The developing world's problems are becoming more complicated, especially in African, Asian and Arab countries, where the gap between population growth rates and natural and agricultural output is widening.

In the past, such issues pertaining to poverty and backwardness were linked to colonialism depriving countries of resources. However, circumstances have shown that developing countries' situations have worsened due to bad management, wasted resources and uncontrolled population growth.

Comparison with West

For example, the populations of Egypt and Iran have risen from 50 million in the 1970s to over 70 million — an increase of 40 per cent. This is a massive jump that creates tremendous strain on resources.

On the other hand, Britain, France and Italy witnessed a population growth of only three per cent during the same period with a slight increase in wealth which led to improved standards of living in European countries.

Population growth in Asian and African developing countries has been accompanied by a decline in agricultural production, besides the availability of water and natural resources. At the same time, these countries have not achieved any real growth in their industrial production and sectors related to modern technology and knowledge-based economies. This stagnation has intensified crises in communities and manifested in social conflicts and wars aimed at acquiring the largest share of the available resources. This is due to the absence of real solutions to these issues, which are brought about by rampant population increase and poor infrastructure.

Some attempts were made to find solutions but such attempts solely revolved around encouraging migration and finding jobs abroad. Such solutions are beginning to face challenges due to strict immigration measures taken by European countries and the rising number of foreign workers in countries that received them, such as Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries.

Coinciding with these population increases, the demand for food products increased in developing countries, which broadens the food gap in these countries and makes them more dependent on foreign supply for meeting domestic food needs.

Therefore, it is not strange that Egypt is one of the largest wheat importing countries in the world. Such an increase in demand also raises food prices in the global market and directly reflects in the import burden of countries.

There are many other issues caused by population increases which must not be deemed any less important, such as unemployment. According to the latest reports released by the World Bank, the Arab world needs 6 million jobs per year until 2020. This would mean 60 million jobs starting from the current decade. This represents a massive economic, social and humanitarian challenge, especially since Arab economies will not be able to meet even half of these requirements in the next 10 years.

Employment climate

Furthermore, this indicates that there is a serious problem that will lead to grave consequences in the future if these countries do not quickly carry out the necessary measures, such as increasing awareness of the dangers of a population boom on the standards of living and available resources.

In addition to raising social awareness, this issue also calls for family planning programmes, especially in rural areas where literacy levels are low. People migrating from such circumstances to the city have brought tremendous pressure on many Arab cities' infrastructure services. In fact, the population explosion has turned poorer districts into fertile environments for extremism, as is the case in Yemen.

Urban migration

This urban migration resulted in the decline of health and education services, which affects the economic and social aspects of life in Arab countries.

In this regard, Arab nations can benefit from family planning programmes undertaken by some developing countries, which have utilised these programmes to achieve high growth rates that also helped improve living standards, such as in India and China.

Although the attempt to tackle these challenges is more of an afterthought, it's better done late than never. Time is passing, resources are being depleted faster than expected, and solutions are limited, which calls for all available options to be explored.

Dr. Mohammad Al Asoomi is a UAE economic expert.