THESIS PROSPECTUS: THE ROLE OF THE GULF COOPERATION COUNCIL OF ARAB STATES TO MEMBERS IN ORDER TO ACHIEVE THE UNITED NATIONS MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS
Background of the Study
Since the end of the 20th century, issues such as extreme poverty, equal human rights for all gender and ethnicity, health services improvement, environmental sustainability and equal development have been in the forefront of both regional and international affairs. Several proposals and programs have been presented by various world leaders, however, a workable framework that can be applied to any nation is difficult due to the difference of each nation politically, socially and economically. With the impact of these identified issues to both developing and developed countries, the United Nations had outlined a collective strategy for its member nations to resolve these concerns. In its strategy, the UN had outlined eight important goals catering to the top issues affecting each nation at the present time. The eight goals, now known today as the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, outlines specific targets, strategies and dates to ensure that equal development throughout the globe can be attained, especially in heavily impoverished nations.
Some of these heavily impoverished nations are located in the Middle East or in the Arab world, which currently faces several crucial issues that affects its regional stability in all possible fronts. The unstable political, economic and social environment, topped with the region’s scarce resources, makes it crucial to attain the goals set by the UN to improve the Arab world’s current state. Leading the attainment of the MDG in the Arab World is the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf or the Gulf Cooperation Council, comprised by the Arab states located the Persian Gulf – Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The members of the GCC can be considered some of the best-off countries in the region, which is why others see it as a plausible leader in the region to the attainment of the MDG. Others, however, see the GCC to be ill suited to be of influence in applying the MDG to its members because the influential capacity of the Council to apply its own programs is still unstable and unorganized. In the application of the MDG to the member countries, what should be the role of the GCC?
The Millennium Development Goals set by the United Nations outlines many of the Arab region’s current struggles as the region finds itself at the midst of political, economic and social unrest. For the members and leaders of the GCC, the attainment of the MDG is crucial to improve the Arab image to the world and show its hidden potential for its citizens and partners. However, the question firmly remains on how much influence the GCC can have on its member countries in applying such frameworks like the MDG and how the member states would interpret the goals into their own criteria. Would the GCC be an influential entity or an advisory body? In this case, the main question this study would try to answer is what is the role played by the GCC in the application of the UN Millennium Development Goals to its member states? In support to this question, this study also aims to answer the following questions:
- What is the role of regional organizations such as the ASEAN and the African Union in the application of the MDG? Is it any different with the GCC role?
- What is the structure of the GCC especially in terms of its programs, policy-making capacities, and member responsibilities?
- How does the GCC utilize its structure in the application of the MDG to its member countries?
- What are the issues and difficulties the GCC found in the application of the MDG to its member countries?
- What are the possible recommendations that the GCC could take into consideration to improve the success of the MDG to its member countries?
Purpose and Scope of the Study
With the current regional instability happening around the Arab nation, it is clear that the region would play host to several important concerns like poverty, poor health facilities, scarce resource for food and water, and inhumane treatment of people. Even the well-off members of the GCC did not escape these concerns as there are still several areas in their territories in need of proper attention to solve these cases. In this end, the purpose of this paper is to explain how regional organizations, such as the GCC, important in creating influential actions in attaining collective action such as the MDG for the benefit of their member countries and to their neighboring territories
For this study, the coverage would begin in the discussion of the United Nations Development Goals and how it is currently being applied to regional organizations such as the ASEAN and the African Union. This will allow an in-depth analysis on how regional organizations like the GCC can act towards their member countries in applying international programs such as the MDG and to provide a comparison on what is the GCC’s current role in the issue. The discussion would then cover a brief explanation of the GCC’s history and structure would provide some ideas on how the organization works. Analyzing its agenda, structure, and influence in its member countries would provide a clear idea on how capable the GCC is with regards to other issues. Finally, the discussion would analyze the current role of the GCC in the application of the MDG, which will also include the issues and recommendations identified with their current capability.
Proposed Table of Contents
- Introduction
- Background of the Study
- Research Questions
- Purpose and Scope of the Study
- Research Method
- Data Collection
- Data Analysis
- Limitation of the Study
- Assumptions
- Definition of Terms
- Literature Review
- Overview
- United Nations Millennium Development Goals
- Application of the Millennium Development Goals: ASEAN and the African Union
- Conclusion
- Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf
- Overview
- Brief History of the Organization
- Responsibilities of the Organization
- Policy-making Structure
- Member Roles
- Analysis and Discussion
- Overview
- The GCC and the UN Millennium Development Goals
- Issues regarding the GCC impact for the UNMDG
- Recommendations
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
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