Roundtable discussion of second Arab Human Development Report

By Stephen Kaufman
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington -- One year after the first Arab Human Development Report was published by the U.N. Development Programme (UNDP), its 2003 successor is continuing the dialogue among Arab intellectuals and political observers on how to overcome obstacles to greater freedom and prosperity in Middle Eastern and North African countries.

Speakers at a December 1 UNDP roundtable discussion in Washington had high praise for both reports, in which a broad section of Arab researchers candidly analyzed the status of human development in Arabic speaking countries. The 2002 report concluded that people in Arab countries are falling behind the rest of the world in terms of freedom, women's empowerment and knowledge.

Moderator Thomas Friedman, a foreign affairs columnist for the New York Times, characterized the effect of the initial report as "something between a shooting star and an earthquake in the way it's transformed and catalyzed the debate in the Arab world and about the Arab world."

The 2003 report focused specifically upon the knowledge gap. According to Rima Khalaf Hunaidi, the UNDP's assistant secretary general and assistant administrator for Arab states, it analyzed both knowledge production and dissemination in Arab societies.

Knowledge, she said, is the key to building a country's society and economy. Components of knowledge, such as education and scientific research, generate economic growth and increase the demand for more knowledge, forming what Hunaidi termed a "virtuous cycle."

Current methods of knowledge dissemination, through education, socialization, the media or translation, "are really failing to meet the needs of Arabs to acquire knowledge and achieve their full potential," Hunaidi said.

She said the report found that an average 27 percent of men and 51 percent of women in Arab countries are illiterate, but even more troubling, she said, is a widely held attitude, which she called "illiteracy of the mind."

"[I]t has to do with attitudes, in particular passivity, conformity, the lack of incentives for intellectual inquiry," she said. "Our education systems actually may have instilled in many of the generations of this region such attitudes that are inimical to building knowledge societies."

Hunaidi said that, in a region where 70 percent of television stations are state-owned, new media outlets such as Al-Jazeera are challenging the status quo and "allowing Arabs a wider space to discuss issues of real concern to them."

However, she pointed out that, on average, there were only 18 computers per 1000 people in the region, well below the global average (including developing countries) of 78 per 1000.

Hunaidi said the report shows that local environment and governments are stifling the dissemination of intellectual and artistic accomplishments.

"[T]he Arab regions can boast very creative production in literature and in art," she said, reminding the audience that the region has produced Nobel laureates.

"[T]he fact that we have this outstanding production actually gave the report authors a confirmation that we have significant human capital," she said, "but this human capital is being constrained by political redlines and in many cases by social taboos."

She pointed out that relatively few books are widely published in Arabic because, due to a limited market, each publisher has to submit products to censors from 22 individual countries. Those censors, she said, have different criteria on political, social, religious or other sensitivities, "and hence publishers end up with what they call ‘the lowest common denominator,' which isn't much."

She also said Arab scholars have produced very high quality research in the humanities and social sciences, but not from Arab universities, where they fear going against official policies.

Governmental corruption and cronyism is also weakening the motivation for innovation, especially in countries where the interests of the political elite and businessmen are intertwined, she said.

"If you can get a contract just because you're close to president X, why do you need to improve your product or to spend more in order to improve processes," asked Hunaidi. "All you need is to be close to political powers in order to advance in society."

She also said external factors, such as the global war on terrorism, Israeli-Palestinian violence, and the occupation of Iraq by the U.S. and other countries have raised Arab anger and were counterproductive to advancement.

"In brief, I can say that those external factors have had a very serious negative impact on Arab development. But, at the same time, they should not be taken as an excuse for inaction on the part of Arab countries. On the contrary, they should be seen as making the challenges of building human development even more ... pressing," she said.

"We feel as Arabs we don't yet have our rightful place and we hope that if we reform and if we introduce all those reforms they are calling for we will be able to have a very bright future for our children," concluded Hunaidi.

(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)