In just a few days, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) will launch the fifth volume of the Arab Human Development Report series.
Entitled “Challenges to Human Security in the Arab Countries, the Report employs the wider definition of human security – first introduced in the 1994 global Human Development Report – as a magnifying lens to closely examine the condition of human development in the region. In this approach, analyses transcend traditional notions of security primarily focusing on the narrow concept of state security to embrace a much broader people-focused concept of security. The Report claims that ‘state security’ and ‘human security’ are interconnected, mutually-reinforcing concepts. Yet it stresses that the prevailing pattern of giving precedence to the former usually prevents the achievement of either goal, while a focus on ensuring human security in its multiple dimensions – a primary responsibility of the state – maximizes development opportunities and reinforces the security of the state.
Observations and in-depth analyses in the Report address a multitude of threats facing human security in Arab countries, including the mounting over-exploitation of natural resources (environmental dimension); liabilities related to the role of the state in guaranteeing security (political dimension); disproportionate vulnerability among social groups (personal and community dimensions); economic volatility, poverty and unemployment (economic dimension); lack of access to basic food (food dimension); inadequacy of and unequal access to healthcare systems (health dimension); and foreign occupation of Arab territories, which represents the most comprehensive and systematic threat to people’s security.
The human security lens employed by the Report reveals the degree of vulnerability of all Arab countries on all dimensions of human security.
Despite great diversity among Arab countries, their citizens share common fundamental threats, which seriously limit their choices and ability to live with dignity and to enjoy basic rights and freedoms. Human insecurity in Arab countries represents a major impediment to development in the region, especially in the fields of knowledge, freedoms and women’s empowerment, which were identified as priority areas in the first series of the Arab Human Development Report.
The Report follows in the footsteps of the first series in that a distinguished group of intellectuals and scholars possessing longstanding experience with complex developmental realities in this region conducted careful and critical analyses to determine the state of development in the region in complete independence – something that UNDP supports and cherishes. The preparation of this report witnessed significant changes such as expanding women’s representation in its Advisory Board and providing Arab youth with the opportunity to have a voice in the report – made possible through three consultative youth forums.
This year’s launch will take a different form. Instead of a single event marking the end of the production process, it will serve as a platform for public dialogue -encompassing supporters and critics alike – on the report’s approach and conclusions. UNDP will seek to bolster this dialogue and ensure its seriousness, diversity and intellectual pluralism, while expanding its geographic and time scope through adopting a new rolling launch modality which extends over a full year and includes a series of public debates in several Arab cities.
This series of dialogues begins with the “Beirut Dialogue, immediately following the launch before travelling eastward and westward to Alexandria, Dubai, Rabat, Doha, Tunis and Amman, where decision makers, thought leaders and civil society can scrutinize issues raised and recommendations presented in the Report to address human security in Arab countries.
UNDP has entrusted the organization and management of the series of dialogues to the Cairo-based intellectual monthly magazine “Wughat Nazar to ensure independence of the dialogue. The dialogue will continue through expert round-tables and an interactive website for a wide cyberspace audience, especially the youth who will soon be targeted through a special youth version of the report.
We are hopeful that this integrated strategy will result in inclusive ground-breaking dialogue, inciting decision makers to reorient development policies towards a people-based approach giving priority to people’s security. We must begin by acknowledging that in these challenging times, achieving human security in Arab countries requires urgent attention.
Ms. Amat Al Alim Alsoswa serves as UN Assistant Secretary-General, Assistant Administrator and Director of the Regional Bureau for Arab States United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
