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Arab Human Development Report 2009: Will improvement in Voice and Rights come from within?
By Kaufmann | July 31, 2009 No Comments »
A few weeks ago Obama went to Ghana and delivered a major speech to Africa. He spoke candidly about the dire governance challenges faced by many countries in the continent. I also noted that Obama was not explicit about the implications of his message for rethinking donor aid strategies to the continent. Hopefully such revamp in donor aid will be part of the follow through of his speech, if there is follow through.
A month before his momentous trip to Accra to address the Ghanian Parliament, Obama had gone to Cairo to deliver a major address to the Arab world. It is a speech which is also worth studying in depth. But it was more muted and unfocused, refraining from being too direct on the governance and freedom deficits in the Arab world. For one, Obama is not seen as a prodigal son there, in contrast with how he is regarded by Africa…
Further, the legacy of the jarring (and often arrogant) admonitions of the Bush regime forays into the Middle East did call for a subtler approach, so to restart repairing the damaged reputation and relationship between the US and the Arab world.
Yet it will be important to follow closely how the Obama administration addresses the failings in many Arab governments as the healing process in their relationship advances, because a soft approach to that part of the world, contrasting the stance he took in Africa, would be viewed as a politically (and economically) convenient double-standard, not to speak about the prospect of disappointing outcomes resulting from an excessively accommodating US strategy vis-a-vis authoritarian governments.
But irrespective of what Obama’s stance is towards either the Arab or African countries, the drivers for governance change will have to come from within. It is in this context that I always look forward to reading every new issue of the Arab Human Development Report, ever since its first pathbreaking publication in 2002.
Indeed, the Arab Human Development Report 2009 has just been issued by the UNDP. It is the fifth in the series launched in the trail-brazing 2002 report, which made a strong case for freedoms and gender equality in the Arab world. That was bold for an official multi-governmental institution such as an UN agency. That Report also innovated by engaging independent Arab scholars in its drafting. Such tradition has continued until this day: the report just released is based on contributions from recognized experts in Arab countries.
The current report is not as sharply written as the famed one in 2002, and does not flesh out as clearly and explicitly the major deficits in governance and freedoms afflicting the Arab world, which were starkly depicted in their inaugural report seven years ago.
The focus of the current report is on the importance of enhancing ‘human security’. However, by digging a bit deeper and reading in between the lines, the message of a continuing governance deficit does come across. In fact, the emphasis on ‘human security’, in addition to having some merits on their own (even if it is is interpreted too broadly) may be a clever ploy to subtly and less frontally revisit politically sensitive governance failures such as those related to basic freedoms and gender rights.
Among a number of carefully crafted qualifiers, in the Report’s foreword by Helen Clark, the brand new UNDP administrator, one does find this statement:
“[This Report] argues for governments and other partners to prioritize the “liberation of human beings from those intense, extensive, prolonged, and comprehensive threats to which their lives and freedom are vulnerable”.
Towards the end of the long report, it briefly states that there is a need for: ”Strengthening the rule of law: the guarantees of essential rights, freedoms and opportunities without discrimination that only a well-governed, accountable and responsive state ruled by just laws can provide; and the mitigation of identity conflicts rooted in competition for power and wealth that becomes possible when such a state wins the trust of all citizens”
And before concluding, the Report states: ”All Arab countries need to widen and deepen democratic processes to enable citizens to participate in framing public policy on an equal footing. A political system controlled by elites, however decked out with democratic trappings, will not produce outcomes conducive to human security for all citizens…”. And it makes the case for “widening women’s participation in the political, economic, social, cultural and educational fields and reinforcing their rights and status in society…”.
The larger problem of course is that this decade is almost over now. Throughout there has been precious little progress on most dimensions of governance in the region. The initial 2002 Report could have been written today, presenting an even starker reality on voice, democratic accountability, and women rights.
Whether the chosen starting point for comparison is 1998, 2000, or 2002, we find that not only there has been precious little progress until today, but in important areas such as basic civil liberties and ‘voice’ many countries have moved backwards. And the starting point was subpar to begin with.
Based on the latest Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI), the first chart below shows how deficient the performance in the ‘Voice & Accountability’ component is nowadays, measuring the extent of civil liberties, political and human rights, and media freedoms. The second chart, at the very bottom, depicts the troubling trend for many countries since 1998, showing the percentile rank for each country today in the top bar in each case, and the percentile rank for that country in 1998 in the bar below it. Detailed country-by-country governance data can be found here in the WGI site, for any dimension of governance (and some of it is also included the appendix of the UNDP Report).
From the telling writings by some of the Arab scholars in the report, and studying the data trends on governance on this group of countries, it would be easy to see why some despair. And the stark realities of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, persisting for generations (and also addressed in the new Report), do not provide any relief to an otherwise rather troubled picture already.
A fatalistic stance would be unfortunate and unwarranted, however. There are glimmers of hope and important voices for reform in each and every country. Many of them are among the young. Some are among the not-so-young. Many women are standing out, demanding their rights. Continuing to support such dedicated Arab agents for change, who corageously work within their own countries (a some of them contributed to the Arab Human Development Report), is called for. And the ongoing IT revolution, blogging and twittering included, is crucial to spur open debate and transparency, and crucial for protecting and supporting reform champions as catalysts for change. The younger generation is aboard.
- 1. Voice & Democratic Accountability, Arab Countries, 2008 [Click chart to enlarge]
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- 2. Voice in Arab Countries this decade: 2008 (top) vs. 2000 (bottom) [Click chart to enlarge]
Topics: Aid Effectiveness, Measurement Frontiers, Rule of Law, Transparency, Voice and Human Rights | | Read and Submit Comments