By Shada Islam

The world’s richest nations have promised to inject billions of dollars/euros into the Middle East and North Africa to make sure that the Arab Spring does not turn into an Arab winter of discontent.

Originally published by Dawn

Meeting in Deauville recently, the Group of Eight (G8) leaders promised more aid and improved trade access to help the Arab world’s democratic transformation. Such efforts are commendable. But mistakes of the past must be avoided. Both the US and the European Union have poured massive amounts of money into the region over the years. But there is precious little to show for it.

Arab growth and development rates remain low while unemployment and birth rates are high. The very revealing reports on Arab Human Development published by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) since 2002 have consistently spotlighted the lack of inclusion and opportunity in the region.

As UNDP head Helen Clark wrote recently, these reports identified major human development challenges facing Arab countries on issues from governance to women’s empowerment, human rights, access to education and other services, and human security overall.

“Their central message was clear: reform is necessary and should not be delayed,” says Clark. “Smart strategies are now needed for nations to benefit more broadly from their national endowments — with spin-offs for jobs, micro businesses and SMEs, technology transfer, infrastructure and tax revenues. Having strong and capable institutions and having leadership committed to human development helps,” adds Clark.

G8 leaders should pay heed to Ms Clark’s advice. Arab countries which are moving towards democracy should be encouraged through loans, investments, trade and aid. British Prime Minister David Cameron is right to describe the revolutions in Tunisia and the continuing demands for change in other parts of the region as a “turning point in history”.

US President Barack Obama has warned that it could be years before these revolutions reach their conclusion, and there will be difficult days along the way. “Power rarely gives up without a fight,” he said.

But international aid to Arab governments on the road to reform, including funds from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, should come with strong conditions. The focus must not merely be on supporting the region’s governments but also on the development of a strong civil society, including women’s groups, journalists, lawyers and activists.

Access to the Internet — which played an important role in the Arab revolt against authoritarian regimes — must not be restricted. Governments must agree to respect human rights, abide by the rule of law and not discriminate against minorities. Having observed and written about Europe’s failed policies towards its Arab neighbours over the last many years, it is clear to this correspondent that for all their public focus on human rights, EU governments were much too soft on Arab regimes which violated the basic freedoms of their people.

Many EU officials complained privately about the way in which their Arab counterparts laughed off European concerns about human rights. Stability was the name of the game, said these Arab policymakers — and that meant putting activists, independent journalists and lawyers in prison. It was all being done in the name of stability — and because of the compelling need to keep “dangerous Islamists” out of government.

Well, some of those conservative Muslims may now become part of future Arab governments, forcing Europe and America to change tack and engage with the once-enemy. My Arab friends and colleagues insist that the region’s Islamists — including the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt — are going to play the democratic game. Their agenda does not include turning their countries into Sharia-ruled states. There is valid concern, however, over the future treatment of Arab women — with or without Islamists in government.

Remarkably, women played a central role in uprisings across the region. As a recent article in the Sydney Herald pointed out, “some of the most striking images of this season of revolt have been of women: black-robed and angry, a sea of female faces in the capitals of North Africa, the Arabian peninsula, the Syrian hinterland, marching for regime change, an end to repression, the release of loved ones. Or else delivering speeches to the crowds, treating the injured, feeding the sit-ins of Cairo and Manama and the makeshift army of eastern Libya”.

At a recent conference in Brussels, participants said it was important that donors and investors made sure that women’s rights were respected, equal opportunities were guaranteed and women were given their rightful place in government, parliaments and executive boardrooms.

The uprisings had shown to the outside world that Arab women were not passive and submissive but capable of fighting for reform and change side by side with men.Such observations are heartening. Unfortunately, experience shows that women cannot be complacent about their role in society. Other revolutions and independence movements (including in Pakistan) have shown that while men welcome women as protesters and co-revolutionaries — they are less happy to share power with them.

My plea to Messrs Obama and Cameron and other leaders, international aid organisations and businesses rushing into bolster Arab democracy is to make sure that women’s rights are respected in the countries they put their money in. Women had a key role in the Arab Spring; they must not be allowed to become passive bystanders in a post-revolution Middle East.