As the Arab spring celebrated throughout the world comes into the heat of summer, many analysts and policymakers are watching events unfold and wondering how to stabilise the shifting seas they see before them. There can be little doubt that the calls for change in the largely youth-led uprisings reflect a demand for dignity and freedom from a generation that will no longer be ignored.
Gallup has been working with Doha-based Silatech to study the opinions of young people (aged 15 to 29) each year in 20 countries in the Arab League and the Somaliland region of Somalia. Through our work, it is clear that the most important catalyst for sustaining change and turning the tide for young people is a focus on job creation. If we can get young people working and integrated into the economies of their home countries, we can give them the dignity they deserve and show them the respect they have earned.
Inequity and injustice overshadow the economic and social realities that ordinary Arabs face in their daily lives. In Egypt and Tunisia, the only two nations that have successfully overthrown their former leaders, GDP has consistently increased over the past five to eight years. Traditionally, classical economics would see this increase as a positive sign of growth. Over the same period, however, Egyptians and Tunisians reported rapidly declining wellbeing in Gallup worldwide research, underscoring the vast inequalities in these two economies.
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