United Nations Millennium Development Goals (UN MDGs) and the Geographies of the Arab Spring: A Comparative Perspective

This paper identifies some of the “preludes” to the Arab Spring by taking the. Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) as independent variables and seeks to explore the root causes of the Arab Spring, as well as the (in)ability of MDGs to react to political, economic and social upheaval. In order to present a cohesive and consistent argument, we focus on the preludes to the Arab Spring in selected countries, including Tunisia, Egypt, Syria, and Yemen. This research provides insights and implications for the post-2015 MDG agenda, therefore one critical questions whether the UN MDGs provided early warning signs and to what extent, if any, did the MDGs capture the realities of the “preludes”, namely, the context leading to the social, political, and economic turmoil that cascaded across various geographies. Our critical policy conclusion is that MDG‟s were not designed to be flexible enough to account for more complex political processes that, over the longer term, increase wellbeing and quality of life through civil society activism. The MDG post-2015 agenda/framework is a promising means to address historically rooted social and economic problems not only in the Arab Spring countries, but also on a global level. We propose that a post-2015 framework should be redesigned in order to better monitor and address opportunities for a better future in the Arab World by policies and institutional reform directed toward economic and social justice through sustained, equitable, and inclusive growth.