BY GEORGE CAUSER AND JOE DALE

Human Development

Texts

• Alan Richards and John Waterbury. 2008. The Political Economy of the Middle East. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, Chapter 4 (“Human capital: health, education, and labor markets”)

• Tarik Yousef. 2003. Development, growth, and policy reform in the Middle East and North Africa since 1950. Journal of Economic Perspectives,18(3), 91-116.

• Lisa Blaydes and Mark Kayser. 2011. Counting calories: Democracy and distribution in the developing world. International Studies Quarterly, 55, pp. 807-908.

Development- A Concept

Definitions- HDI, AHDI, GDP per capita

The need for a balanced view; inequality, quality of life, life expectancy.

Education, Health, ‘Calorie inequality’ all pointed out as measurements of development

HealthTwo key important

factors health and education which are vital to labour market

Garfield Significant increases in young child mortality are extremely rare this century’

Child Immunisation key

Food supplements10 % increase in girls

enrolment primary education= 4.1 deaths per 1000 decrease

Education

• MENA in comparison to World has poor literacy rates

• Historical basis of states with little established legacy

• Recent massive increase in spending

• Massive divisions Rural v City

• Standard of Education poor within schools

Education

Focus on University by StateLeads to high number ofGraduatesFamilies often focus on onemember which can reduceaverage literacy rates

Economics

Low Basepoint‘Lowest levels of socioeconomic development in the

world’ Tarik Yousef‘Bloated’ public sectorCorruption and the Black Market‘Interventionist- Redistributive Model’

Labour Market

Unemployment high; especially amongst educated

‘Rentier’ state and the Dutch DiseaseFDI? Industrial Strategy?Reform?

Counting Calories

‘Calorie Inequality’ and the effect on development

Gini co-efficient

Arab World, Kerala and Yemen

• OECD average HDI- 0.873• Kerala HDI-0.790• Arab World- 0.641• Yemen HDI- 0.462• Primary products exports to GDP- Yemen 46%• Reasons- Govt. policy in Kerala compared to MENA

avg. and Yemen • Why is HDI inadequate in both cases?

• What does Kerala prove is good about HDI?

• Could the MENA learn anything from Kerala?

Conclusion

The MENA region is underdeveloped overall.Though it compares well to South Asia, given its

wealth it has often struggled to mirror development per capita

Kerala as an example shows what investment in literacy and health can achieve

However it also shows the struggles of an educated workforce with inadequate employment opportunities

This is a shared problem with MENA MENA has the resources to invest in other industries

to achieve this balanced growth