Greater access to academic resources needed for development in the Arab world

By Allyn Gaestel

Muna AbuSalayman (Photo courtesy American Moroccan Institute)

18 November 2009 [MEDIAGLOBAL]: Lack of access to multi-lingual scholarly journals hinders development in the Arab world, according to Muna AbuSulayman, Secretary General of the Alwaleed Bin Talal Kingdom Foundation, United Nations Goodwill Ambassador, and Yale 2009 World Fellow.

At the American Moroccan Institute Conference taking place at the UN this week, entitled “Women Leaders in the Arab World,” AbuSulayman identifies access or lack of access to scholarly and academic knowledge as one of the key differences between the developing world and developed countries. “This type of knowledge and scholarship is what distinguishes first world countries from the developing world and one that can truly transform society to a modern and progressive one.”

She therefore calls for a widespread translation effort to make academic publications available to a broader audience. She explained to MediaGlobal in a follow-up interview that this greater access “would be a leap frog for the Arab world, as suddenly a huge section of the population would be able to locate knowledge and work with it on their own, with no filtering. They would be able to look at how societal issues are being studied and dissected and see how they can be applied to our world.”

It will be difficult to facilitate widespread translation because academic papers use advanced language. Translation therefore requires both deep understandings of both Arabic and the language of the original publication, and a grasp of the subject matter. According to AbuSulayman, “We don’t have an agreed upon dictionary that would help translators do their job well in these sciences, and there is almost no work being done to develop those subject specific dictionaries.”

AbuSulayman anticipates a direct link between increased access to academic resources and country development. Universities are present across the developing world, but the percentage of the population enrolled in university is still lagging far behind the developed world.

Developing countries in 2006, the most recent year with data available, had a 17 percent gross enrollment rate in university, while developed countries had a 67 percent gross enrollment rate, according to the UNESCO Education for All Report 2009. The social sciences are especially understudied in the developing world, with 6 percent of university students focusing on this field compared to 27 percent in developed countries in 2006.

For the already limited population of university students in the developed world there is limited funding for their education, which leads to the resource accessibility gap AbuSulayman described. The UNESCO report cites developing countries as having spent a median 4.4 percent of gross national product on education in 2006, while developed countries devoted a median 5.5 percent of GNP. This makes a significant difference given the gap in GNP between developing and developed countries.

Accessibility of quality education has been linked to economic and social development. The UNESCO Education for All Global Monitoring Report 2009 states, “Levels of productivity, economic growth and patterns of income distribution are intimately linked to the state of education and the distribution of educational opportunity. Increasing global economic interdependence and the growing importance of knowledge-based processes in economic growth have raised both the premium on education and the cost associated with education deficits.”

Education also enables people to work in higher paying jobs and so improve economic standing on a personal and national level.

AbuSulayman described the need for an engaged citizenry aware of the complexities of both local and global social movements.