عبد الصمد بن جودة

There are many questions to be answered and many answers to be questioned, in order to achieve a real sustainable development in our so changing world either in the developing or the developed countries.

This article will focus - mainly - on the Middle-East region, listing the main challenges, which block the process of progress and prosperity.

At First, I think we have to talk about unemployment, which is –verily - one of the most serious problems that confront the Middle-East countries, to the extent that it is described by some economists as a “time bomb”, which could explode in case the Arab countries have not accelerated steps toward a radical economic reform.

The unemployment rate reached about 27% among young people in the Arab world, and more than 50% among Arab women. Thus, the Arab world “enjoys” the highest rates of unemployment in the world, despite the fact that the growth rates of employment in Saudi Arabia – for instance - are higher than those of the developing and developed countries (about 2.5 % during the period 1995-2002).

Lately, the Arab countries witnessed a quick and alarming population growth rate ( during the last decade),which poses difficult and unprecedented challenges in front of labour market , especially in light of the limited diversity of national income sources and underemployment in the public sector.

Let alone the fact that Arab societies are facing varied and unbeatable social, economic and cultural impediments, leading to the aggravation of unemployment phenomenon , Some of which are:
- Poor planning on the national level, and lacking the culture of investment ( in the minds of businessmen ) in the appropriate fields, as well as the gap between education ( trainings ) and the requirements of the labour market, in addition to that we can find the weak passion for work among Arabs ,or even a kind of underestimation of the value of work . and to cap it all, Young people do not tend towards professional work, because many people consider manual jobs as « miserable » and fear of risk because of their instable nature.

Undoubtedly, There are many other causes behind the phenomenon of “unemployment”, including:
- The absence of if a « unified Arab market » like Europe market.
- No real national investment projects that could achieve national development.
- The absence of a systematic economic planning,
- The incompatibility of curricula in most Arab countries with the actual needs of the labour market, Moreover, the systematic education in most Arab countries has not kept pace with rapid technological developments taking place all over the world.
- The “culture of the defect”, which means the unwillingness of young people to do many of the professional jobs, which are considered less prestigious than administrative ones. .
- Political differences (mainly the Israeli- Palestinian conflict), which became a prominent threat to the relations between Arab and Jewish nation, and contributed to the spread of the phenomenon of unemployment and the loss of many jobs (mainly in tourism).

Some researchers said that there are serious implications for unemployment on the individual and society as well, the individual may suffer from many psychological illnesses as a result , and could take drugs as an attempt to escape from the painful, unsatisfactory reality, and helps unconditionally in the proliferation of crimes or terrorist acts, because of the hatred of society and the weakness of patriotism, which result at carrying out violent actions, and this is self-evident as the region suffered many deadly suicide bombings .

In addition to all that, unemployment represents an unrealistic squandering of resources invested by the large community in the education, health care of the youth.

Presumably, the second challenge is lack of fresh water … which is a real concern or even a “nightmare” for the Middle East region, many studies indicated that water will be the main cause of conflicts in the future..

Therefore, North Africa, the Middle East, South Africa and northern China will face very severe water shortages due to physical scarcity and a condition of overpopulation relative to their carrying capacity with respect to water supply .thus water is one of the most serious challenges facing the Arab region – at least - in the coming decades. Especially if Arabs deal with such an important issue the same way they deal with all their economic problems ( that is to prefer postponing solutions ) .

Stockholm Conference on Water in 1982 said: « Fresh water will take its place alongside other energy sources, as a political background of international relationships and conflicts over the next decade, and the Middle East will be the most affected in this matter. »

Despite the fact that the Arab world accounts for more than 5% of the world’s human population and covers 10% of the total land area .it has no more than 0.5 % of renewable fresh water resources in the world and – indeed - it witnessed a noticeable decline in the per capita share of fresh water, to the extent that we can talk about “water poverty” ,and this crisis refers to a number of reasons, including the fact that most of the water come from outside the Arab territories ,where eight non-Arab countries control 85% of Arab water resources, In addition to that , the Arab world is suffering from being geographically situated in the dry and semi-dry Belt of the world, where there is a poor rate of rainfall, with the dominance of the deserts, which represent 43 % of the total area of the Arab world, with a population of 300 million people in 2005.

Crises and tensions, political and ideological differences between the countries ( which share the water sources) are the biggest and most dangerous reasons that led and will lead to the deepening water crisis between states - particularly the Arab countries -.

Sometimes, such states use water politically as a weapon against each other, especially in the basin of the Tigris and the Euphrates and the Nile River , which are shared river basins between the Mideast countries (Syria, Jordan, Israel and Lebanon, Turkey… ), where political conflicts led to an excessive use of water sources.

The third challenge - in my opinion - the problem of scientific research…. as no one can deny that scientific research paves the way for a tangible development for the whole world , through the increase of knowledge and technological production, which facilitates human beings life and supports education, health care and the preservation of environment.

Despite this importance, the scientific research in the Arab world still lags behind developed countries ,and surely it will –necessarily -take long years for having a real scientific research in this area, whereas the expenditure on scientific research in the Arab countries is no more than 22 or 29 $ per capita each year, except in the oil producing countries , and the average of productivity of the Arab world in terms of the dissemination of research is less than 1% of production in other countries, Also, in the Arab world there 2.7 researchers per 10 thousand of labour force, while this figure rises to 66 in America and 99 in the former Soviet Union.
Dealing with those challenges quite effectively, will surely put an end to our problems so easily and help developing our countries in a globalized world.

SOURCES:

-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_resources#Environmental
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pollution#Sources_and_causes
-http://www.rezgar.com/debat/show.art.asp?aid=66427 - Arabic-

Written by :Abdessamad BEN JOUDA

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