Middle East

Aug 10, 2023

Arab youth say religion and family define their personal identity and most are concerned about the loss of traditional values

Over half (54%) of Arab youth say the Arabic language is less important to them than it is to their parents Nearly two-thirds (62%) say the laws of their country should be based on Sharia

Dubai, UAE, August 9, 2023: Arab youth say religion and their family or tribe define their personal identity, with most saying that preserving their religious and cultural identity is more important to them than creating a more tolerant, liberal, and globalised society.

This is one of the key findings under the theme ‘My Identity’ of the 15th annual ASDA’A BCW Arab Youth Survey, the most comprehensive study of its kind of the Arab world’s largest demographic, its over 200 million youth, conducted by ASDA’A BCW, the Middle East and North Africa’s leading communications consultancy.

When asked what defines their personal identity, ‘my religion’ and ‘my family/tribe’ were each named by 27% of respondents overall, followed by ‘my nationality’ (15%), ‘my language’ (11%), ‘my Arabic heritage’ (8%), ‘my gender’ (7%) and ‘my political beliefs’ (4%).

Religion was named as most important to personal identity by 30% of the respondents in Levant, 27% in North Africa, and 25% in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states, while family/tribe was deemed most important by 37% of youth in North Africa, 21% in Levant and 20% in the GCC.

Over three-quarters (76%) of Arab youth said they are concerned about the loss of traditional values and culture, the highest percentage saying so in five years, while nearly two-thirds (65%) said preserving their religious and cultural identity is more important to them than creating a more tolerant, liberal, and globalised society. This sentiment rises to nearly 74% in Levant, 72% in the GCC states and 68% in North Africa.

Interestingly, while 11% said language is most important to their identity, over half (54%) of the respondents said the Arabic language is less important to them than it is to their parents. This trend is seen across the three regions surveyed, with 59% of GCC youth, 51% in North Africa and 52% in Levant all saying it is less important to them.

Reflecting the importance they place on their faith, a majority (73%) disagreed that religious values are holding the Arab world back, but nearly two-thirds (65%) said religion plays too big a role in the Middle East. Fewer Arab youth than in previous years feel the region needs to reform its religious institutions – down to 58% this year from 77% last year. This year, the face-to-face interviews with Arab youth were conducted from March 27 to April 12, coinciding with the Holy Month of Ramadan.

This sense of young Arabs embracing their religious identity is further reinforced by the finding that nearly two-thirds (62%) say the laws of their country should be based on Sharia standards and not civil or common law. This sentiment is consistent across the three regions covered, with 68% in GCC, 53% in North Africa and 68% in Levant saying they prefer Sharia laws to govern their nations.

Sunil John, President, MENA, BCW and Founder of ASDA’A BCW, said: “These findings reveal that Generation Z remain guided by faith, with their affinity toward their religion stronger than ever and many being concerned about what they see as the loss of traditional values and culture. What is evident is that Arab youth increasingly view their personal identity through the lens of religion, family and nationality.”

“Another compelling finding is that the Arabic language is not as integral to their sense of tradition or their cultural values as one might have thought, with a majority of young people across the Arab world agreeing that the Arabic language is less important to them than it is to their parents,” John added.

“The loss in importance given by Arab youth to the Arabic language is inevitably a symptom of the pervasive spread of the internet and social media. It is a cause for concern, most importantly, because of the Arabic language’s potentially diminished role as a unifying force among Arab nations.”

ASDA’A BCW commissioned SixthFactor Consulting, a leading research company, to conduct the 15th edition of the Arab Youth Survey through face-to-face interviews with 3,600 Arab citizens aged 18 to 24 in their home nations, the largest sample in the survey’s history.

The survey covered 53 cities across 18 Arab states, including for the first time South Sudan. The interviews were conducted in person rather than online to maximise accuracy and to reflect the nuances of Arab youth opinion across the region as much as possible.

‘My Identity’ is the fourth sub-theme of the 2023 ASDA’A BCW Arab Youth Survey, whose overarching theme is ‘Living a New Reality’. Findings on ‘Global Citizenship’ were announced in June, followed by ‘My Politics’ and ‘My Livelihood’ in July.

Insights into the lifestyle of Arab youth, as well as their perceptions on topics as diverse as climate change, mental health and gender will be revealed in the coming weeks, making this year’s survey the most comprehensive in its 15-year history.

All the published findings are freely available with expert commentaries at arabyouthsurvey.com

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Jul 18, 2023

Nearly half of Arab youth aspire to start their own business in the next five years: 15th annual ASDA’A BCW Arab Youth Survey

Entrepreneurial spirit strongest among GCC youth, with majority (58%) saying it is easy to start a business in their country Arab youth say financial incentives and better training programmes would encourage more of them to start a business More young Arab men and women prefer to work in the private sector than pursue government jobs

 Dubai, UAE, July 18, 2023: The Arab world has a promising opportunity to promote youth entrepreneurship with nearly half of young Arabs saying they plan to start their own business in the next five years. This entrepreneurial zeal also reflects an increased preference to work for the private sector rather than the government.

These are some of the notable findings of the landmark 15th annual ASDA’A BCW Arab Youth Survey, the largest study of its kind of the Arab world’s largest demographic, its over 200 million youth, by ASDA’A BCW, the Middle East and North Africa’s leading communications consultancy.

Youth unemployment in the region is one of the highest in the world at over 26% with nearly one in three youth (32%) aged 15 to 24 not engaged in employment, education or training, according to a World Bank report. The United Nations observed that the region must create 33.3 million jobs by 2030 to absorb the large number of young people entering the workforce, a daunting task that governments must take forward with urgency.

ASDA’A BCW commissioned SixthFactor Consulting, a leading research company, to conduct face-to-face interviews with 3,600 Arab citizens aged 18 to 24 in their home nations from March 27 to April 12, 2023.

The largest sample in the survey’s history covered 53 cities across 18 Arab states, including for the first time South Sudan. The interviews were conducted face to face rather than online to maximise accuracy and to reflect the nuances of Arab youth opinion across the region as much as possible.

Exploring Arab youth attitudes on their future careers, the survey found that 42% of young Arab men and women would like to start their own business in the next five years. This desire was strongest in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states (53%), followed by the Levant (39%) and North Africa (37%).

GCC youth were also more upbeat about their chances of going into business themselves, with 58% saying that starting a business in their country was ‘very easy/somewhat easy’. This compares with 79% of youth in the Levant and 73% in North Africa who said it was ‘very difficult/somewhat difficult’ to start a business in their country.

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According to the research, tax breaks, reduced fees for startups, enhanced training and education, and government-backed loans would encourage more youth to become entrepreneurs. When it comes to their preferred industry, 15% of the sample said they wanted to start a business in the tech sector, followed by e-commerce (13%), the creative industries (11%), manufacturing (11%), real estate (10%), the food business (9%), and retail, hospitality and education (7% each).

Growing preference for private sector jobs

One of the significant trends that the survey has documented over the years is the increasing preference of Arab youth for private sector jobs over a career in government.

Compared to nearly half of all respondents in 2019 who said that they preferred to work in the government sector, less than a third (30%) feel the same now. Meanwhile, a third (33%) of Arab youth said they would prefer to work in business, a 13% increase from 2022.

One in four (25%) young Arabs now say they want to work for themselves or their family, a slight decline since last year (28%), but a six-percentage point jump from 2019. Meanwhile, 11% said they preferred to work for a non-profit organisation.

Sunil John, President, MENA, BCW and Founder of ASDA’A BCW, said: “The fact that Arab youth are eager to start their own business is an encouraging sign, but it is also a natural response to the great difficulty in certain countries to find stable employment. Policymakers and the business community itself must do more to support those young men and women willing to do it alone.”

“Meanwhile, the increasing diversification of the GCC economies is casting the private sector in a positive new light,” John added. “This is a promising trend for the long-term sustainability of the regional economy and a potential source of jobs and opportunity for Arab youth outside the Arabian Gulf.”

“However, this growing interest in a business career must be matched by companies themselves, with recruitment and career development pathways introduced to empower the region’s rapidly evolving Arab national workforce,” John said.

In the coming weeks, ASDA’A BCW will publish insights under the three remaining themes covered in the study: My Identity, covering religion and issues of personal identity; My Aspirations, the hopes of young Arabs for the future; and My Lifestyle, highlighting their habits, pastimes, and the media they consume. Findings on climate change, mental health and gender rights will also be disclosed, making this year’s study the most extensive in the survey’s history. The overall theme of the 15th edition of the ASDA’A BCW Arab Youth Survey is ‘Living a New Reality’.

To know more about the findings, log on to arabyouthsurvey.com

 

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Jul 18, 2023

Confidence of Arab youth in government outside the GCC drops: 15th annual ASDA’A BCW Arab Youth Survey

Following the launch of the survey’s first theme, ‘My Global Citizenship,’ ASDA’A BCW unveils findings under two new themes, ‘My Politics’ and ‘My Livelihood’ Findings highlight stark divide in the perceptions of youth in the GCC states compared with their counterparts in North Africa and Levant Two-thirds of Arab youth in North Africa and Levant say their voice does not matter to their country’s leadership, a significant drop from 2022 Rising cost of living and unemployment continue to be the biggest concerns for Arab youth

 Dubai, UAE, July 18, 2023: Nearly two-thirds of Arab youth outside the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries lack confidence in their government’s ability to tackle their most pressing concerns such as unemployment, corruption, and rising living costs.

More than half (54%) of the total respondents also felt their voice did not matter to their country’s leadership. This is a significant drop of 19 percentage points over 2022 in the number of young Arabs who said their voice matters to their leadership. This feeling of estrangement, primarily driven by young people in North Africa and Levant, is also the most pronounced in five years.

These are some of the key findings of the landmark 15th annual ASDA’A BCW Arab Youth Survey, the most comprehensive study of its kind of the Arab world’s largest demographic, its over 200 million youth, by ASDA’A BCW, the Middle East and North Africa’s leading communications consultancy.

ASDA’A BCW commissioned SixthFactor Consulting, a leading research company, to conduct face-to-face interviews with 3,600 Arab citizens aged 18 to 24 in their home nations from March 27 to April 12, 2023. The largest sample in the survey’s history was equally divided between men and women in 53 cities across a total of 18 Arab states, including for the first time South Sudan. The interviews were conducted in person rather than online to maximise accuracy and to reflect the nuances of Arab youth opinion across the region as much as possible.

This year, the survey’s findings are being released under six themes, with the first, ‘My Global Citizenship’ announced in June. Today, ASDA’A BCW published key insights under the second and third themes: ‘My Politics’ and ‘My Livelihood’, which highlighted a stark contrast in the outlook of young men and women in the Arabian Gulf and those in North Africa and Levant.

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GCC governments showing the way on policy

More than three-quarters (78%) of Arab youth in the GCC states say they agree that their voice matters to their leadership while a full 87% say their government has the right policies to address their most important concerns.

Arab youth across the sample identified unemployment, government corruption, rising living costs, economic instability and climate change among the top concerns facing them and the region. GCC youth expressed strong confidence in their government to address all these issues.

Nearly all (98%) young Emiratis said they were confident of their government’s ability to address unemployment. Youth had a similarly positive outlook in Saudi Arabia (70%), Oman (67%), Kuwait (64%) and Bahrain (61%). Unsurprisingly, only 20% of GCC youth said it would be difficult to find a job in their country.

Young men and women in the GCC also expressed confidence in their government to address corruption. This was the view of 97% of youth in the UAE, 84% in Oman, 82% in Bahrain, 69% in Saudi Arabia and 56% in Kuwait.

Similarly, 98% of Emirati youth said they were confident that their government could manage the rising cost of living, compared with 66% of young Arabs in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, 64% in Oman, and 57% in Kuwait. Only 15% of GCC youth said they struggled to pay their expenses in full, though 16% said they were in debt, with student loans (25%), car loans (15%), marriage loans (11%) and excessive shopping (9%) cited as the main reasons.

All Emirati youth polled said they were confident that their government could ensure economic stability; high levels of confidence on economic management were also found in Saudi Arabia (82%), Oman and Kuwait (73% each) and Bahrain (67%). More than half (52%) of GCC youth also said there was no government corruption in their country, although 44% said there was ‘some’ corruption.

Youth in the GCC also trust their government to take action on climate change, with 97% of Emirati youth, 75% of young Saudis, 80% in Oman, 77% in Bahrain and 66% in Kuwait expressing confidence in the climate policies of their leaders. This positivity reflects widespread optimism about the future, with 83% of GCC youth saying their country was going in the right direction.

Government in North Africa and Levant unresponsive to Arab youth

A contrasting picture emerges from North Africa and the Levant countries. Only a third of youth surveyed in these regions said their voice mattered to their leadership, while 63% in North Africa and 66% in Levant said their governments did not have the right policies to address their most important concerns.

Nearly two-thirds (61%) of youth in North Africa and about three-quarters (71%) of Levantine youth said their country was going in the wrong direction. Just four in ten (38%) young Arabs in North Africa were confident that their government could address unemployment, while in Levant, which has among the world’s highest levels of youth unemployment, only a third (32%) said their government was able to address the issue. More than half of youth in Levant (57%) and North Africa (50%) said it was difficult to find a job in their country.

While a significant 41% of youth in North Africa said they were confident their government could deliver economic stability, less than a third (31%) of youth in the Levant said the same.

They were similarly downbeat on the ability of their government to tackle inflation, with 41% of North African youth and a third (33%) in Levant saying they didn’t trust their leaders to manage rising living costs. And nearly half of the study sample in both regions said they struggled to pay their expenses in full, with a quarter (27%) of youth in Levant and 19% in North Africa admitting they were in debt – student loans, medical bills, credit card bills and car loans were mostly responsible.

On climate change, 46% of youth in North Africa and 39% of their peers in the Levant said they were confident their government could address the issue. When it comes to eradicating corruption, 40% of North African youth and 28% of young people in Levant said they had faith in their government.

Graft is widely acknowledged by Arab youth to be a concern in the region, with a third (33%) of the total respondents to the survey saying there was ‘widespread government corruption’ in their country. This sentiment is particularly strong in North Africa (87%) and Levant (89%).

Sunil John, President, MENA, BCW and Founder of ASDA’A BCW, said: “What stands out in this year’s survey is the fact that, once again, young GCC citizens are poles apart from their fellow Arabs in North Africa and the Levant.”

“Over the past 15 years, our research has been a barometer of the hopes and fears of Arab youth in countries outside the Arabian Gulf, particularly on kitchen table issues such as jobs and rising living costs. A path to a better future for these young men and women must be found if we are to ensure the Arab world’s precious youth dividend is not lost.

“It is no small matter that the GCC nations are economically stronger, oil-producing nations, while the countries in North Africa and Levant – in particular, Lebanon, Iraq, Palestinian Territories, Syria, Sudan and Yemen – are conflict-ridden and only recovering from long years of a ravaging war.”

John said that the spirit of youth optimism emerging from the GCC states showed that realising such a future was possible. “The fact that three-quarters of GCC youth believe their voice matters to their leadership, compared to barely a third in North Africa and Levant is telling. It shows that GCC governments understand the pulse of their youth.”

In the coming weeks, ASDA’A BCW will publish insights under the three remaining themes covered in the study: My Identity, covering religion and issues of personal identity; My Aspirations, the hopes of young Arabs for the future; and My Lifestyle, highlighting their habits, pastimes, and the media they consume.  Findings on climate change, mental health and gender rights will also be disclosed, making this year’s study the most extensive in the survey’s history. The overall theme of the 15th edition of the ASDA’A BCW Arab Youth Survey is ‘Living a New Reality’.

To know more about the findings, log on to arabyouthsurvey.com

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Jul 12, 2023

Arab youth will be the first to live with a new multipolar reality

Read the commentary on the findings of the 15th annual ASDA’A BCW Arab Youth Survey under the emerging theme, ‘My Global Citizenship’ by Faisal Al Yafai, partner at Hildebrand Nord. 

Living in a multipolar world will come about – as Ernest Hemingway said about going bankrupt – gradually, and then suddenly. The latest ASDA’A BCW Arab Youth Survey shows clearly that the Arab world is living through the “gradually” part of the process.

This shifting reality is already apparent, but it takes an effort to detect it as a trend. One of the outcomes of a long-established survey like the Arab Youth Survey is that, over time, trends that weren’t immediately obvious become clearer through the data.

This year, one of the major findings is just how embedded a new, global multipolarity is. Looking at which countries Arab youth considered allies and which enemies throws up some intriguing answers.

At the top, more an ally than any other country outside the region, is Turkey, followed swiftly by China. The US, the UK and France are trending downwards. In microcosm, this shift reflects what is happening across the world, as the “rest” catch up with the “West”. As a region that straddles three of the major centres of the world, the Middle East was one of the first to feel its effects. As it develops, the Arab world, and of course Arab youth, will be the first to live with the reality of a multipolar world.

In some ways it is already becoming a reality – witness the China-brokered deal earlier this year to restore Saudi Arabia’s relations with Iran.

But it’s becoming a reality in other ways as well. While certainly true that the politics of Turkey’s involvement in the region, as well as China’s, play a role in the perception of Arab youth, it’s also the case that culture matters too. The two often go hand in hand. Turkey’s cultural exports in film, television and music are avidly consumed by young Arabs. As for China, the country is becoming a vital source of tourists. Saudi Arabia, for example, which has a young population, plans to bring in more than 4 million Chinese tourists by the end of this decade. Such links change the perception of the country.

A more complicated geopolitical landscape

This multipolarity will not look like the past, when the twin poles of the US and the Soviet Union existed during the Cold War. Instead, it will be more complicated.

Like most of the world, the Middle East lives with the extraordinary military dominance of the United States. Little wonder that the survey found America to be the country with the most influence over the region, by a wide margin.

That this influence is broadly considered negative is shown in a follow-up question, which found that a majority of Arab youth want the US to disengage from the region. (That belief was tempered in the GCC, with only a slim majority, 53%, wanting US disengagement.)

Yet, as always, the picture is more complicated. Look at two of the survey’s findings.

First, asked to name which country young Arabs would most like to live in or have their countries emulate, a clear majority chose the UAE. (No surprise there: young Arabs have said they admire the country ever since the ASDA’A BCW Arab Youth Survey introduced the question in 2012.) But the second most popular country this year was the United States.

The reasons why the UAE topped the list offers indications as to why the US is respected. Among the top associations were safety, a growing economy and ease of doing business – all associations that could also apply to the United States. More evidence can be found in the question about which country will be a stronger ally. Here, there was a tilt towards the US, but only just.

Almost exactly the same percentage thought the US would be a stronger ally than Russia (66%) as thought the US would be a stronger ally than China (62%). Put another way, there was a preference for the US, but not much for Russia or China.

This demonstrates the messiness of multipolarity. Arab youth admire many things about the US, but also dislike its excessive involvement in the region. But it also highlights how countries that seek to rival the US in some spheres aren’t interested in doing so in others. Neither China nor Russia wishes to supplant the US from the Middle East – yet in some spheres, they are rivals. An emerging multipolar world will be much harder to understand, and perhaps navigate.

Allies and adversaries in focus

In general, the allies and adversaries are mirror images of each other, with the country considered mostly an ally (Turkey) also ranking least as an adversary, and the country considered mostly an adversary (Israel) also ranking the least as an ally. But for two countries this isn’t true, India and Pakistan, reflecting the more nuanced position these two Asian countries find themselves in vis a vis Arab youth – and perhaps also reflecting the long, deep and complex ties these two countries have with the Gulf States, with Iraq and with other countries.

If Arab youth still see other Arab countries as allies – and the strongest allies named by Arab nations were always other Arab nations – then the non-Arab countries of the Middle East occupy a more nuanced position. Of the three main non-Arab countries in the Middle East – Turkey, Iran and Israel – Turkey has the strongest position.

Iran and Israel, by contrast but not unexpectedly, are viewed in less flattering terms by Arab youth. In only three Arab countries is there more than 50% support for normalisation with Israel – Egypt, Morocco and the UAE – and in the majority of countries there is far less.

On Iran, a majority of Arab youth in every region believe there will be military conflict between Iran, Israel and the West. That the highest figure is in the Levant, where this proxy war is already playing out, shouldn’t be a surprise. But the fact that North Africa, which is hardly a traditional battleground for Iranian-Israeli tensions, should score so highly is a surprise.

An emerging global citizenship

What will be the consequences of this shift to multipolarity, especially as it pertains to young Arabs? Some we’ve already touched on: an expanding cultural diet and political connections, which will no doubt lead to shifting work opportunities. The number of young Arabs learning Mandarin and taking jobs in Shanghai will certainly expand. I also expect a similar expansion of the number of Arabs learning Turkish – leading, no doubt, to thundering newspaper columns about “Ottoman” influence. In time, these changes will also shift the politics of the region, as the cultural influence stretches into political alignments.

But the major shift will be one of mindset. A world in which young Arabs consider countries beyond the Middle East and the West allies will also shift how they think of themselves. A new, more global citizenship will not emerge overnight. But the shoots of it are already apparent in how young Arabs view this emerging world. How they navigate it will be one of the most exciting aspects to observe.

ENDS

Faisal Al Yafai is a partner at Hildebrand Nord, International Editor at New Lines Magazine in Washington, DC, and a playwright. He has worked as a journalist in several Middle Eastern countries and was previously an investigative journalist for The Guardian in London and a documentary journalist for the BBC. He has reported from across the Middle East, from Eastern Europe and Africa.

 

 

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Jun 22, 2023

Giving Arab youth a voice for the past 15 years

By Sunil John

In November 2008, when ASDA’A BCW launched its first annual Arab Youth Survey, the world was living through a period of dramatic change. President Barack Obama was about to start his first term and the mood was one of hope after years of war in Iraq and Afghanistan. But just as he was about to take office, the global financial crisis struck, and its aftershocks soon reverberated around the world, from Wall Street to Main Street, and on to the Arab Street.

In the decade before the downturn, the Arabian Gulf nations had enjoyed an economic boom. The city of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates was synonymous with these heady days, labelled by some Western observers as the ‘City on the Hill’ and a ‘Beacon of Hope’ in a region more readily associated with conflict and civil unrest.

In other Middle Eastern countries, however, long-standing enmities had worsened. The Palestinian-Israeli crisis had deepened. Iraq had been battered by a wave of insurgent attacks. Libya, Egypt, Tunisia and Yemen were restive.

The Arab youth dividend at risk

Amidst a rising tide of public dissatisfaction, populist movements were gaining ground, in Egypt, Tunisia and other Arab countries, although they were largely ignored, or unseen, by most policymakers and the international media.

However, the risk of the Middle East losing its precious ‘youth dividend’ was clearly visible to us at ASDA’A BCW, the region’s leading communications consultancy.

While UN data pointed to double-digit youth unemployment rates, reliable attitudinal research was lacking. The need to create 100 million jobs was a much-debated topic on the conference circuit, but youth themselves were rarely part of the conversation.

That was when we saw the critical need for a survey that attempted to understand the hearts and minds of Arab youth, the Middle East’s largest demographic. Around 60% of the Arab world’s population, some 200 million young men and women, are below the age of 30. In 2008, we launched the annual ASDA’A BCW Arab Youth Survey to give them a voice.

Our rationale was clear: accurate insights lead to carefully considered policies and social and economic conditions in which youth can thrive.

Predicting the Arab Spring

The first ASDA’A BCW Arab Youth Survey on the hopes, concerns and aspirations of young men and women aged 18 to 24 was well received. However, the real significance of our research would become apparent a year later, when we announced that the top priority of Arab youth was living in a democratic country. They also demanded better access to quality education, a fair wage, and safer communities.

The following December, Tarek el-Tayeb Mohammed Bouazizi’s self-immolation sparked the overthrow of the Tunisian government and the onset of regime change in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen. The Arab Spring changed the Arab world forever, and the rest of the world along with it.

The perception of our annual study was also transformed. Having accurately identified the factors behind the most significant upheaval in the Middle East for a generation, the annual ASDA’A BCW Arab Youth Survey became a respected bellwether of Arab youth opinion.

Mapping evolving priorities

Each year, our study throws a spotlight on the outlook of the Arab world’s largest demographic, their shifting mindset, and evolving priorities. In 2012, fair pay and home ownership were deemed more important than living in a democracy. In 2013, a new spirit of optimism had taken hold, with the majority of those surveyed convinced their best days lay ahead.

In 2014, we found that confidence in government had risen. Two years later, however, less than half of Arab youth said they trusted their national government to manage surging terrorism and the threat of ISIS (Daesh).

In 2017, our study observed waning youth optimism and a growing divergence in the views of youth in the oil-rich Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states and those in the conflict-stricken countries of North Africa and the Levant.

The consensus in 2018 was that the Arab world was drifting off course. Once again, young men and women across the region were demanding urgent action on jobs, education, corruption, and Islamic extremism. The call for reform grew even louder in 2019, with even religious institutions coming in for criticism.

In 2020, the year of the COVID-19 pandemic, confidence was arguably at its lowest ebb, with nearly half of Arab youth surveyed saying they had considered emigrating from their country. There were also heightened fears that a prolonged shut-down would lead to further political unrest, as our one-off Pulse Survey at the peak of the crisis indicated.

Predictably, in 2021, with the danger of COVID-19 starting to recede, our survey documented the renewed confidence of Arab youth. The following year, the yearning of Arab youth for stability – to chart a new course after a decade of uncertainty and upheaval – was unmistakable. In fact, it was even stronger than the desire of Arab youth for democratic change, a striking reversal in attitudes since 2009.

The rise of Gen Z

Significantly, all our sample in this year’s Arab Youth Survey belong to the post-Millennial generation born after 1997, also known as Generation Z. They are coming to terms with the events of the past 15 years: the civil wars in Syria, Libya and Yemen, the rise and fall of ISIS (Daesh), the COVID-19 pandemic, near all-time high unemployment, accelerating digitalisation, and the existential threat of climate change.

What shines through is the sense that today’s generation of Arab youth are Living a New Reality – the overarching theme of this year’s survey – where geopolitical allegiances are realigning, where attitudes to the region’s long-standing conflicts are diverging, and where perspectives on what constitute a ‘model nation’ are becoming more nuanced.

For our 15th annual ASDA’A BCW Arab Youth Survey, we have decided to release the findings in stages under separate themes: My Global Citizenship, My Politics, My Livelihood, My Identity, My Aspirations, and My Lifestyle. This is because, as many of you told us, the volume of data we collect each year is now simply too large to be published in a single launch.

Accordingly, we examine the findings under the first of our six themes, ‘My Global Citizenship.’

As I reflect on the first 15 years of the ASDA’A BCW Arab Youth Survey, it is astonishing to me that we have conducted nearly 45,000 face-to-face interviews across the Arab world to date, and now reach 18 Arab states. This is an incredible source of knowledge and data, which we fund entirely ourselves and make freely available to all.

We will continue to provide Arab youth a voice through our survey. As the region charts a course toward a more peaceful and sustainable future for the region and the world, it is incumbent upon us all to listen to them.

 

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Jan 4, 2023

Youthful optimism can help overcome our challenges

By Sunil John

One of the insights from our 14th annual ASDA’A BCW Arab Youth Survey this year was that many young Arabs see footballers as their role models. When polled between May and June, Arab youth cited Egyptian striker Mohamed Salah and Saudi Arabian legend Majed Abdullah as two of the public figures they admired the most.

Fast forward to December, with Morocco achieving a historic fourth place in the 2022 Fifa World Cup in Qatar, and Saudi Arabia beating the eventual winners, Argentina, in an earlier qualifying match, it is safe to say that even more young Arab men and women will be citing footballers as their role models in the next edition of our research.

The story of the football prowess of North African and Middle Eastern nations at this year’s tournament was a welcome change from the usual news coverage of the region.

Ironically, it revealed something our annual study has consistently shown – a confident, ambitious population more than capable of holding their own when given a level playing field.

Today, Arab youth seek stability and opportunities for progress as eagerly as they do greater civil liberties. And despite seemingly impossible odds at times, most believe they will have a better life than their parents.

It is apposite to describe the joy of sport as a distraction, particularly in the Arab world. Arab youth may well be optimistic and football mad, but they are hardly oblivious to the challenges confronting them.

Young Arabs at a crossroads

In fact, according to our 2022 research, many see themselves at a crossroads. They believe their best days lie ahead, but most say their country’s economy is headed in the wrong direction.

An increasing proportion are looking forward to starting their own business, but inflation and access to quality education are concerns across the board.

In this year’s poll more than a third (41 percent) said they were struggling to meet their basic expenses (rising to 63 percent in the Levant), and more than half (53 percent) said they receive financial support from their family.

Nearly half (49 percent) of all young Arabs said they now believe it will be difficult to find a job, especially in the Levant, where the figure rose to nearly three-quarters (73 percent).

The silver lining

Yet there is a silver lining. While most economies around the world are preparing for recession, those in the Middle East are expected to grow by 3.5 percent in 2023, according to the World Bank.

The International Monetary Fund estimates that the Arabian Gulf states will generate additional revenues of $1.3 trillion over the next four years.

This windfall will help the region’s wealthiest economies sustain large-scale investment in diversification and decarbonisation, with positive knock-on effects on neighbouring countries.

With the UAE hosting the United Nations Climate Change Conference (Cop28) in 2023 and Saudi Arabia pursuing the Middle East Green Initiative, opportunities in the region’s cleantech sector will enjoy an unprecedented focus.

The UAE, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain have each pledged to achieve net-zero emissions. This will stimulate opportunities in all areas of the economy as governments and the private sector strive to reduce their environmental impact.

Accordingly, demonstrating a clear sustainability vision, backed by robust environmental, social and governance (ESG) frameworks will increasingly become non-negotiable.

The current gap in this regard is both a concern and an opportunity for the consulting sector. According to our research, about two-thirds (59 percent) of businesses in Saudi Arabia and the UAE say they do not have an ESG framework in place.

Half of those who say they do also admit they do not fully understand it. In May this year ASDA’A BCW launched the dedicated advisory OnePoint5 to help bridge this worrying gap between action and words.

The optimism of Arab youth, as documented by the ASDA’A BCW Arab Youth Survey, and displayed for all to see, is a resource we must rapidly put to work to overcome the Arab world’s well-documented challenges.

As communicators, we must help governments and businesses to articulate strategies that are sensitive to this new reality. We must shift from reactive to proactive counselling, offering creative, digital and integrated solutions.

Originally published in AGBI

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Jun 30, 2022

Top Findings of the ASDA’A BCW ESG Research Among Decision Makers in the UAE and Saudi Arabia

To mark the launch of OnePoint5, ASDA’A BCW’s Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) advisory, we commissioned an exclusive study of 200 decision makers in the UAE and Saudi Arabia to understand their perceptions about ESG.

The survey was conducted by PSB Middle East, the wholly owned data and analytics subsidiary of ASDA’A BCW, from May 22 to 29, 2022. The interview sample, comprising decision makers directly involved in ESG affairs, was evenly split between Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

Here are the top findings of the survey

Top findings
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