The period extending from the 1940s to the 1980s witnessed a demographic explosion in greater North Africa which had the significant side effect of producing a large youth population between the ages of 15 and 24 whose various needs (education, health, leisure) demanded attention and heavy state investment. The 2000 census in Egypt reported a high percentage (20.5) of youth out of a population of 67 million; Libya registered a significant 24.1 percent out of a population of little over 5 million…