Young Emiratis believe in the UAE Government’s ability to tackle unemployment and rising living costs and ensure economic stability, the latest Arab Youth Survey has revealed.
This perception, however, marks a significant difference from the views of Arab youth who are living outside the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries: Nearly two-thirds of them lack confidence in their government’s ability to tackle their most pressing concerns such as unemployment, corruption, and rising living costs, according to the 15th annual Asda’a BCW Arab Youth Survey released on Tuesday.
More than half – 54 per cent – 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 the Levant, is also the most pronounced in five years.
The survey covered face-to-face interviews with 3,600 Arab citizens aged 18 to 24 in their home nations from March 27 to April 12 in 53 cities across 18 Arab states.
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 the Levant.
EMIRATIS’ STRONG CONFIDENCE IN GOVERNMENT
More than three-quarters – 78 per cent – of Arab youth in the GCC states say they agree that their voice matters to their leadership while a full 87 per cent 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 per cent – young Emiratis said they were confident of their government’s ability to address unemployment. Youth had a similarly positive outlook in Saudi Arabia (70 per cent), Oman (67 per cent), Kuwait (64 per cent), and Bahrain (61 per cent).
Unsurprisingly, only 20 per cent 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 per cent of youth in the UAE; 84 per cent in Oman; 82 per cent in Bahrain; 69 per cent in Saudi Arabia; and 56 per cent in Kuwait.
Similarly, 98 per cent of Emirati youth said they were confident that their government could manage the rising cost of living, compared with 66 per cent of young Arabs in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, 64 per cent in Oman, and 57 per cent in Kuwait. Only 15 per cent of GCC youth said they struggled to pay their expenses in full, though 16 per cent said they were in debt, with student loans (25 per cent), car loans (15 per cent), marriage loans (11 per cent) and excessive shopping (9 per cent) 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 per cent); Oman and Kuwait (73 per cent each); and Bahrain (67 per cent). More than half (52 per cent) of GCC youth also said there was no government corruption in their country, although 44 per cent said there was ‘some’ corruption.
Youth in the GCC also trust their government to take action on climate change, with 97 per cent of Emirati youth, 75 per cent of young Saudis, 80 per cent in Oman, 77 per cent in Bahrain, and 66 per cent in Kuwait expressing confidence in the climate policies of their leaders. This positivity reflects widespread optimism about the future, with 83 per cent of GCC youth saying their country was going in the right direction.
‘GOVERNMENT IN NORTH AFRICA AND LEVANT UNRESPONSIVE’
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 per cent in North Africa and 66 per cent in the Levant said their governments did not have the right policies to address their most important concerns.
Nearly two-thirds (61 per cent) of youth in North Africa and about three-quarters (71 per cent) of Levantine youth said their country was going in the wrong direction. Just four in ten (38 per cent) young Arabs in North Africa were confident that their government could address unemployment, while in the Levant, which has among the world’s highest levels of youth unemployment, only a third (32 per cent) said their government was able to address the issue. More than half of youth in the Levant (57 per cent) and North Africa (50 per cent) said it was difficult to find a job in their country.
While a significant 41 per cent of youth in North Africa said they were confident their government could deliver economic stability, less than a third (31 per cent) of youth in the Levant said the same.
They were similarly downbeat on the ability of their government to tackle inflation, with 41 per cent of North African youth and a third (33 per cent) in the 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 per cent) of youth in the Levant and 19 per cent 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 per cent of youth in North Africa and 39 per cent of their peers in the Levant said they were confident their government could address the issue.
“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,” said Sunil John, president, Mena, BCW and founder of Asda’a BCW.
“It is no small matter that the GCC nations are economically stronger, oil-producing nations, while the countries in North Africa and the Levant – in particular, Lebanon, Iraq, Palestinian Territories, Syria, Sudan and Yemen – are conflict-ridden and only recovering from long years of a ravaging war,” he said.
Source : Zawya
