Arab Human Development Report

The Arab Human Development Report is published by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), describing human-development problems and progress in the Arab world.

Description

Arab Human Development Report was first published in 1999 and, since, additional AHDRs were released each year following the 2002 AHDR. Most of the writers, contributors and editors are independent from the UNDP body. It is considered as a different, challenging and new point of view in development field, despite having many common indicators with the Human Development Index of the UNDP. The two important and new contributions made by the Arab Human Development Report in this field are, firstly its attempt to include 'Women's empowerment gap' and secondly 'Information technology gap'. Hence the report claims to evaluate the Arab World in terms of these current capacities.

1999 report

The first Human Development Report was a robust independent unapologetic scholarship document. The document favoured the idea of globalization to give economic and social benefits to societies. It stressed the free trade along with the free exchange of ideas and information by new technologies. The report recommendations were based in global society organization, in particular governance (civil society) and markets (economic life). Public health problems, immigration and refugees, environmental degradation and social and political breakdown are mentioned, too.

2002 report

The Arab Human Development Report 2002 focuses on peoples economic, social, civil,political, and cultural factors. It seeks a neutral base to quantify the progress and failings, as well as give strategies to leaders, and point to state problems that can be helped from regional solutions. The 2002 report comments on the severe shortage of new writing; in the 1,000 years since the reign of the Caliph Mamoun, say the authors, as many books have translated into Arabic as Spain translates in one year. [Arab Human Development Report 2002]

Three things were described as lacking: freedom (coining the term "freedom deficit"), knowledge, and an adequate status for women. [http://www.economist.com/PrinterFriendly.cfm?story_id=1213392 Self-doomed to failure] , The Economist, July 4, 2002] The Economist notes::The most delicate issue of all ... is the part that Islam plays in delaying and impeding the Arab world's advance towards the ever-receding renaissance that its intellectuals crave. One of the report's signed articles explains Islam's support for justice, peace, tolerance, equilibrium and all good things besides. But most secularists believe that the pervasive Islamisation of society ... has played a significant part in stifling constructive Arab thought ... From their schooldays onwards, Arabs are instructed that they should not defy tradition, that they should respect authority, that truth should be sought in the text and not in experience. Fear of fauda (chaos) and fitna (schism) are deeply engrained in much Arab-Islamic teaching. "The role of thought", wrote a Syrian intellectual "is to explain and transmit...and not to search and question."

2003 report

In the 2003 report the writers were very critical of the tendency in Arab education to depend too much on rote learning and to not encourage creative thinking. The AHDR calls for five cornerstones to be placed in policy:
* Guarantee key freedoms;
* Disseminate quality education;
* Embed science;
* Change to knowledge based production; and
* Developing an enlightened Arab knowledge model.Despite abundant human capital, several factors stop the acquisition, diffusion and production of knowledge. Al Jazeera and the Economist describe education and science as being in a "state of crisis" [http://english.aljazeera.net/English/archive/archive?ArchiveId=40749 Arab education in crisis] , Al Jazeera, October 21, 2003] , and "self-doomed to failure". If the factors cause this state of crisis could be removed, an Arab knowledge renaissance could be possible according to the report. Education and science fosters human freedoms and boosts capacity to guarantee freedoms via governance and goals of justice and human dignity. These also would aloow economic growth through higher productivity in the Arab region.

The quality of education in the Arab World has deteriorated severely, and there is a severe mismatch between the labour market and the education system. Adult illiteracy rates have declined but are still very high: 65m adults are illiterate, almost two-thirds of them women. Some 10m children still have no schooling at all. One of the gravest results of their poor education is that the Arabs, who once led the world in science, are dropping ever further behind in scientific research and in information technology. Investment in research and development is less than one-seventh of the world average. Only 0.6% of the population uses the Internet, and 1.2% have personal computers.

2004 report

The report examines constitutional, legal, political, and social issues and restrictions on freedom that are related to governance. The report issued the call for states and societies to eximine for a new Arab renaissance. Al Aljazeera summarizes::True democracy is absent and desperately needed. Most of the time human rights are no more than a poster hung in sham councils and organisations. The educational system is severely retarded; schools produce ignorant young men and women who excel in rote memorisation more than educated innovators. Most intellectuals, even if they deny it, realise that most of what was said in the most recent Arab Human Development Report is true. [http://english.aljazeera.net/English/archive/archive?ArchiveId=3796 Islam and US security] , by Ayman Al-Sayyad, December 19, 2004]

2005 report

This report faced the issues of cooperation, development assistance, and International aid. It is also foscued on the empowerment of Arab women. Development assistance has had the problem of chronic under-financing and poor quality. Correction to this, it states, would alleviate medical problems and decrease death tolls, help educate children, overturn gender inequalities and foster sustained economic growth. It addressed issues of security and the problem that violence exists in the "lives of hundreds of millions of people". Gender inequality is cited as a major impediment for development.

2006 report

This report covered power, poverty and the global water crisis. Vital in the history of human progress, clean water and access to such productive resource allows societies to harness their potential. Two of the foundations for human development are stated as water for:
* household life
* production livelihoodWater for life is a fundamental human rightFact|date=November 2007 and is a basic human need. The report states that a billion people do not have the right to clean water and billions lack access to proper sanitation. Issues vary by country, but overall themes can be gleaned. Water treatment and sanitation is a political issue. High prices for water is a reality for many, because of the limited coverage of water utilities in the various poor settlements.

ee also

*Munira Fakhro, Bahraini advisor to 2004 AHDR

Notes

External links

* [http://www.palestineremembered.com/Acre/Articles/Story1346.html Reports 2002, 2003, 2004] , English/Arabic, palestineremembered.com
* [http://www.rbas.undp.org/ahdr2.cfm?menu=12 UN Arab Human Development Report 2004] at the UNDP website
* [http://www.undp.org/arabstates/PDF2005/AHDR4_04.pdf The Arab Human Development Report Series (2002 – 2005) - an overview] , UNDP
* [http://english.aljazeera.net/English/archive/archive?ArchiveId=11075 UN report slams Arab governments] , Al Jazeera, April 6, 2005
* [http://english.aljazeera.net/English/archive/archive?ArchiveId=8369 US accused of stifling UN Arab report] , Al Jazeera, December 21, 2004
* [http://english.aljazeera.net/News/archive/archive?ArchiveId=3818 Arab Human Development Reports] , Jazeera, May 20, 2004