Verbreitete Armut ist nach wie vor eines der zentralen Probleme der arabischen Entwicklungsländer, das nicht nur auf begrenzte Erwerbsmöglichkeiten und geringe Einkommen zurückgeht. Große Teile der Bevölkerung verarmen auch deshalb immer wieder, weil sie keinen adäquaten Zugang zu...

The generous social health protection systems that Arab governments have built up during the 1960s and 1970s continue to exist but they lack the funds needed to function in the way they did twenty years ago. Even more serious however is the fact that available funds are inefficiently distributed...

Social protection schemes in Arab countries show deficits regarding efficiency and social fairness. Some Arab countries spend a fifth of their GDP on social protection but the bulk of funds goes to a relatively small group of urban middle income earners or is lost on half-way for administrative...

Human development laggs considerably behind economic development in all Arab countries. Countries with similar per-capita income levels in other parts of the world score on average much better with regards to most indicators for education, helath, social protection, sanitation and other elements...

The article’s subject is social protection in the Arab world. Giving the example of Egypt, it asks why poverty is so widespread and why – despite the country’s numerous sophisticated social protection systems – social risks are a major contributing factor to it. It concludes that reforms...

Due to the modernisation of societies, traditional social security systems are getting weaker and less reliable. The state must therefore step in and provide social protection to its citizens. Whether they effectively do or not depends on their financial and technical capacities adn on the...