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Background: One of the most important issues in public policy and welfare state is health care. Poor management leads to the waste of resources, including money, human resources, facilities, and equipment. Aims: This paper seeks to answer the question of which eastern Mediterranean countries are more effective in allocating their health resources, and does Iran, in relation to those countries, have an effective health system. Methods: This study examined technical efficiency among eastern Mediterranean countries in 2018. Data were extracted from Global Health Observatory data World Health Organization. We applied input-oriented Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) models to estimate efficiency scores. Inputs are Physicians density per 10,000 populations, Total hospital beds per 10,000 populations, Current expenditure on health, % of gross domestic product and outputs are infant survival rate and Life expectancy. Results: The most efficient health systems in the eastern Mediterranean were Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates. The inefficient countries are Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Libya, Palestine and Saudi Arabia. Conclusions: Among the efficient countries, one category of high-entry countries such as Bahrain and Qatar with high input especially in health expenditure had higher output. The second group of countries with lower inputs such as Iran and Morocco has been able to produce similar output with other countries. Also, inefficiency in countries such as Saudi Arabia can be attributed to this with higher input such as health expenditure has lower output such life expectancy and infant survival rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper rests on a survey among students of Arab Open University (AOU) that covered 6,369 students from all branches (in eight countries) and across all four colleges. It endeavours to raise a case for introducing entrepreneurship education in AOU. The Survey results show a surprisingly high level of entrepreneurial intention among the students, and the overwhelming majority of them are demanding introduction of entrepreneurship education. The Paper uses results of the Survey to present how the students of AOU desire their entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurship training programmes to be organised, and to identify the target groups of each of the two programmes. Based on these results and on selected literature review of the concepts of entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurship training, an outline of entrepreneurship curricula and of teaching and training methods are suggested. Both curricula and methods advanced could be of relevance beyond the specific case of AOU.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of human resource development (HRD) education in Middle Eastern countries. In particular, the authors discuss the current state of HRD education, country readiness and challenges that hinder HRD progress in Middle Eastern countries. They argue that HRD programs need to prepare young employees for leadership roles through adapting constructivist pedagogy, including problem-solving, critical thinking and creativity. Design/methodology/approach: The design of this paper followed a qualitative approach. The authors conducted in-depth interviews with five HRD experts in Middle Eastern countries and conducted integrative literature review and secondary data analysis. Findings: Data analysis provided an overview of HRD education, looked at options individuals interested in HRD education might have, provided views on constructivism vs instructivism as education pedagogies and discussed cultural factors that impede critical reflection in the workplace. Research limitations/implications: To understand how to introduce constructivist elements to instructivist learning cultures, and to sustain it, HRD scholars in the Middle Eastern countries need to diminish the misalignment between instructional philosophies of trainers, trainees and national or institutional systems. Practical implications: Understanding how policy, resources, infrastructure and culture influence learning expectations is vital to introducing innovative training activities or scaling them up to other workshops and systems. Originality/value: This research sheds light on HRD education in the Middle Eastern countries; provides an overview of employment challenges and opportunities to improve workplace learning; and provides scholars, practitioners and other stakeholders interested in HRD with suggestions to develop successful workforce education.

This study compares social work codes of ethics in the Arab countries of Western Asia (Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Lebanon, Bahrain, Yemen, Palestine, Iraq, Oman, Qatar, United Arab Emirates and Syria), to the International Federation of Social Workers Global Statement of Ethical Principles (2018). As of 2020—with Qatar's recent addition of an MSW programme—there are over two dozen bachelor and/or master's degree programmes in social work in the Arab countries of Western Asia. As social work has grown as a profession in the region, many countries have formed national social work associations and are adopting or developing their own codes of ethics. Five of the twelve countries in the study developed their own original social work codes of ethics (Jordan, Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Lebanon). Comparison of these codes to the IFSW principle statements reveals that most include at least half of the IFSW statements. In addition, three of the codes of ethics (Jordan, Kuwait and Bahrain) reference Islam, God and/or Islamic concepts. This study suggests that the IFSW Global Statement of Ethical Principles can serve as the guide it was intended to be in the development of social work codes of ethics around the globe, including Arab-Islamic countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]