Lebanon Abiding

Yet another Arab struggle To date, the Arab world’s battle with its Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) has seen sharp regional and intra-country discrepancies, mainly brought about by inequality in wealth, service and resource distribution. There are also questions surrounding entrenched gender inequality, the questionable will of governments, no-target policies and weak governance. According to a September 2005 UN report, the Arab region contains urban – rural disparities and continues to suffer setbacks such as poor income performance and inadequate financing, not to mention the ongoing political tensions and conflicts. The Arab region also had one of the lowest per capita GDP growth rates in the 1990s and early 2000s. This poor performance has been reflected in slow human development in comparison with the average for developing countries. It faces several obstacles to achieving the MDGs, including unemployment, the gender gap, illiteracy, war and conflict. In January, The Middle East Economic