No / This paper examines the issues and challenges faced by Qatar, a developing Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) country, when localising established professional skills development strategies used in developed countries. The paper is based on the synthesis of viewpoint formed through the collective practical experiences of the authors. The paper posits that Qatar, a nation that is striving to move from an economy heavily reliant on oil and gas and the skills and competencies of foreign professionals to one that is knowledge driven and managed by its own citizens, needs to consider several micro, macro and policy level implications for implementing a meaningful professional skills development agenda. The unique demographic context as well as value and belief systems that are influenced by the social-cultural environment play a significant role in influencing the implementation of any performance assessment and management and the development of professional skills in the country.

En 2013, l'économie des Émirats Arabes Unis est loin d'être entièrement dépendantes de l'exploitation des hydrocarbures. La thèse se propose d'étudier, dans le contexte global du développement de l'économie des émirats, les modalités d'élaboration et d'implémentation de cette politique de développement durable qui apparaît indispensable à la poursuite de croissance. D'une part, les conditions environnementales de ces sociétés urbaines du Golfe, établies sur des littoraux fragiles ou dans des territoires désertiques, obligent de respecter des équilibres naturels dont la destruction pourrait rendre dommageable la poursuite du développement. D'autre part, l'exploitation des richesses en hydrocarbure doit accompagner désormais la diversification de l'économie en favorisant les secteurs économiques permettant de transformer l'énergie en produits commercialisation. La problématique abordée par la recherche s'intéresse au contexte dans lequel, au sein des sociétés des divers émirats qui constituent la fédération, peuvent s'établir les conditions de la mise en place d'un développement durable. Il s'agit de s'interroger sur les forces à même d'appuyer les politiques de développement durable et de soutenir les investissements nécessaires à la réalisation de cette ambition. Le travail consistera à proposer une analyse des dynamiques économiques en cours, des différences existant entre les divers émirats et des différents secteurs, et d'étudier les perspectives pour la réalisation des politiques de développement durable telles qu'elles sont aujourd'hui projetées dans les documents de planification stratégiques, généraux ou sectoriels. / In 2013, the economy of the United Arab Emirates is still far to be entirely dependent from the exploitation of hydrocarbons. The thesis proposes to study, in the global context, the development of the emirates economy, the methods of elaboration and implementation of this sustainable development policy, which appears indispensable for the pursuit of growth. On the other hand, the environmental conditions of these urban Gulf societies, established on fragile coastlines or in desert territories, make it necessary to respect natural balances whose destruction could render harmful the pursuit of development. In addition, the exploitation of hydrocarbon reserves must now support the diversification of the economy by promoting economic sectors to transform energy into marketing products. The issue tackled by the research focuses on the context in which, within the societies of the various emirates that constitute the federation, the conditions for the establishment of sustainable development can be created. It is about questioning the forces that can support sustainable development policies and support the investments needed to achieve this ambition. The work will consist in proposing an analysis of the current economic dynamics, the differences between the various emirates and the different sectors in each emirate, and to study the perspectives for the realization of the sustainable development policies as they are projected today in the strategic, general or sectorial planning documents.

The purpose of this study is to analyze the foreign policy outcomes of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) to understand the extent to which a Regional Intergovernmental Organization (RGO) consisting of developing nations is able to promote regional cooperation. Much of the literature on integration and the formation of Intergovernmental Organizations was developed with regard to western nations. These approaches are examined for their contributions to foreign policy behavior analysis and with respect to understanding why small and developing nations join such organizations. Final analysis of the outcomes using two scales to measure the organization's ability to promote regional cooperation reveal that the level of success was moderate and the level of political action undertaken by the GCC was generally moderate to low. Leadership is supportive of the organization but both external and internal factors contribute to the modest levels achieved so far. Issues of national sovereignty and a decade of regional conflicts affected the ability of the organization to achieve greater levels or regional cooperation.

Throughout the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Member states, a number of significant policy reforms have coincided with significant changes in their socio-economic trajectories. This is especially evident within the employment domain, where a rapidly increasing labour force challenges the capacity of the regions domestic labour markets to provide employment. With increasing unemployment rates, combined with the region’s burgeoning young population, of whom some are well educated and seeking first-time employment, strain is placed on labour markets that were traditionally characterised by high levels of inactivity, a low skills base for the native population, the substantial presence of migrant labour and extensive segmentation and inequalities across wage and gender lines. The political implications for the future political stability and regime legitimacy in these states are easy to imagine and the challenges ahead are substantial. Moreover, policies aiming to sustainably increase the capacity of domestic labour markets to provide employment for the national citizenry are currently developed in a context where the Gulf States have to navigate their repositioning in the global economic architecture by diversifying their economies and reorganizing their socio-political formations towards ‘late rentier’ governance structures. Against this background, this thesis explores how GCC governments are attempting to transform their rentier based political economies, by comparatively analysing recent labour market reforms in three Gulf states, namely Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar. A mixed methodological approach has been adopted, whereby through conducting a policy analysis on key labour reforms, namely the Kafala sponsorship system and Nationalisation based policies, alongside elite semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders, this thesis has contributed to the identification of the emerging trends which characterise the post-rentier labour market governance structures in the GCC. Furthermore, due to the different development visions adopted by these three states, this thesis highlights the marked diversity within the regionally adopted policies of the Kafala system and Nationalisation based reforms and, thus, contributes to our understanding of the emerging variety of late rentier political economies in the region and their likely future developmental paths.

No description available.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Murdoch University, 2008. / Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Creative Technologies and Media. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 226-242)

Thesis (M.A. in National Security Affairs)--Naval Postgraduate School, June 2007. / Thesis Advisor(s): Abbas Kadhim, Heather Gregg. "June 2007." Includes bibliographical references (p. 67 -71). Also available in print.

abstract: Obesity is a worldwide epidemic. Countries in the Middle East, Central and Eastern Europe, as well as North America have the highest prevalence of obesity in the world. Perimenopause is a transitional period in the life of a woman, occurring a few years before and a year after menopause or last menses. During this period, a woman may experience several physiological, psychological and socio-economical changes that may affect the health promotion efforts related to weight management. Perimenopausal obesity prevalence is high in Middle-Eastern countries and is a particular problem in Gulf Cooperation Council Countries (GCC). Despite the high prevalence of obesity in GCC countries and its comorbidities among the perimenopausal women, not much attention is given to it. There is lack of understanding regarding the perception of perimenopausal women of midlife weight gain. This study proposed a qualitative descriptive design that used semi-structured interviewing, and conventional content analysis. The purpose of this study was to examine the culturally specific views of perimenopausal GCC women concerning the causes and processes of midlife weight gain. Constructs derived from the health belief and explanatory models to identify and sort themes into conceptual categories were used. The themes and initial interpretations were brought forward into the organizing and explanatory framework of the socioecological model for further exploration and elucidation. The problem of overweight/obesity among the perimenopausal women in GCC countries was found to have many dimensions. These dimensions interacted at multiple levels (individual, interpersonal, organizational and community) and encompassed factors salient in both the HBM and Kleinman's model of disease and risk behaviors. The findings of this study suggest that weight-management programs targeting perimenopausal GCC women should be planned based on the multilevel factors that are expressed by them. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Nursing 2012

This study explores the challenges perceived by senior officers in Western university branch campuses in a Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) state and aims to provide insights into how leaders dealt with them. Thus, the study addresses four research questions. First, how campus senior officers perceive the challenges? Second, to what extent are these challenges a result of operating in a different cultural context? Third, how do senior officers deal with these challenges and maintain the quality of their home universities? Finally, how can the study findings be theorised to inform future policy and practice? As a form of transnational higher education, some of the GCC states have established branch campuses of leading Western universities to provide quality higher education to their citizens locally and build knowledge economies. Campus managers, usually from their home Western universities, face challenges related to the local cultural context. These challenges include the GCC state societal views of the campuses, the Western University approach to co-education, the GCC state development efforts to grow a Knowledge Economy through quality Western-style education, and national students’ academic preparation. This research was conducted as an exploratory qualitative multiple case study of five branch campuses. Data were collected through interviews with senior officers from the campuses and the host organization in the GCC state, and the five campuses' annual reports. Data were analysed through open and axial coding. Then thematic analysis was used to identify themes from the data. The study revealed that the major challenges for campus officers are recruiting academically strong students from the pool of citizens, and understanding the local culture and adjusting aspects of the curriculum to fit the local context especially for campuses that offer social sciences and arts programmes. Campus officers engaged in efforts to make school students more qualified for admission by the campuses, and some leaders made adjustments to the curriculum to better suit their students’ abilities.

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is an organization which has provided both cooperation between the Gulf countries but also division and crisis. The latest of these crises started in June 2017 and this report is aiming to examine how the latest of crises has affected the security cooperation within the GCC but also how the security cooperation was before the crisis and how the changes in cooperation can be explained. The report use two different theories to answer these questions. Although the Gulf crisis of 2017 has had effects on the security policy cooperation, this isn’t a new phenomenon for the organization. The GCC has had disagreements within the cooperation since the start and this has followed their work through the years with major effects during difficult and uncertain times such as the Arab spring of 2011. These disagreements have also led to crises in the past, but they have been resolved due to outer threats towards the GCC such as the strengthened position of IS in 2014. The Gulf crisis of 2017 has had its’ effects on the GCC:s security cooperation for example in terms of canceled military exercises with the US. However, the organization’s work within the field of anti-terrorism is still ongoing inspite of the current crisis.