Ziad Abdel Samad
Overview
The Middle East is passing through a difficult period that is affecting its Economic and social development and negatively impacting its future. However this situation should be perceived in its interlinked with the overall political situation and the lack of peace and security.
Yet the Arab Israeli conflict, the situation in Iraq and very recently in Lebanon, in addition to the unsolved problems in Sudan, Somalia and in many other countries are affecting the whole political situation in the region and are preventing the adoption of serious political reforms in most of Arab countries.
However the above mentioned challenges should not undermine the necessity to address the political and institutional problems and to implement serious economic and social reforms as well as cultural realities, because there is a close relation between the socio-economic changes and the political reform agenda.
Reforms and democratic processes in the Arab region have mushroomed and have become increasingly debatable subjects. It is worth in this aspect noting that there is an increase in the recurrent call from many civil society organizations and political parties for democratic change, good governance, transparency, accountability, right of expression, and just electoral laws, among other related issues.
Unfortunately, in parallel, the region had witnessed consistent violations of human rights and international conventions that protect these rights, including political and civic as well as economic, social, and cultural rights.
Even though Arab civil society groups are increasingly being involved in debates on reforms and democratization, their capacity as effective contributors to this process should be addressed. Tackling this issue is important given that in countries where reforms are most needed, civil society organizations are often controlled and exist under very restricted environments.
The Arab civil society groups have vested loads of efforts in areas of reforms (mainly human rights, political, and civic rights), but they have not been involved with the same level of interest in following the economic aspects of reform initiatives. Also, reform initiatives initiated at the Arab regional level do not promote well-studied economic reform plans as they do plans for political and civic change.
Glance at the socio economic reality in the region
The Arab Human development Report (AHDR) published by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in 2002 clearly described the deterioration of the social and economic conditions in the region and highlighted the law human development indicators.
It was mentioned that the issues of poverty and unemployment need to be addressed urgently. These challenges are beyond the capacities of the governments to face. There is a need to elaborate strategies involving the private sector, civil society and international institutions. Previous experiences showed that these challenges will lead to more social tension and frustration -- especially among the young -- and to more political instability especially if they are not tackled properly.
The most recent figures show that the unemployment rates in the Arab region overpass 15% where the labour force is expected to drastically rise imposing the need to create more than 100 million new jobs by the year 2020.
Indicators of basic services, such health and education, quantitatively improved in certain countries; however the quality of services provided is still contested particularly in the adequacy of the educational systems with the market demands. Illiteracy rates are still very high especially among children and youth. Access to water and sanitation remain difficult challenges to be seriously talked.
In addition to the above mentioned challenges, the AHDR mentioned three main obstacles for social and economic development (a) Lack of freedom, which is the result of the deficit of democracy and the prevalence of one party and totalitarian regimes. (b) Lack in gender equity; which is the result of the long lasting religious and stereo type traditions and (c) the lack of knowledge which is reflected in the high rate of illiteracy and the inadequate educational systems, in addition to the limited public and private investments in scientific researches.
Public debt is a very serious issue especially in the non-oil countries. The later at the economic level highly rely on the oil and oil industry sector (almost 80%) and they lack economic diversification. Moreover, reform policies were implemented in many countries in order to reduce debt servicing. This process led to the reduction of subsidies from basic goods and services and increasing the value added taxes. These policies highly affected the poor and even the law and middle income classes.
The above mentioned challenges are faced by selective policies based on the understanding of economic liberalisation and the implementation of the free market regulations. Moreover the adopted social reform strategies are only about the implementation of safety nets programs. Thus there is a need for nationally agreed upon plans of action among various actors taking into consideration comprehensive developmental strategies.
Another important problem to be tackled is the tendency to separate economic reforms from political reforms. It is obvious that the existing political systems are mainly designed in order to protect the interests of the ruling elites. These political systems prevent active participation in the decision making and lack of transparency and accountability. Moreover, they prevent any institutional capacity development which is, in turn, a major obstacle when implementing economic reforms. To sum up, these political elites are resisting any serious political reforms.
Recommendations
Comprehensive national reform strategies taking into consideration political, economic and social dimensions in addition to cultural ones are urgently needed to be adopted and implemented. These strategies should involve mainly civil society actors and business sector.
Moreover, a policy for regional integration should be considered as a main objective for the Arab countries in order to be able to face the challenges of the globalization and to secure a smooth and beneficial integration in the global economic system.
Conclusions
The above mentioned political, economic and social realities were always the main reasons lying under the growing frustration and the lack of stability and security in the region. Unfortunately, the lack of serious political will to address these challenges remains to be a continuous threat and a source of the raising radical tendencies, weather religious or political.
Finally, the need to empower civil society and to enable it to be an active and effective partner is a must. However, in many countries a lot of restrictions are still imposed in order to limit the role of civil society in the process of democratic reforms. This reality should be immediately changed. Political and social rights should be respected. All kind of freedoms, particularly the freedom of expression, meeting and of association, are preconditions to implement successful democratic reforms.
