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The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia participated with other countries, governments, and high representatives in adopting the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 goals at the United Nations celebration of its 70th anniversary in New York in September 2015. These goals came as a result of extensive public consultations and contacts for more than two years among the Member States of the United Nations, with the unprecedented participation of civil society and other stakeholders, in which particular attention was paid to the voices of the poorest and most vulnerable groups. These goals are characterized by a high level of ambition, broad scope, and indivisibility, and achieve a balance between the three dimensions of sustainable development: the economic dimension, the social dimension and the environmental dimension. These goals and their 169 targets distributed over 248 indicators seek to continue the march of the Millennium Development Goals and achieve what has not been achieved within their framework in order to address the most pressing current global challenges, including challenges related to poverty, inequality, climate, environmental degradation, prosperity, peace and justice,
Goal 1: No Poverty
Saudi Arabia has expanded the scope of its social protection system to include various population groups such as children, orphans, widows, divorced individuals, the poor, and the unemployed.
Goal 2: Zero Hunger
Food security requires a multi-dimensional approach from social protection to ensuring safe and nutritious food, especially for children, and transforming food systems to achieve a more inclusive and sustainable world.
Goal 3: Good Health and Well-being
A large portion of the global population still lacks access to essential healthcare services. To bridge this gap and ensure equitable healthcare provision, addressing disparities is crucial. Attention should be given to various health determinants.
Goal 4: Quality Education
Economic constraints, along with issues related to learning outcomes and dropout rates, persist in marginalized areas, highlighting the need for sustained global commitment to ensuring inclusive and equitable education for all.
Goal 5: Gender Equality
Regardless of where you live, gender equality is a fundamental human right. Promoting gender equality is crucial for all areas of a healthy society, from eradicating poverty to enhancing health, education, protection, and well-being for both girls and boys.
Goal 6: Clean Water and Sanitation
Ensuring access to sustainable water and sanitation services for everyone is a crucial strategy for mitigating climate change in the coming years. Without improving infrastructure and management,
Goal 7: Affordable and Clean Energy
Countries can accelerate the transition to an affordable, reliable, and sustainable energy system by investing in renewable energy resources, prioritizing energy efficiency practices, and adopting clean energy technologies and infrastructure.
Goal 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth
Providing the best opportunity for youth to transition to decent work requires investing in the highest quality education and training, equipping young people with skills that match labor market demands, and granting them access to social protection and essential services regardless of the type of their contracts.
Goal 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
Comprehensive and sustainable industrialization, along with innovation and infrastructure, can unleash dynamic and competitive economic forces that drive job creation and income generation.
Goal 10: Reduced Inequality
Reducing inequality requires transformative change. It is essential to intensify efforts to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, increase investment in health, education, social protection, and decent work, especially for youth, migrants, refugees, and other vulnerable communities.
Goal 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities
By choosing to work sustainably, we choose to build cities where all citizens enjoy a dignified life and are part of the city's productive dynamics, creating shared prosperity and social stability without harming the environment.
Goal 12: Responsible Consumption and Production
Transitioning to a circular economy involves designing products that are durable, repairable, and recyclable. It also includes promoting practices such as reusing, refurbishing, and recycling products to reduce waste and resource depletion.
Goal 13: Climate Action
Saudi Arabia has developed strategies, plans, and national adaptation communications, which continue through the implementation of necessary actions and directions to address climate change challenges.
Goal 14: Life Below Water
The health of the oceans is closely linked to our health. The biodiversity found in the oceans offers tremendous potential for pharmaceuticals.
Goal 15: Life on Land
The increasing demand for animal protein, intensive and unsustainable agriculture, rising use and exploitation of wildlife, and the climate crisis are all factors contributing to the increased emergence of zoonotic diseases that transfer from wildlife to humans, such as COVID-19.
Goal 16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
Peace is a fundamental prerequisite for social and economic development. Without peace, communities often suffer from conflict, violence, and instability, which can hinder progress and lead to loss of lives and resources.
Goal 17: Partnerships to achieve the Goals
We will need to mobilize current and additional resources such as technology development, financial resources, and capacity building. Additionally, developed countries must fulfill their commitments related to official development assistance.
The General Authority for Statistics is the central authority in the Kingdom, which is authorized to collect and publish official statistical data, in cooperation and coordination with government agencies and institutions and the private sector. The authority also monitors the progress achieved in the sustainable development goals and publishes a periodic report in this regard in accordance with the international methodologies adopted in monitoring the indicators of development goals.
The Role of the General Authority for Statistics in the Sustainable Development Goals :
The General Authority for Statistics works with national partners and data providers to supply data on the Sustainable Development Goals and monitor the annual progress made in the indicators of these goals, as shown in the figure below.
Stage One
- Review and understand the Sustainable Development Goals and related indicators.
- List all indicators consistent with the underlying objectives. -
- Determine data sources
Stage Two
- Define data requirements for indicators from different sources.
- Preparing methodologies for calculating indicators.
- Communicate with data producers on provision of requirements for all indicators.
Stage Three
- Data reception and review.
- Check and ensure data quality.
- Calculating indicators according to approved international methodologies and standards.
Stage Four
- Harmonizing the calculated indicators with the data producers.
- Publication of the Sustainable Development Goals Report.
First: Steps taken by the General Authority for Statistics.
- The General Authority for Statistics works with government institutions and private sector institutions related to the production of data for the goals of sustainable development.
- Using a specific and detailed monitoring and evaluation plan to follow up and receive data from the concerned authorities.
- The General Authority for Statistics monitors the progress made in achieving the goals of sustainable development.
- The General Authority for Statistics is working on writing a detailed annual report on the progress of sustainable development indicators.
Second: Cooperation with international institutions and organizations.
- The General Authority for Statistics is inspired to establish strong and effective cooperation with the international community represented in the United Nations and other international organizations (such as the World Health Organization, the United Nations Development Programme, FAO and UNICEF).
- The General Authority for Statistics is looking for information exchange and wants to deal with it as the main source of data and information at the national and international levels.
Third: Enhancing the ability of workers to collect, analyse and interpret data.
The follow-up and review mechanism for the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development requires a good framework of indicators and statistical data to monitor progress and achieve policies and ensure accountability of all those responsible for achieving the goals. The General Authority for Statistics has given priority to specifically building and strengthening the capabilities of workers. Capacity building will take place at two levels: individuals and institutions/departments:
Individual level: Developing individuals' knowledge, skills, and experience in different types of indicators, their calculations, scientific research methods, and statistical methods. Practical examples related to the indicators covered in the SDG report (health, education, environment, etc.) will be given. This will depend on the availability of the competent expertise of the attendees.
We hope this will produce a team of highly trained researchers who can transfer their acquired knowledge and skills to junior researchers in the field of sustainable development.
Institutional level: Integration with relevant agencies and institutions in developing and analysing policies, procedures and measurements related to food, education, and environment issues.
Fourth: Leave no one behind
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, like the international community, is committed to "leaving no one behind" by 2030, as relevant ministries and partners have begun working to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by that year. In other words, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is aware of the importance of commitment to achieving sustainable development goals at the international level, but more importantly, the Kingdom is concerned with achieving a decent life for the population. For these reasons, all of the sustainable development goals must be addressed and achieved and they will leave no one behind. This will be an incentive for the Kingdom represented by the Ministry of Economy and Planning and the General Authority for Statistics to work in coordination and cooperation with all governmental and non-governmental institutions to ensure the completeness of data and information on all indicators.
Fifth: The formation of a higher committee to supervise the goals of sustainable development.
In order to achieve the integrated efforts of government institutions and the General Authority for Statistics, and high-level commitment by institutions to support the project of sustainable development goals, and in order to ensure the sustainability and follow-up of related work, a steering committee for sustainable development goals was formed headed by His Excellency the Minister of Economy and Planning. This committee assumes clear responsibilities, for example, but not limited to developing a detailed national plan to monitor the progress of the sustainable development goals and solve problems that hinder performance. Meetings were also held with via the Internet with representatives of the bodies, agencies and institutions responsible for providing data for the sustainable development goals, seminars. Technical workshops with major partners and international institutions on issues related to sustainable development goals, as well as holding individual workshops with data producers to provide data and discuss the data gap.
Finally: Partnership for Development Goals.
And given that the sustainable development goals are interrelated with each other, and the progress made in any of them is reflected in the other goals. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has developed a framework for partnership between the relevant parties, whether national or international, in order to coordinate efforts and maximize impact in the context of monitoring the sustainable development goals in line with the seventeenth goal (partnerships To achieve the goals).