A few days ago, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) released the Arab Human Development Report 2016, entitled “Youth and the Prospects for Human Development in a Changing Reality.” In the previous year, world leaders had adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which emphasized that “young women and men are critical agents of change and that their role is central to achieving sustainable development.” On this basis, the Arab Human Development Report called on Arab countries to invest in their youth and empower them to engage in development processes. According to the report, one-third of the region’s population consists of young people between the ages of 15 and 29. However, the report notes that many young people receive an education that does not reflect the needs of the labor market. As a result, large numbers remain unemployed and excluded from the formal economy. Arab youth have consequently experienced frustration, helplessness, alienation, and dependency, and have been among the groups most severely affected by the crises that have swept across the region. Many were pushed to the front lines of conflicts they did not originally cause. Large numbers lost their lives, while others lost their livelihoods, circumstances that drove some of them to join extremist and terrorist movements. The report therefore calls for empowering young people, strengthening their capabilities, and expanding the opportunities available to them through economies that encourage entrepreneurship, political environments that promote effective participation, and social systems that advance equality and combat discrimination. Under the heading “The Dynamics of Youth Disempowerment in the Arab Region,” the report states that although a new generation of Arab youth has emerged—the largest, best educated, and most urbanized in the region’s history—their prospects remain threatened by exclusion, poverty, economic stagnation, and widespread corruption. The report identifies six factors that constrain young people, weaken their position, and prevent them from realizing their full potential. These factors are as follows:

• Scarcity of Decent Employment Opportunities:

The report notes that although young people make up approximately one-third of the Arab world’s population, their labor force participation rates remain extremely low—around 24 percent among young men and 18 percent among young women—among the lowest rates in the world. Qualified young people often wait for long periods in the hope of securing suitable employment. As a result, many are forced to work in the informal sector, where wages are low and working conditions are poor. Wasta—the use of personal connections and favoritism—also plays a major role in the allocation of the limited jobs available. This compels young people to rely heavily on social networks and family connections, giving those from influential families an advantage over their peers and thereby undermining the principles of social justice and merit. Youth unemployment has also discouraged many young people from marrying and starting families and has pushed others to seek opportunities abroad. This contributes to the migration of skilled professionals, perpetuates the exclusion of young people, and reinforces the persistence of the existing social and economic conditions across the Arab region.

• Weak Political Participation:

The report states that although there are no major legal barriers preventing young people from participating in politics, the Arab region ranks last globally in terms of youth political participation, at approximately 9 percent compared with 14 percent in Sub-Saharan Africa. The report attributes the decline in political participation among Arab youth to broader economic conditions and to young people’s lack of confidence in the democratic process as a whole. Nevertheless, young people’s interest in political participation is increasing.

• Declining Quality of Public Services in Education and Healthcare :

The report states that national efforts in high-income Arab countries have succeeded in expanding access to basic education in quantitative terms, while poorer and more densely populated countries still need further expansion in this area. The report also notes that young people are increasingly questioning the value of higher education in light of widespread unemployment among university graduates. Moreover, the weak outcomes of education systems across the Arab region contribute to poor development outcomes more broadly.

• Poor Management Diversity In Society :

The report points to the ethnic and cultural diversity that characterizes most Arab countries, while also highlighting the poor management of this diversity. This often results in a failure to ensure equality among all citizens, making them more inclined to organize around narrow group-based interests that may conflict with broader common interests shared across society.

• The Prevalence of Inherited Concepts and Practices That Hinder Gender Equality :

The report states that despite the existence of religious and customary principles in the Arab region that support equality between men and women, the region continues to lag behind all other regions of the world in this area. Young women in most Arab countries continue to experience significant gender inequality, while discrimination against women by employers remains widespread. As a result, the improvements achieved over recent decades in young women’s access to appropriate education have not translated fully into equal opportunities, for several reasons, including gender-based discrimination. After completing their education, young women often find themselves having to make greater efforts than young men to secure meaningful, satisfactory, and adequately paid employment, particularly at the beginning of their professional careers after university. Moreover, men and women do not enjoy equal rights in matters of marriage and divorce, while women remain more vulnerable to domestic and institutional violence.

• Wars and Armed Conflicts :

The report also highlights the wars and armed conflicts that have engulfed much of the Arab world, stressing that these conflicts are destroying the region’s social fabric and causing devastating loss of life—not only among combatants, but also among civilians. For every person killed directly by armed violence, between three and fifteen others die indirectly as a result of treatable diseases, medical complications, and malnutrition. Under the heading “Religion, Identity, and Violent Extremism,” the report notes that over the past three decades, a number of groups have emerged in Arab countries that adopt highly exclusionary attitudes toward those they regard as the “other”—meaning anyone who disagrees with their views. These groups rely on extremist religious interpretations and have succeeded in attracting many young people into their ranks. The report states that the overwhelming majority of young people in the Arab region are not inclined to embrace violent extremist ideas or to participate in related groups or activities. However, this should not lead to complacency. Young people remain vulnerable to the propaganda of groups that misuse religion, taking advantage of the central role religion plays in shaping identity. Addressing this challenge therefore requires deep and comprehensive development-based approaches in which young people themselves are involved in both design and implementation. If empowered, young people can become a significant force capable of confronting the politically motivated misuse of religion. By contrast, excluding them may intensify such manipulation and could contribute to further radicalization. The report concludes with what it calls “A New Development Model Worthy of Youth in the Arab Region,” in which it recommends the following:

• Working to strengthen young people’s fundamental capabilities so that they can realize their full potential, with particular emphasis on the quality of the educational and healthcare services required to achieve this.
• Expanding the opportunities available to young people for self-fulfillment: economically, by providing decent employment opportunities; politically, by respecting their rights and freedoms and enabling their effective participation in formal institutions and in holding those institutions accountable; and socially, by combating all forms of discrimination based on identity or gender.
• Working to achieve peace and security while strengthening the role of young people in this process. Without peace and security, it is impossible to develop young people’s capabilities, expand the opportunities available to them, or ensure that such efforts are sustained and produce lasting results.

In conclusion, these are the broad outlines and principal ideas contained in this important report, which has identified many of the most painful aspects of the difficult reality facing the Arab world. Many reports have diagnosed the problems and weaknesses of Arab societies, and international and regional institutions have often put forward thoughtful and well-developed proposals for addressing these persistent crises. One can only hope that this report will not meet the same fate as many of its predecessors, with its findings and recommendations simply fading away without meaningful follow-up. Rather, it is hoped that governments, political parties, and civil society organizations will treat it seriously, study it carefully, and make use of the evidence and insights it contains to develop comprehensive plans capable of helping the Arab world overcome the deeply troubled conditions in which it currently finds itself.