Development and Modernization of OIC Member Countries: A Study Based on Selected Indicators

Abstract

This paper attempts to analyze the performance of 57 member
states of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) based on selected
indicators of some sectors namely demography, economics, education
and technology and innovation. Specifically, it aims at firstly portraying an
overview of OIC performance based on six selected indicators followed by
analyzing the relationship between selected development variables with
literacy and exploring the state of OIC performance as indicated by their
achievement based on selected indicators. The study was undertaken vis-àvis
the prevailing theories on modernization and development as well as the
widely asserted underdevelopment of the contemporary Muslim ummah as
claimed by numerous contemporary Muslim scholars. The data were solicited
among others from the World Bank Database, Statistical, Economic, and Social
Research and Training, Centre of Islamic Countries (SESRIC) of OIC and
some previous studies. They were then analyzed using SPSS with the results
being generated mainly through the use of descriptive statistics. Among others,
the study found that there is a positive correlation between Muslim countries’
urban population growth and literacy rate, there is a steady decline in the
number of OIC countries as they are categorized from lower to higher income
category placement and the percentage of the scientific publications of all 57
OIC countries is far below that of any one single developed nation.