Population Factors in Development Planning in the Middle East.

Abstract

This book sets forth conceptual frameworks for addressing important population and development issues in the Middle East. The most salient population concerns in development planning in the region are migration and the growth of cities. The rapid pace of economic and political events has caused massive movements of population with consequences that confront and challenge the planner at every turn. Moreover fertility and infant mortality rates remain high despite efforts to address these problems in the region. The book is organized in 4 parts each addressing a crucial concern for development planners. Part I takes up the subject of womans economic participation. Awareness of the important economic roles of women in the region is growing rapidly. However a number of difficult measurement issues are outlined especially non-inclusion of womens family and domestic production in census measurements. As a result the work of women has gone largely unmeasured and unaccounted for in policy planning and implementation. The chapters of Part II address selected social dimensions of population growth: demographic measures of inequality e.g. educational attainement and social class; responses to high rates of urban growth by urban planners and city managers; and the problems of unemployment and underemployment in rural areas in the face of economic development and urbanization. Part III concerns the identification and measurement of the determinants of infant and child mortality and Part IV presents a framework for monitoring the determinants of fertility. These last 2 parts identify the proximate determinants of child mortality and of fertility through which all social and economic determinants must operate if they are to affect either the fertility or the mortality outcomes. The intricate meshing of population factors in the development process makes the topics covered in this volume of concern to a broad audience of demographers development planners scholars and students of development addressing these pressing issues in the Middle East.