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.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
- 1.
Gibraltar is a Spanish derivate from the Arabic جبل طارق, meaning ‘Mountain of Tariq’, (named after Tariq bin Ziyad).
References
Abdeldjawed, D. F., Kamha, A. N., & Assila, S. (2012). Report on Arab Borometer 2012: Egypt. http://www.arabbarometer.org/sites/default/files/countyreportyegyptII.pdf. (In Arabic).
Abun-Nasr, J. M. (1987). A history of the Maghreb in the Islamic period. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Al Masah Capital: MENA Education Sector. (2014). Dubai: Al Masah Capital Management Limited. Retrieved from http://almasahcapital.com/uploads/report/pdf/report_110.pdf
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). (2014). World factbook. Retrieved November, 2014, from https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/
Djabi, N. (2011). Report on Arab Borometer 2011: Algeria. Retreived November, 2014, from http://www.arabbarometer.org/sites/default/files/countyreportyAlgeriaII.pdf
Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica. (2014). Masinissa. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/367882/Masinissa. Accessed 1 Mar 2015.
Entelis, J. P. (2011). Algeria: Democracy denied, and revived? The Journal of North African Studies, 16(4), 653–678.
Estes, R. J. (1988). Trends in world social development. New York: Praeger.
Estes, R. J. (2015). Development trends among the world’s socially least developing countries (SLDCs): Reasons for guarded optimism. In B. Spooner (Ed.), Globalization: The crucial phase (pp. 23–70). Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Estes, R. J., & Tiliouine, H. (2014). Islamic development trends: From collective wishes to concerted actions. Social Indicators Research, 116(1), 67–114.
Fanon, F. (1961). Les Damnés de la terre. Paris: Maspero.
Gallup, Inc., & Healthways, Inc. (2014). State of global well-being. Results of the Gallup-Healthways global well-being index. http://info.healthways.com/hs-fs/hub/162029/file-1634508606-pdf/WBI2013/Gallup-Healthways_State_of_Global_Well-Being_vFINAL.pdf. Accessed 2 Feb 2015.
Gallup: The American Institute of Public Opinion. (2011). http://www.gallup.com/poll/155045/middle-east-leads-world-negative-emotions.aspx#2. Accessed 28 Aug 2014.
Haut Commissariat du Plan. (2012). Mesure du bien-être au Maroc Principaux résultats de l’Enquête Nationale sur le Bien-Être 2012. http://www.authorstream.com/Presentation/youssefmm-1563714-presentation-bien-etre-fr/
Heggoy, A. A. (1984). Colonial education in Algeria: Assimilation and reaction. In P. G. Altbach & G. Kelly (Eds.), Education and the colonial experience (pp. 97–116). New Brunswick: Transaction Books.
Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, Human Development Network, The World Bank. (2013). The global burden of disease: Generating evidence, guiding policy – Middle East and North Africa regional edition. Seattle: IHME. Retrieved from http://www.healthdata.org/policy-report/global-burden-disease-generating-evidence-guiding-policy%E2%80%94middle-east-and-north-africa
International Labour Organization. (2014). Global employment trends 2014: Risk of a jobless recovery? Geneva: International Labour Organization.
Julien, C.-A. (1980). Histoire de l’Afrique du Nord de la conquête Arabe à 1830 (2nd ed.). Alger: SNED.
Land, K. C., Michalos, A. C., & Sirgy, M. J. (Eds.). (2012). Handbook of social indicators and quality of life research. Dordrecht: Springer Science & Business Media.
McIntosh, S. K. (1996). West African Savanna Kingdoms: The Sahara, Caravan trade, and Islam. In The Oxford companion to archaeology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Misri, M. (2012). Arab Barometer: Country report Tunisia. http://www.arabbarometer.org/country-report. (In Arabic).
O’Donnell, J. (2013). Saint Augustine. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/42902/Saint-Augustine. Accessed 1 Mar 2015.
OECD. (2013). OECD guidelines on measuring subjective well-being. OECD Publishing. http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264191655-en
Porter, R. M., Stern, S., & Green, M. (2014). Social progress index. Washington: Social Progress Imperative.
Salehi-Isfahani, D. (2010). Human development in the Middle East and North Africa (Human Development Reports Research Paper). http://www.ex-hr.com/en/uploads/files/file3586099.pdf. Accessed in 28 July 2013.
Schwab, K. (Ed.). (2013). The global competitiveness report 2013–2014: Full data edition. Geneva: World Economic Forum. Retrieved from http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_GlobalCompetitivenessReport_2013-14.pdf
The United Nations, & League of Arab States. (2013). The Arab millennium development goals report: Facing challenges and looking beyond 2015. http://www.escwa.un.org/information/pubaction.asp?PubID=1364. Accessed 23 Sept 2013.
Tiliouine, H. (2012). Subjective wellbeing, psychological needs, meaning in life, religious practice and income in the population of Algeria. Journal of Social Research and Policy, 3(2), 47–66.
Tiliouine, H. (2014a). Islamic education and youth well-being in Muslim countries, with specific reference to Algeria. In Handbook of child well-being: Theory, indicators, measures and policies (Vol 2, pp 1209–1226). Netherland: Springer.
Tiliouine, H. (2014b). Algeria, personal well-being index. In Michalos, A. (Ed.), Encyclopedia of quality of life and well-being research. Springer. doi:10.1007/978-94-007-0753-5.
Tiliouine, H. (2015). Quality of life and wellbeing in North Africa–Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia. In Global handbook of quality of life (pp. 507–530). Netherlands: Springer.
Tiliouine, H., & Belgoumidi, A. (2009). An exploratory study of religiosity, meaning in life and subjective wellbeing in Muslim students from Algeria. Applied Research in Quality of Life, 4(1), 109–127.
Tiliouine, H., & Meziane, M. (2012). The quality of life of Muslim populations: The case of Algeria. In K. C. Land, A. C. Michalos, & M. J. Sirgy (Eds.), Handbook of quality of life research (pp. 499–528). Dordrecht: Springer.
Tiliouine, H., & Meziane, M. (Forthcoming). The history of well-being in the Middle East and North Africa. In R. Estes & J. Sirgy. (Eds.). The history of well-being: From ancient to modern times. Philadelphia: Halloran Philanthropies.
Tiliouine, H., Cummins, R. A., & Davern, M. (2006). Measuring wellbeing in developing countries: The case of Algeria. Social Indicators Research, 75, 1–30.
Turin, Y. (1983). Affrontements culturels en Algérie Coloniale. Alger: EDNL.
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). (2014). Human development report, 2014. Retrieved December, 2014, from http://hdr.undp.org/sites/default/files/hdr14-report-en-1.pdf
Wikipedia. (2013a). North Africa. Retrieved August 13, 2013, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Africa
Wikipedia. (2013b). Augustine of Hippo. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Augustine. Accessed 13 Aug 2013.
Wikipedia. (2013c). Sahara occidental. https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sahara_occidental. Accessed on 24 July 2013.
Wikipedia. (2014a). Libya. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libya#Italian_Libya. Accessed 16 Nov 2014.
Wikipedia. (2014b). Hospital. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hospital#cite_note-Glubb-25. Accessed 5 June 2014.
Wolfsfeld, G., Segev, E., & Sheafer, T. (2013). Social media and the Arab Spring politics comes first. The International Journal of Press/Politics, 18(2), 115–137.
World Bank. (2014). Middle East and North Africa. Retrieved January, 2015, from http://www.worldbank.org/en/region/mena
World Health Organization. (2012, April). Spending on health. A global overview. Fact sheet No. 319. Retrieved from http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs319/en/
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Tiliouine, H., Estes, R.J. (2016). Social Development in North African Countries: Achievements and Current Challenges. In: Tiliouine, H., Estes, R. (eds) The State of Social Progress of Islamic Societies. International Handbooks of Quality-of-Life. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-24774-8_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-24774-8_5
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-24772-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-24774-8
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)