It’s All in the Numbers

By Zarina Geloo

In spite of the restrictive policies on the accumulation and storage of data in many countries of the Middle East, more Arab nations contributed to this year’s Social Summit report than last year’s.

Ziad Abdel Samad, executive director of Arab NGO for Development said from two countries (Egypt and Lebanon) in the last report, there were now seven countries that had provided statistics.

´´It is a problem for some to collect and send data because information of any social indicators is restricted and in some cases, prohibited. But this year civil society in the Arab world was vigilant and managed to do some research.

He attributes this to the growing need for "consolidating and alternative statistics given out by the United Nations and the World Bank, which were insufficient for their purpose. Society has also realised that they can use the data in the report as a lobbying tool in their work.’’

Editor Robert Bissio said the Social Watch Report was different from the Davos Competitor’s Report and the UN Human Development Report because the statistics were from national governments, they only provided information on situations and ranked countries and were unable furnish a critique because of their limited scope.

“We are not only interested in outcomes, but also progress on policy, measuring political will to implement programmes and measuring the quality of life and access to basic rights.“