The report Arab Human Development
Report (AHDR) 2016: Youth and the Prospects for Human Development in a Changing
Reality was recently issued
by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP)
Never
before has the region had such a large share of youth; youth of ages 15–29 make
up around 30 percent of the population, or some 105 million people. In a
region in which 60 percent of the population has not yet reached the age of 30,
the report predicts that such youthful demographic momentum will be of critical
importance for at least the two coming decades.
Unfavourable development
backdrop ,
The report also indicates that the global financial and economic
crisis in 2008–2009, coupled with political instability since 2011, have had a
negative impact on human development in the region. Average annual growth in
the HDI dropped by more than half between 2010 and 2014 relative to the growth
between 2000 and 2010.
Growing
inequality: Further
analysis of HDI data shows also that inequality is rising in Arab countries.
Increasing conflict:
Home to only 5 percent of the world’s population, the Arab
region has witnessed 17 percent of the world’s conflicts between 1948 and 2014,
and 45 percent of the world’s terrorist attacks in 2014. In that same year, the
region was home to 47 percent of the world’s internally displaced people and
57.5 percent of all world refugees including Palestinian refugees displaced by
one of the longest lasting territorial occupations in modern history.
Exclusion and inequality
continue to frustrate youth.
Against this backdrop, the Report documents tremendous obstacles
young people across the Arab world are facing in their personal development
across the broadest range of institutions, resulting in multiple forms of
cultural, social, economic and political exclusion.
High
unemployment: Failure
to translate gains in education into decent jobs for youth in pace with
population growth, not only curtails benefits of a demographic dividend but may
fuel greater social and economic tensions in the region as well. In 2014,
unemployment among youth in the Arab region (29.73 percent) exceeded twice the
global average (13.99 percent), and according to estimates, the situation is
expected to worsen in the near future. The report warns that Arab economies may
not be able to generate the 60 million new jobs required, by 2020 to absorb the
number of workforce entrants in order to stabilize youth unemployment.
Pervasive
discrimination against women: Echoing
previous AHDRs, the report underlines how deep-seated discrimination, embedded in
cultural beliefs and traditions in childrearing, education, religious
structures, the media, and family relations, along
with many legal obstacles, continues to
prevent women from acquiring and using their capabilities to the fullest.
Pathways from
frustration to radicalization.
The factors above combine to create an overall sense of
exclusion and lack of opportunity that pervades much of the region. The lives
of many young people across the region are marked by frustration,
marginalization and alienation from institutions and the transitions that are
necessary to begin adult life in a fulfilling manner.
Citing recent opinion research, the report asserts that the
overwhelming majority of young people in the Arab region have no desire to
engage in violent extremist groups or activities. They reject violence and
regard extremist groups as terrorists.
However, it notes that the minority that is open to
participating in violent groups that claim to struggle for change continue to
be active, thus become radicalized and the radicalized can become violent,
violent radicalization and violent extremism grow and are accelerating the
tremendous damage they wreak in Arab countries.
