Arab Region SDG Index and Dashboards Report Reveals Arab Nations Progressing Towards Sustainable Development Goals
The Mohammed bin Rashid School of Government, in partnership with the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN), recently released the 'Arab Region SDG Index and Dashboards Report 2023'. This report is aligned with the UAE's Year of Sustainability and builds upon discussions from the recent COP28 summit.
The report serves as an essential resource for governments, policymakers, and stakeholders, offering a comprehensive way to monitor progress towards the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It highlights key implementation challenges and data gaps, which are crucial for forming effective strategies.
In its latest edition, the report reveals that seven out of the 22 Arab countries, namely the UAE, Jordan, Tunisia, Algeria, Oman, Egypt, and Morocco, have made significant progress, achieving more than two-thirds of their SDG targets. H.E. Dr. Ali bin Sebaa Al Marri, Executive President of MBRSG, emphasized the report's role in supporting the goals of the Year of Sustainability and COP28. He noted its importance in spotlighting development challenges in the Arab region, particularly for its least developed countries, and its effectiveness as a data-driven tool for regional improvement in line with the SDGs.
Despite progress in some areas, the report also points out considerable ongoing challenges in different development sectors within the Arab region. It calls for enhanced efforts and regional strategies to close these gaps and advance towards sustainable development.
The report specifically highlights the struggle in achieving gender equality (SDG 5), with all Arab countries showing low performance in this area. It also focuses on the impact of conflicts on achieving SDG 16, which is centered on peace, justice, and strong institutions, advocating for increased efforts to improve gender equality policies and strengthen institutional frameworks.
The report acknowledges advancements in SDG 3 (good health and well-being) in several Arab countries, especially regarding basic health outcomes like neonatal and under-five mortality rates, and in areas related to SDG 4 (quality education).
Another challenge mentioned is the lack of data availability, particularly for monitoring SDGs related to eradicating poverty and reducing inequality. The report includes 113 indicators for the SDGs, each with a score, color-coding for performance levels, and trend arrows.
Guillaume Lafortune, Vice President of the UN SDSN, stressed the need for long-term investment strategies and ambitious plans with effective monitoring systems to achieve the SDGs by 2030.
In line with this, MBRSG has launched several research projects focused on sustainable development policy procedures.
