Knowledge
“Without a strong and growing contemporary knowledge base of their own, Arab countries will be absorbed into the international knowledge society as passive consumers of other countries’ proprietary knowledge, technology and services.“
Arab Human Development Report 2003
The AHDR series identified knowledge as a cornerstone of human development: a means of expanding people’s capabilities and a tool for overcoming human poverty. Despite the presence of significant human capital in the region, many constraints hamper the acquisition, diffusion and production of knowledge in Arab societies. The Report affirms that knowledge can help the region expand the scope of human freedoms, enhance the capacity to guarantee those freedoms through better governance, and achieve the higher moral human goals of justice and human dignity.
Towards this goal, UNDP has launched regional projects to promote the strengthening of the regional knowledge base and facilitate data and knowledge sharing, including:
The Arab Development Portal (ADP) is a unique knowledge platform that hosts a multi-source and bilingual development database on Arab countries, developed in partnership with the Coordination Group of Arab Funds. With advanced tools for data browsing, extraction, and visualization, the portal offers the latest available data on 14 topics and includes around 6,500 indicators.
The Knowledge Project has produced quantitative and qualitative evidence on the state of knowledge and knowledge-based development in the Arab States region and beyond, in partnership with the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Knowledge Foundation (MBRF). Its flagship publication, the Future of Knowledge Foresight Report, aspires to encourage proactive leadership among all nations to ensure sustainable and continued re/upskilling of workforces. The Knowledge project also offers a digital hub on knowledge topics with advanced data visualization tools.
