Achievements and Challenges of Human Development

The report details the development challenges facing Bahrain at the turn of the millennium. Outstanding issues include the need for a higher than average GDP growth rate and investment in human resource development. Although high achievements in education have been made, it has not translated to sustainable employment prospects particularly amongst recent graduates. Bahrain has made significant gains in health as a direct result of the priority assigned to health programmes since the 1950s. Despite progress in the area of women’s advancement, the challenge remains to exert more intensive efforts to enlarge women’s economic and professional opportunities. The report concludes that since human development is a multidimensional, inter related and complex phenomenon, maximum use should be made of Bahraini cultural specificity and distinct body of tradition as far as they enhance, reinforce and sustain such development.