progress of the economy as a whole, as shown by the indices selected to measure development.

Thus, the crude death rate decreased from 0.20 in 1981 to 0.17 in 2000, while the infant mortality rate decreased from 11.4 per 1,000 in 1990 to 8.08 per 1,000.

The life expectancy index shows a rise from 70 to 74 for males and from 72 to 76 for females over the past ten years.

The UAE government has prioritised healthcare. In 2000, the budget allocated for health was Dh 3.8 billion.

Currently, health services are provided to inhabitants through 57 hospitals, 124 health centres, 106 centres for mother and child care, 612 school clinics, 77 dentistry clinics and 713 pharmacies. Also, the country cares for those with special needs and those who face social problems.

In 2001, social aid given to such cases amounted to Dh650 million.

Moreover, the report reveals the main factors that impact on sustainable development. One of these is the production and export of oil. The UAE reserves amounted to 100 billion barrels of oil (10 per cent of the world total) and six billion cubic metres of natural gas.

This sector contributed 28 per cent of the country's GDP in 2001.

The industrial sector in the UAE is divided into two sections - the first is related to oil and the second is the manufacturing industry which encompasses the manufacture of cement, aluminium, food and beverages, furniture and other products.

During 2001, this sector's share of the GDP was 13.8 per cent, and the amount invested in the existing 2,334 establishments was Dh 28.5 billion.

With 80 per cent of the country's area comprising desert, the government has made great efforts to combat desertification and increase the cultivated land. The cultivated area as such grew from 200,000 hectares in the 1970s to 573,000 hectares in 2000.

Through the years, the UAE government has developed a modern transportation network that covers 3,810 kilometres connecting all the remote areas. It has also built a sophisticated infrastructure on which it has spent huge amounts, with Dh 8 billion having been allocated recently for this purpose.

Sustainable development implies the application of three principles - a sense of precaution that favours a preventive approach, solidarity between present and future generations and between all inhabitants of the world and, finally, the participation of all segments of society in implementing the best methods of achieving sustainable development.

Several elements should be taken into consideration while measuring human development.

However, this complex notion introduced for the first time in the huma