Summary

This book assesses feasible financing strategies for policymakers to follow in pursuance of human development, taking as reference the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and their achievement by 2015. The contributors to this book analyze these strategies in the context of broader concerns of economic development with special reference to nine countries from Africa, Asia and the Middle East; that is, how to make macroeconomic policies support more effectively sustained growth while reducing widespread poverty and inequalities and other human development gaps in low- and middle-income countries, especially in times of global economic crises or external shocks. For Arab states in the Middle East and North Africa, in particular, recent political turmoil is posing new challenges for human development and social stability. In this sense, this book adds new evidence regarding the social deficits in these countries and suggests policy options to overcome these.

Related Subject(s): Economic and Social Development