Social Development in North African Countries: Achievements and Current Challenges

Abstract

North Africa links the world’s three continents of Africa, Europe, and Asia to one another. This geo-strategic position, along with a very rich history and an abundance of natural resources, renders the region a potentially major contributor in safeguarding international peace and harmony, albeit considerable political instability exists throughout the region today. North Africa is inhabited by 171.4 million people representing approximately 2.4 % of the world’s total population and about 10.5 % of the population of the 53-member countries of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). Currently, five countries make up the North African region: Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, and Tunisia. Many of these countries are presently going through an unprecedented state of political and economic volatility and these countries’ positions are divided on many border issues, including the struggle to obtain political independence of Occidental Sahara from Morocco.

This chapter examines social, political, economic, and subjective well-being trends that are occurring in North Africa’s five largest countries. It provides both a long- and short-term comparative analysis of these countries and for the North African region in comparison with those of OIC- and world-as-a-whole. The extensively pre-testing Weighted Index of Social Progress (ISP, WISP) is used to guide much of this analysis. The resulting picture presented in this report for at least two of countries is a bleak one—Libya and Egypt – albeit more positive outcomes are possible should significant changes occur over the near-term within the socio-political-economic systems of these countries. Social progress trends occurring in other countries of the region are much more positive and show appreciable gains in overall years of life expectation, reduced infant and child mortality rates, steadily rising come levels, more advanced status for women, less investment in military and defense efforts, as well as improved trading relationships with partners both within and outside of the region.