The ultimate resource

An Arab renaissance lies on the horizon if the public is afforded freedom and leaders embrace the innovation of Arab youth, writes Nader Fergany*

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Youth represent the ultimate resource in any society, especially from a future perspective.

First of all, in this age, knowledge has become the measure of value. Human beings are the reservoir of knowledge and youth represents an inexhaustible supply of energy and creativity. Nevertheless, youth in Arab countries are poorly equipped for knowledge acquisition and production through defective educational systems.

For human beings to engage effectively in knowledge acquisition, especially knowledge production, three requirements must be met. Capabilities must be acquired, normally through education and training systems, and an enabling societal environment is needed for individuals and groups to utilise capabilities in knowledge acquisition and production. Ideally, this enabling environment consists of two layers: an active and efficient innovation system and a governance regime that protects freedom and mobilises societal resources for research and development.

Governance regimes in Arab countries share many features, prominent among which is marginalisation of the people from political processes. Though precise up-to-date information is lacking, evidence is that youth suffer a higher than average level of marginalisation in political processes. This takes place in spite of the fact that, in terms of population share, youths younger than 35 years of age represent a clear majority of all Arabs, a majority considerably younger than the rest of the developing world.

By democratic criteria, the choices of youth should direct all decision-making in Arab countries. Available information, however, points to an appalling absence of youth in the circles of effective decision-making in Arab countries, except for the tiny minority of crown princes that is. As a result, youth seem to have developed an aversion to participation in political processes under present governance regimes. On the positive side, Arab youth figure significantly in political protest and resistance movements.

In addition to political marginalisation, Arab youth suffer extremely high unemployment rates attesting to their marginalisation in the economic realm. As a result, being able to afford to marry and set up home and form a family -- a healthy and normal aspiration -- is now beyond the reach of most young people in Arab countries.

This is the situation of the majority of Arab youth: marginalisation and exclusion through unemployment, poverty, widening social polarisation and political oppression. In human development terms, Arab youth are deprived from acquiring useful capacities and from utilising their capabilities effectively, thus ending up denied a decent level of human welfare. Young women, unfortunately and irrationally, endure higher levels of deprivation than young men on all counts, on top of sex-determined deprivations such as a demeaning loss of personal freedom.

Arab youth, however, is not a homogenous bloc. To illustrate we can contrast two prevalent segments of Arab youth. The first is the tiny minority of the sons and daughters of the current ruling cliques who are pampered to the point of being spoiled rotten by decadent lifestyles. These "lucky few" often inherit their parents' positions of power, whether they qualify or not, not only in elite professions but even as heads of state in a notorious pattern increasingly established in Arab countries. At the other end of the spectrum we have the street-children population, especially girls among them, numbering in the millions in at least one major Arab country. In addition to the miserable living conditions street children suffer, street girls have to endure the most humiliating indignities, including multiple rapes, even on the same day, forced prostitution, and giving birth to street-born children.

The core of the problem then is that youth, though the most precious resource in Arab countries, is wasted, or at least marginalised at present. If this misguided policy -- or lack of it -- continues, Arab countries can look forward to a serious intensification of the human development crisis they presently suffer in the future. In particular, in the context of restrictions on freedom and bad governance, this deepening crisis in human development generates grave injustices while undermining or forestalling peaceful and effective political channels to address these injustices. This naturally invites violent protest behaviour, and even terrorism.

This stalemate is the precursor of what the Arab Human Development Report (AHDR3) called the scenario of "impending disaster". The prospects of this scenario are increased by the insistence of ruling cliques in command of present bad governance regimes to retain their hold on power (both political authority and wealth), depriving people at large from wealth and freedom and resorting to the sinister combination of oppression and corruption. This situation is not surprising, for the stakes for these cliques of remaining in power or losing it are tremendous. However, it augurs terribly for the prospects of human development in Arab countries.

Frustrated and disgruntled youth can become, in the current environment of restricted freedom, fodder for violent social conflict that could have devastating consequences for human security and cause much material destruction in countries that can hardly afford it. This scenario appears imminent in a number of Arab countries, including the pivotal states of Egypt and Saudi Arabia, but also Morocco, Algeria and some of the small gulf emirates as well.

Nevertheless, the future does not have to be as bleak, for the contribution of Arab youth can bring about an Arab renaissance. A bright future trajectory would require a process of deep-rooted broad reform leading to a society of freedom and good governance. The indispensable opening act, according to AHDR3, is unchaining the public sphere in Arab countries through respecting the key freedoms of opinion, expression and association. Political reform needs, however, to be complemented by a far-reaching package of societal reforms. The two components of political and societal reforms would then integrate to form the basis of a project for human renewal in the Arab region

To encourage a healthy contribution of youth to this process of reform, special care needs to be devoted to reform of education and training systems, being essential requirements for the acquisition of basic human capacities badly lacking at present. In addition, special care needs to be devoted to effective utilisation of the diverse capabilities of youth in various fields of human endeavour, especially economic activity and democratic political processes. Only in a climate of public freedom can Arab youth innovate for the benefit of the Arab region and world at large.

* The writer is lead author of the third Arab Human Development report.