51which was composed mainly o employ-
ees in the public and security sectors
and which had historically been the
biggest defender o the status quo. By
2010, 40.3 million people in the Arab
region were either at risk o or suering
from multidimensional poverty, as
dened by the and the Oxford
Poverty and Human Development
Initiative (). Between 2000 and
2009, overall living standards declined
across the region, as did levels o health
and education. In Egypt, the percent-
age o people living below the national
poverty line rose from 16.7 percent in
2000 to 22.0 percent in 2008; in Yemen,
the poverty rate rose from 34.8 percent
in 2005 to 42.8 percent in 2009.
The withdrawal o public-sector
employment guarantees and the reduc-
tion in the range and quality o public
services resulted in a number o inter-
connected development challenges.
Although literacy and school enrollment
increased overall, education did not
translate into opportunity. Between 1998
and 2008, the number o unemployed
youth in the Middle East increased by
25 percent, with that increase concen-
trated among the better educated. By
2010, one in four o the region’s young
people were unemployed, the highest
rate in the world. The paucity o em-
ployment opportunities forced millions
o men and women to turn to the
informal economy, where workers
typically earn low pay, have unstable
incomes, and lack basic social protec-
tions, such as health insurance and
pensions. In 2009, at least 40 percent o
nonagricultural workers in Algeria,
Egypt, Morocco, and Tunisia were
employed in the informal economy; in
Syria, the number was 20 percent.PARDEE SCHOOL
Frederick S. Pardee
School of Global Studiesbu.edu/PardeeSchool @BUPardeeSchoolYour global
journey
begins
OF
MR
RE
PR^
ESI
DE
NT(^) OF
LA
TV
IA,
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IRA
(^) VIK
E-FR
EIBE
RGA,
VISITS
THE PARDEE SCHOOL.^
O ering a
ONE YEAR MA
in International
Relations.
FA 51_rev.indd 1 9/23/19 9:56 AM