Arab Sustainable Development Report 2020

The 2030 Agenda calls for transformative change and paradigm shifts. Mobilizing domestic and external resources is a pressing challenge in the Arab region, and the pace of efforts on the SDGs must accelerate. However, transformative change not only requires financial resources and an acceleration of efforts but, above all, demands a shift in orientation and approach towards policy integration, environmental sustainability, and universal human rights with their emphasis on equality, justice, inclusion, fundamental freedoms and participatory politics.

The story of the SDGs in the Arab region, therefore, is also a story of human rights, gender equality, sustainability and integrated development. The gravity of the task, and the scale of the ambition, are greater than measuring progress at goal, target and indicator level. Five years into the era of the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs, the present report is a reminder that the starting point for implementation and the horizon for achievement must be aligned for change to be transformative. It is only through the alignment of policies and other interventions with the overarching framework of the 2030 Agenda that the region, and the world, can hope to achieve the 2030 Agenda. How close, or how far, the Arab region is from this alignment is the story the present report aims to tell.