The World Bank has just published a report on the role of women in the Middle East claiming that low levels of female participation in the work force “costs Arab economies dear.” That deserves serious attention. Economic growth is an imperative that no government can ignore. Without it there can be no progress, no hope of meeting the aspirations of the region’s burgeoning population, no chance of the Arab world entering the privileged club of developed nations. The basic assertion in the report is one that no one can readily contradict: “No country can raise the standard of living and improve the well-being of its people without the participation of half its population.”
But matters are not quite that simple. At the moment, there are just not enough jobs to go round — for men or women. Regional employment is 15 percent, population growth is a 3 percent and, at a meager 1 percent, the region’s growth rate is the worst in the world, apart from sub-Saharan Africa. The Middle East and North Africa must create 50 million new jobs over the next 10 years, a second World Bank report says, to meet the population growth. “The Middle East’s economic future”, it asserts, “will be determined by the fate of its labor markets”; one might add its political future too.
None of this comes as news to Saudi Arabia, nor do the World Bank’s recommendations for economic reform — governments must liberalize their economies, improve the quality of government, reduce dependence on oil, invest in education, cut corruption and inefficiency, privatize and allow the private sector to flourish. Population growth, unemployment, women in the workforce, reform, are issues here too; job creation is at the core of Saudi government policy.
Despite the reports, it is not all gloom and doom. The Kingdom is open to change, and reform is happening. The privatization of state-controlled sectors of businesses, the WTO application, rules being altered to attract foreign investors, even the decision to extend the teaching of English to primary school level — these and many more are part of a process that, hopefully, will give wings to the economy and enable it to soar. But no one can be under any illusions about the scale of the task.
Nor is it all the government’s responsibility. Saudi society itself has to wake up to the challenge. Attitudes have to change, not least attitudes to work itself. The unwillingness of many to do manual jobs, the horror of working in the service industry (other than as managers) and the view that the customer is someone to be treated with disdain all have to change. That requires more than education, it requires a change in mindset. So far it has not happened.
