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28 March 2024

Unemployment, job creation biggest challenges facing Arab governments

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By WAM

Fighting unemployment, development of human capital and preparing administrative leaders have become the main challenges facing Arab countries and governments, said Dr. Ali Mohamed Al Khouri, Director-General of the Emirates Identity Authority [Eida].

Dr. Al Khouri said facing these challenges, with more than 55 million job seekers in the Arab World, requires Arab governments and their institutions to quickly set national plans and effective and solid programmes to fortify their social security.

He pointed out that the UAE comes in the leading position among Arab countries in terms of adopting and launching initiatives aimed at reducing unemployment rate and increasing nationalization percentage.

Al Khouri was presenting a paper titled ‘Human Capital Development in the Arab World’ at the ‘Government HR Summit 2013’, which commenced on Sunday in Abu Dhabi.

In his paper, Dr. Al Khouri said the dynamic and fast-paced change the world is witnessing today, required governments and organisations to invest in their human resources as their human capital to produce productive forces that contribute in their societies' progress and prosperity.

He added that transforming from the concept of human resources to the concept of "human capital" requires linking individual goals to organisational objectives. This should help organisations achieve their missions and visions and implement their plans successfully through elevating their employees' efficiency and performance, boosting institutional values and encouraging employees to be innovative and creative.

Dr. Al Khouri called for consistent focus on aligning educational outcomes with the job market requirements and the knowledge economy enablers. This should be done in parallel to the provision of incentives that help motivate citizens to work at the private sector.

He indicated that the private sector has a vital role in the job market, thus it has become important to involve it in devising policies and plans in this regard, noting that it is also imperative to engage the young forces in the development process, adopt the best management practices which focus on improving employees and leadership skills, building the knowledge economy and paying attention to excellence programmes that lay the foundations for a major change in the traditional concepts and practices related to work.

Dr. Al Khouri stated that the common challenges facing employment market in most Arab countries include the lack of optimisation of the national workforce, preference of government jobs, brain drain, the rise in unemployment rates among the youths, un-alignment of educational outcomes with work requirement and population growth. The population in the Arab countries is expected to increase to around 600 million by 2050 compared to 128 million in 1970.

Referring to a recent study by the American Government, Dr. Al Khouri noted that the number of job seekers in the Arab World is currently around 55 million and that the Arab population is projected to increase from 360 million to 480 million by 2030. These facts require creation of around 140 million jobs in 15 years, which consequently requires annual investment of around $14 trillion to provide these jobs.

Dr. Al Khouri called upon all government and private organisations to launch initiatives to manage change in their policies related to investment in human resources. This should contribute in achieving sustainable development, supporting the transformation into smart government and knowledge economy and enhancing UAE's global competitiveness.

He underlined that the biggest challenge faced by public and private entities is the service outlook and the adoption of citizen centric operations. Providing attraction and satisfaction elements are necessary to motivate citizens to work where they are desired to work Dr. Al Khouri called for giving the space for creativity, consolidating job loyalty, improving internal work environment, eliminating work policies and investing in preparing the promising leaders and employees, particularly among those who believe in team work.

He urged government organisations to adopt a multi-stage long term strategies to manage their human resources, and to re-structure the way they think and their values related to work and employment in general in light of the global competitiveness requirements.

According to Al Khouri, the main three challenges facing HR are: the effectiveness of the leadership and its engagement in service development and investment in human resources, employment of talents and skills and manage their development, and the knowledge capabilities of human resources and how much they are able to analyze, communicate, plan and involve in team work.