Abstract

that reflect directly on issues of security and political, social, and economic wellbeing. Some of these problems are of a traditional nature with well-known solutions, whereas others have historical, political, and social dimensions requiring participatory and innovative solutions. Today, we stand at a crucial crossroads where the choices we make will contribute to the future of the region; we either head toward poverty and unemployment, or we invest strategically to secure the well-being of promising youth and take part in releasing their full potential. The strategic interaction option is not devoid of difficulties. If we take into consideration just the factor of natural population growth, it is apparent that this alone imposes grave challenges. The World Bank’s International Development Report of 2007 indicated that youth under the age of 24 make up approximately 60 percent of the total population of the region. In addition, the major social challenge will be the need to create at least 100 million job opportunities by 2020 to maintain unemployment rates at their current levels, which are already high. The countries of the region, within the framework of confronting these problems, have mainly depended on the efforts of governments. In addition to controlling both political and economic domains, governments have also assumed complete control of the social development agenda, which has led to limiting the private sector to providing only nominal efforts through charity donations and aid. Until recently, governments have identified priorities, development plans, and policies based on immediate political considerations, after which the private sector is required to participate financially in the process—and then only to a limited extent. The initiatives of the private sector have been marginal and modest, and the private sector has not considered such efforts to be within the realm of its strategic objectives. The efforts of civil society have also, sadly, remained on the margins

Highlights

  • The Middle East suffers from a highly complicated set of problems and challenges that reflect directly on issues of security and political, social, and economic wellbeing. Some of these problems are of a traditional nature with well-known solutions, whereas others have historical, political, and social dimensions requiring participatory and innovative solutions

  • We stand at a crucial crossroads where the choices we make will contribute to the future of the region; we either head toward poverty and unemployment, or we invest strategically to secure the well-being of promising youth and take part in releasing their full potential

  • If we take into consideration just the factor of natural population growth, it is apparent that this alone imposes grave challenges

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Summary

Introduction

The Middle East suffers from a highly complicated set of problems and challenges that reflect directly on issues of security and political, social, and economic wellbeing. It is clear that disentangling the immense social and economic challenges requires establishing strategic and active partnerships between governments, the private sector, and civil society to stimulate a develop-

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