Arab Region

The Arab region is made up of economically, politically and culturally diverse countries, making efforts to define "progress" in the region all the more challenging. GNI per capita ranges from less than US $600 in Yemen to US $25,000 in Kuwait, for example.^[1]

A number of regional conferences have been held to assess the work needed in establishing a regional committee for measuring the progress of Arab societies. Some of the core issues identified that need to be taken into consideration when measuring progress in the region include:

The political situation
The high economic variation across countries
The social variation
The environment and natural resources
Democracy and governance modalities
The religious fanaticism^[2]

In June 2009 a conference was held in Cairo to discuss the formation of a regional Steering Committee for measuring progress. The conference reached the decision to organise a Steering Committee that should involve the Arab League, UNESCWA, AITRS, the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (as head of the committee), Lebanon (as hosting country) and all the countries of the region which are keen to participate on a voluntary basis.

The Arab Countries have shown considerable interest in working on Measuring the Progress of Arab Societies. The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for West Asia are working with the OECD to become the regional co-ordinator for this work. The Arab Statistical Institute for Training and Research has also expressed an interest in becoming closely involved.

Studies on Progress

Arab Human Development Report First published as a series from 2003-2005, the three reports focus on areas seen to be the largest deficit in human development in the region: knowledge, freedom and women's empowerment. The report will commence a new series of 4 annual publications with the first to be published in 2009.

Measuring and Fostering Progress in the Arab Societies: Towards an Integration of Arab Region in the Global Initiative of Measuring Progress This paper prepared by the Arab Statistical Institute for Training and Research offers some insights into the steps needed to begin measuring progress in the region.

Studies on Child well-being

	Area
	Global · Regional · Countries

The Arab Planning Institute found that 40% of Arab children seem to have lived in absolute poverty over the period 1991-2001. This performance is worse than the average for the developing world. ^[3]

Past events on progress

The Arab Institute for Training and Research in Statistics held in cooperation with the General Authority for information in the Great Socialist Peoples Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, the 2nd Arab Statistical Conference under the slogan “No Development without Statistics” November 2-4, 2009 in Tripoli, Libya. The OECD, UN-ESCWA and PARIS 21 hosted the 4th Arab forum on Statistical Capacity Building Conference on “Measuring the Progress of Arab Societies” May 27, 2009 in Cairo (Egypt).

International Conference "Beyond the gap between the West and the Islamic world: A French-American Dialogue”, Paris, December 12-13 2008. The international conference was co-organised by the French-American Foundation – France, The Middle-East-Mediterranean Chair program of Sciences Po Paris, and Foreign Policy France. It expored the grounds for developing positive relations between the West and the Islamic world, to replace hostility and resentment with a dialogue based on trust and understanding. For more details see the agenda.

Pays arabes (French)

Les pays arabes ont manifesté un intérêt considérable à travailler sur la mesure des progrès des sociétés arabes. La Commission économique et sociale des Nations-Unies pour l’Asie occidentale travaille avec nous dans le but de devenir les coordinateurs régionaux de ce travail. L’Institut arabe de statistique pour la formation et la recherche a également exprimé son intérêt à s’engager étroitement. Leur document,

« Mesurer et favoriser le progrès dans les sociétés arabes. Vers une intégration de la région arabe dans l’initiative mondiale de mesure du progrès »