A recent report on the Arab world prepared by the United Nations Development Fund and the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development points to the pitiable state of backwardness prevailing in the region. The report presents a depressing reality that we cannot blame others for. Nor can it be dismissed as a propaganda gimmick by our "enemies". The report is the outcome of 30 Arab researchers’ effort for over a year. It portrays the real picture of 22 Arab countries with more than 280 million people.
The figures supplied by the report speak for themselves, painting vivid picture of the wretchedness of the people in Arab countries. The causes of Arab underdevelopment identified in the report are lack of freedom, marginal participation of women in public life and educational backwardness.
Arab people enjoy least freedom compared to any other region in the world — less than even the countries bordering southern Sahara. Civil rights are mostly ignored though they are incorporated in constitutions and legislations in those countries. There are several impediments for the free functioning of the agencies that are supposed to ensure these rights.
Arab women get the least opportunity to participate in the economic and political activities compared to any other place in the world. The level of education among Arab women is the lowest in the world. More than 50 percent of them are illiterate.
One of the most alarming facts revealed by the report is the backwardness of Arabs in the field of science.
The level of education in the region is falling while the per capita spending on scientific research and development is the lowest in the world. In 1996, it was 0.4 percent of the GNP which is one-third of what Cuba spent on scientific research. In 1994, Israel allocated 6.35 percent for the GNP for research programs while in Japan it was 6.9 percent.
Naturally, the educational backwardness increases the rate of illiteracy among Arabs. More than 65 million people, which accounts for 43 percent of the Arab population, are illiterate.
Only 0.5 percent Arabs have access to Internet. It is also the lowest in the world. The total number of translated works to Arabic in the last 10 centuries is the same as the number of books translated in one year to Spanish. The pitiful number of 220 books translated to Arabic annually is only one-fifth of the works translated to Greek every year, while the Arab population is 28 times the size of the Greek population.
The state of Arab economy is deeply disturbing. The average economic growth in the last 20 years is not more than 0.5 percent. At this rate, it will take 140 years to double the capital investments in these countries while it will take only 10 years in most other parts in the world.
Though oil-rich nations form part of the Arab region, the net domestic product in 1999 was less than 11 percent of Spain, which has only one-seventh population of Arab countries.
Even if sufficient allowance is made for the shortcomings and exaggerations that might have affected the figures in the report, it would not change the picture radically. We have to admit that the situation is really bad. We should counter the challenge by looking for the causes and then struggling for the solutions. This is a responsibility to be shared by all Arabs. There should be a political will to change, and governments, people and organizations should cooperate wholeheartedly to lift the Arab world from the depth it now find itself in.
