The Arab World has been witnessing an increasing number of greenhouse gas emissions (Figure-1), and we are not doing anything about it.
Figure-1
A result of This increase is the climate change which is manifested in the record-breaking temperatures witnessed in summer 2021 in several countries within the Arab World, such as, in Iraq, Kuwait, KSA and even Lebanon. High temperatures mean endangering our food security as with the high temperatures the yields of major crops are reduced, their nutritional value also, this means less supply and higher food prices.
The solution is already available, it is solar energy, as 80% of the land in the region is covered by deserts, making use of it will of course decrease the dependency on fossil fuels and that would be the first step toward tackling climate change in the region.
This solution is already being implemented by other countries, for example, the European union, and data show (Figure-2) that the total number of greenhouse gas emissions has been decreasing for them and this is associated with an increase in the proportion of their electricity output that is generated by renewable energy.
Figure-2
Finally, it is worth mentioning that for some of the European countries who are depending more on renewable energy are investing in north-African deserts such as in Algeria and Tunisia, so this is a proof that we already have significant exposure to solar radiation and enough land area, and these resources, if used correctly can make an impact in addressing the problem of climate change.
According to the Economist newspaper, in many countries where the overall mortality rate is falling, road deaths have gone in the opposite direction. Road traffic deaths disproportionately affect low- and middle-income countries that suffer from weakness in their roads’ infrastructure, where 90% of global road deaths occur.
You might think that it is only a matter of a nation’s income and its infrastructure expenditure! But, after harnessing the power of the data provided by World Development Index, it turns out poor infrastructure is only part of the problem. What’s interesting is that although the high income & oil rich Arab Gulf countries have world class roads infrastructure, the data shows that they still suffer from high road deaths. As a result of this insight, it can be deduced that the other reason behind the high road deaths is the rising incomes in many developing countries & cheap petrol prices have led to rapid motorization, while road safety management and regulations have not kept pace. In other words, their relatively weak enforcement of traffic laws, leads to risky driving, eventually higher road deaths.
In a nutshell, sophisticated roads’ infrastructure can’t effectively lower death roads on its own and should go hand in hand with strict traffic law enforcement.
Most of us have grown up being taught the importance of education. But why is education important? Through your frustrating school years, you may have thought that it was a waste of time, or was just something that you needed to do in order to get a job. Truth be told, however, education goes so much beyond just getting a job and making your parents happy. In fact, it’s one of the most powerful tools out there.
There are numerous reasons why education is important. In general, they all have a strong connection to a person’s life goals and future well-being. It develops critical thinking, teaches a person how to use logic when making decisions and interacting with people and increases the literacy rate.
Today, the public spending on education increases continuously, but unfortunately not all countries are able to spend on education. Be it because of their economic crisis or their financial situation. There’s always something in the way of keeping people from receiving a proper education, thus a decrease in literacy rate.
This leads to adolescents dropping out of school or not registering at all. According to data from the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS), about 263 million children, adolescents and youth worldwide (or one in every five) are out school – a figure that has barely changed over the past five years.
Taking Action
So, what should be done to resolve this?
– For people who cant afford education fees they can be offered help through NGO’s (Scholarships and free tuitions fees).
– For people who don’t want to go to school/University, awareness campaigns can be offered to them to acknowledge them with the importance of education.
Recommendations
All children should feel equally special no matter their financial situation. Education is vital to build a person’s personality and logic. Through the help of NGO’s and awareness campaigns every child will be able to go to school, get the proper education they need and increase their literacy rate.
Educate a girl, change the world – Malala Yousafzai
Being a young lady and living in Lebanon, we always heard stories of women being beaten up, tortured, or killed by their husbands from our family members or friends. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), “Nearly half of women who die due to homicide are killed by their current or former husbands or boyfriends.” Many articles are bringing to light this issue especially with the start of the Covid19 pandemic, where we have seen a spike in that subject due to quarantine and home stays.
As generations, we have progressed in many fields, but we are still lacking a lot in that domain. How is that possible? One main reason for domestic violence’s on-going presence is that, on average, 37.75% of women around the world believe that a husband is justified in beating his wife (percentage from 2000 till 2020). That’s a huge number! Many women justify this type of violence as “normal’” and give the right to their partners/ husbands to beat them. But why are women justifying and accepting domestic violence? Why is that number this high nowadays?
To dig deep into the subject, I decided to evaluate potential factors that could affect women’s decision in justifying domestic violence such as poverty levels, literacy rates, and early marriages rates around the world. It was found that:
On average, 75.96% of Female aged 15+ are literate around the world (from 2000 till 2020)
On average, 3.63% of the global population live under Poverty Gap at $1.90 a day (from 2000 till 2020)
On average, 6.78% of Female between 20 and 24 years old married at the age of 15 around the world (from 2000 till 2020)
The results showed that countries with low literacy rates in female adults have higher percentages of women who believe that a husband is justified in beating his wife (stand with domestic violence) such as Ethiopia who has a low literacy rate of 28.53% in female adults and a very high percentage of women who justify their husband’s violence (74.23%).
On the poverty level, it was found that countries with higher poverty gaps rates have higher percentages of women who stand with domestic violence such as Congo who has a poverty gap of 51.7% and a very high percentage of women who justify their husband’s violence (75.2%).
Also, when comparing that percentage with the percentage of women who married at the age of 15, it was found that countries with higher numbers of early marriages have higher percentages of women who stand with domestic violence such as Chad who has a percentage of early marriage of 29.47% (of female between 20-24 have married at the age of 15) and a very high number of women who justify their husband’s violence (67.9%).
Poverty, Literacy rates, and Early Marriages in the country affect heavily the perception of women in whether domestic violence by their partners is acceptable or not. High poverty rates increase the justification of domestic violence, low literacy rates increase the justification of domestic violence, and high early marriages rates increase the justification of domestic violence.
Increasing educational benefits in underprivileged countries would be a great initiative to increase literacy rates among women and stopping abuse among families. Introducing educational programs such as Girls’ Education by the World Bank Group which focuses on ensuring that young women receive a quality education, and raising awareness about physical abuse would also encourage the fight against domestic violence. Some countries such as Indonesia have increased the age of marriage of adolescent girls which would contribute to less early marriages, and less acceptance of violence.
According to BBC News, the world is witnessing a ‘jaw-dropping’ global crash in children being born. The news article, by James Gallagher, reports that falling fertility rates have “nothing to do” with usual phenomena that come to mind when discussing fertility such as egg or sperm count. Instead, the decline is mainly attributed to the participation of women in the labor force and in pursuing their education. Thus, leading to women choosing to have fewer children.
During the 1960s, women were having 5.5 children in their lifetime, on average. On a global level, this figure has been declining and is reported to be around 2.64 in 2019 while the GDP has been increasing. According to experts, if the average fertility rate falls below 2.1, approximately, the size of the population will start to fall worldwide. We observe that countries with higher GDP have lower fertility rates. On a global level, as GDP and women empowerment/ involvement in the labor force increases, the fertility rate decreases.
Allocating resources to encourage families, namely women, to get more children might help mitigate the decline in fertility rates. We observe that countries that have higher fertility rates (mainly in Africa) have the highest percentage of self-employed females. This might be attributed to the fact that women, in general, find it difficult to balance a full-time job and having several children. Thus emphasizing the correlation between fertility rates and the participation of women in the labor force, since females find it easier to be self-employed when having children in comparison to having a 9 to 5 job.
The resources that might contribute to encouraging couples to start/ grow their family are the following:
Passing laws that give parents enough/better maternity and paternity leaves.
Passing laws that require employers to give better parenthood benefits in labor-force participation as a part of the employee benefits package.
Passing laws that increase the investment of resources allocated to opening childcare facilities that have long opening hours.
Passing laws that further develop/ strengthen the social security system.
Denmark has successfully managed to increase fertility rates according to an article published by Forbes: “Denmark, with its heavily subsidized, always-available daycare, generous parental leave shared by both parents, and a culture ordered around community and family life rather than work, hit the “sweet spot” of replacement-level fertility rates.” We observe an overall increasing trend in the fertility rate from 1983 till 2020. Even though some years have witnessed a decline in child births during this time frame, the trend is overall increasing, especially in comparison to the birth rates from 1966 to 1983.
Denmark has proven that by allocating funds to invest in resources that facilitate finding a balance between having a family/ raising children and simultaneously participating in the labor force or pursuing degrees of higher education, fertility rates will improve.
