Arab States
Relatively few democratic governance assessments have taken place so far in Arab states. These states are faced with economic challenges of modest economic growth rates, weak competitiveness, high unemployment, young populations wanting to emigrate, poverty amidst vast wealth, environmental vulnerabilities and high risks to human security.
Citizens in Arab states consider economic problems a pressing governance concern. In the first systematic survey of the Arab Barometer project, conducted in 2006, surveys from Palestinian territories, Jordan, Morocco, Algeria and Kuwait indicate that 54 percent of those surveyed consider economic problems to be most important.
Cloaked in economic terms, many of these problems are rooted in governance issues. A democratic governance assessment may prove useful for identifying some of these problems and laying the ground for reform.
UNDP supported initiatives in the Arab States
News
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Djibouti is resolutely moving ahead with its preparations for the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) self-assessment process. At a workshop on 27-28 January, Djiboutians discussed the lessons drawn from the experience of APRM pioneers, and were able to find answers to their questions about how to constitute their national governing council, how to involve citizens in the collection and interpretation of data,
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Morocco’s National Observatory on Human Development is moving forward in developing a local governance assessment framework to monitor the implementation of human development (HD) programmes at the local level. With the new Communal Charter (2008), important decentralization reforms are underway in Morocco in order to grant a more important role to the communes in designing and executing HD programmes at the local level.
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Examples of Regional Initiatives
Can the Arab world, with all its complexities, specificities and fluctuating realities be subjected to quantitative assessment and represented in a set…
The objectives of the Arab Barometer are to produce scientifically reliable data on politically relevant attitudes of ordinary citizens, to disseminate…
Organizations that assess governance in the region
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The Arab Reform Initiative is a network of independent Arab research and policy institutes, with partners from the United States and Europe. Its goal…
UNDP Key Publications
on assessing governance related to Arab States
The UNDP Program of Governance in the Arab Region (POGAR) is a web portal for information about governance