Arguably no set of actions is as important for the long term future prospects of the Muslim world than concerted efforts for human development. Education and health stand as priorities.
The proposal is to undertake a Human Development Review for the Muslim World that would focus on education. It would build on numerous existing analyses (national as well as the World Bank’s Middle East Review) but would present the challenges as transnational and aim to raise the bar of excellence. The blueprint would be the proposal for a human development review put forward in 2008 by the Brookings Institution (http://www.brookings.edu/papers/2008/02_islamic_world_amr.aspx). However, the action proposal is modified to give more weight to leadership inputs, to complement the proposal’s important analytic focus. It would as a first stage focus more specifically on education challenges.
The review would thus take the form of a task force comprised of a cross section of educators, political and business, political, and religious leaders. It would have a small core staff. The review would result in a report but the emphasis would be more on the effort to mobilize energies, to identify and address bottlenecks, and to frame issues beyond the normal national politics that can dampen reform fervor on topics including education.
The unique aspects of the study would include a broad focus on education extending from pre-school and through advanced scientific work – thus looking at education as a whole. Its premise is that the traditions of excellence that are integral features of Muslim history offer a foundation for a revival of educational systems.
The proposed review would be sui generis but would aspire to the levels of impact and breadth of innovation of exercises like the World Commission on Dams which redefined the discourse on a contentious issue and the Peterson report on development assistance. It would take as a starting point both UN human development analyses and the Millennium Development Goal framework but its reach would extend well beyond.