The Arab Human Development Report is an independent report sponsored by UNDP and authored by leading scholars, policymakers
and opinion leaders in the Arab countries.
UNDP is working closely with stakeholders in the Arab countries to address many of the challenges raised by the report.
In the area of governance, UNDP is helping to create the first-ever women lawyers’ association in Sudan; to develop an independent
anti-corruption authority in Iraq; to support free and fair elections in Lebanon; to strengthen decentralized governance in
Yemen; to increase the effectiveness of parliament in Bahrain, Lebanon and Algeria; to improve gender-responsive delivery
of social services; to advance legal empowerment of the poor; and to bring to the forefront issues of local governance in
conflict contexts.
Read more about our work in support of public institutions and democratic governance at www. undp.org/governance/ |
With eyes fixed on the rapidly-changing Arab world, the Regional Bureau for Arab States of the United Nations Development
Programme (UNDP) has convened scholars, policymakers and opinion leaders in the region since 2002 to analyze and assess the
extent of development challenges facing their countries.
Their findings, captured in five volumes of the Arab Human Development Report, foster a broad, informed discussion on
the key questions facing stakeholders in the pursuit of human development to its full potential.
In many ways,
these reports are a breakthrough: Not only do they highlight the root causes and the deep drivers of development challenges
in the region, but they also outline a vision for the fulfillment of human development through increased access to education
and knowledge, full enjoyment of freedom as the cornerstone of good governance, and empowerment of women.
Most
important is the wide range of challenges facing Arab youth as they transition into adulthood. According to the 2009 edition,
Challenges to Human Security in the Arab Countries, about 30 percent of the youth in the Arab States region is unemployed.
Considering that more than 50 percent of the population in Arab countries is under the age of 24, 51 million new jobs are
needed by 2020 in order to avoid an increase in the unemployment rate.
Equally critical is the importance of good
governance to the achievement of development results, a central message in all of the Arab Human Development Reports, which
focus on a number of development challenges facing the people of the Arab countries, including poverty, unemployment, water
scarcity, food security, climate change, the empowerment of women as well as vulnerable groups, and conflict prevention and
recovery.
According to the reports’ authors, development gains are likely to be more sustainable where all citizens
are empowered and government at all levels is responsive, transparent and accountable. They are firm and unequivocal in their
call for governance systems and political leaders in the Arab countries to make progress, along with citizens, on rule of
law, checks and balances and participation.
“Bold thinking holds the key to realizing grand visions for the future,”
reads the 2002 report. “Great goals require great acts.”
Read the Arab Human Development Reports here.
