ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE & SOCIAL OUTCOMES OF MENA/LIBYA

30 Saturday Jan 2016

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Between the 20th and the 21st century­ the Middle East and the North African region has seen many conflicts, ranging from civil, religious war, to what some may reveal as a “fight to end global terrorism”. Due to high levels of conflicts within MENA (Middle East North Africa) specially after the Arab spring in 2011, economic growth in the region has struggled to produce a positive outcome. Despite the poor economic performance in the past ten years, Libya has considerably a great potential to overcome such economic tragedy. Libya has the largest oil reserves in Africa and one of the biggest in the world, blessed with plenty of natural resources it is very likely that its economy will grow, that is; if they can find someone to manage and control government without corruption.

Post Gaddafi, Libya is struggling to maintain order throughout its state, militants are taking control of certain crucial parts of Libya due to political disagreement between two rivals; one is internationally recognized along with its parliament and the other unofficially holding certain places under siege. Would Libya be better of having Gaddafi as its leader? By all means, at least when Gaddafi was in power, social structure was somewhat stable, people had the minimal needs to survive and the government was functional, to an extent. However, would the people of Libya want to live under the rule of a ruthless dictator? Would there be peace among Libya if in fact, Gaddafi had survived the Arab spring,giving the fact that UN has constantly sought to bring charges against him for committing war crimes.? It is a difficult question indeed; Im not sure how I would be able to answer the above questions, however; giving the current status of Libya, the United Nations should be and it is, heavily involved in solving the local problems of Libya.

Libya’s only hope is to unite its people and decide whether they wish to move past these conflicts for the sake of its country.  International intervention would be a great start to this idea, foreign aid could essentially boost Libya’s effort to get back to its feet. But this could only happen far down the road, after the situation has deescalated and the true official government of Libya has been widely accepted. Economic solution to Libya’s poor economic performance could likely come from the use of its oil and gas resources, centralizing its capital in this factor will increase its global status.

libya-gdp

Sources:

http://www.africaneconomicoutlook.org/en/country-notes/north-africa/libya/

http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.KD.ZG/countries/LY-AF?display=graph

http://www.france24.com/en/20151009-un-proposes-national-unity-government-libya-tripoli