Norwegian doctor Gilbert, who had treated patients during the 1982 Israeli invasion of Beirut and later in Palestinian territories, speaks about his new mission
The “Best Cities of the Middle East and North Africa 2010” report conducted by the Middle East’s number one job site Bayt.com in conjunction with research specialists YouGov Siraj, surveyed the top cities in the MENA according to economic factors, labour rights, environmental factors, everyday life factors and socio-cultural factors.
Overall, taking all factors into account, the 10 best cities were ranked in the following descending order: Abu Dhabi, Muscat, Dubai, Manama, Tunis, Sharjah, Doha, Kuwait City, Marrakech and Amman.
The Economic Factors section consisted of five key elements that could be related to a given individual’s life in a city. Each of these elements plays a crucial role either directly or indirectly in shaping the overall quality of life. The cities that scored “extremely” well in economic factors were ranked in the following order starting from the highest to the lowest; Manama, Doha, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Riyadh, Sharjah, Kuwait City, Tunis and Jeddah.
The Labour Rights section consisted of five key elements — wage protection system, end of service benefits, termination rights, vacation allowances and parenthood allowances — that could affect the lives of individuals in the city they reside in.
The cities that scored “extremely” well in this category were ranked in the following order starting from the highest to the lowest: Abu Dhabi, Manama, Muscat, Dubai, Tunis, Doha, Sharjah, Kuwait City, Rabat and Aleppo. In Abu Dhabi, 40% of respondents felt the end of services was good to excellent, 26% felt termination rights were good to excellent, 41% felt vacation allowances were good to excellent, 21% felt the same about parent allowances and 46% felt the same about wage protection systems.
The Environmental Factors surveyed consisted of a set of important aspects—clean water, clean air, clean streets and roads and comfortable weather—related to comfort and cleanliness that affect the overall quality of life in a city. The cities that scored “extremely” well in this category were ranked in the following order starting from the highest to the lowest: Muscat, Abu Dhabi, Marrakech, Dubai, Tunis, Manama, Rabat, Amman, Aleppo and Sharjah.
The Everyday Life elements took into account 11 diverse aspects, including healthcare facilities, educational institutions, public transport, and parks and gardens, that are considered to have a direct impact on the overall standard of life in a city.
The cities that scored “extremely” well in this category were ranked in the following order starting from the highest to the lowest: Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Tunis, Sharjah, Muscat, Manama, Kuwait City, Amman, Beirut and Marrakech. In Abu Dhabi, respondents were very happy with the quality of education, 59% felt the schools were good or excellent and 51% felt the same about colleges. Meanwhile respondents were also happy with health care facilities with 69% stating they were good or excellent.
“It is interesting to notice that three cities from the UAE (Sharjah, Dubai and Abu Dhabi) come up quite often. This is a reflection of the UAE’s diverse emirates each with advanced development in different sectors.
However, there is one area that is strong throughout the UAE and that is the country’s health care facilities. This is bound to play a big role in the cities’ attractiveness levels as participating UAE respondents considered health care quality a very important factor in cities,” said Sundip Chahal, Chief Operating Officer, YouGov Siraj.
Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah also occupied the top three positions respectively in terms of the availability of parks and community gardens and Dubai led the region in terms of accessibility and quality of the public transport system as well as in having a wide range of entertainment avenues.
The Socio-cultural Factors are forces within cultures, societies and cities that affect the thoughts, feelings and behaviours of individuals who are a part of them.
The cities that scored “extremely” well in this category were ranked in the following order starting from the highest to the lowest: Abu Dhabi, Muscat, Sharjah, Tunis, Dubai, Damascus, Manama, Doha, Amman and Aleppo. In Abu Dhabi, 82% of respondents said there were low crime rates and 81% said law enforcement was good to excellent.
Norwegian doctor Gilbert, who had treated patients during the 1982 Israeli invasion of Beirut and later in Palestinian territories, speaks about his new mission
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