As the Arab region approaches the midpoint of the Decade of Action for delivering the goals, taking actions to accelerate the realization of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is now more critical than ever. Faced with growing developmental needs, countries in the Arab region stand to benefit, individually and collectively, if they actively pursue the achievement of SDGs on all fronts. These efforts should target generating impactful positive outcomes in every single domain of sustainable development for all Arab countries; a monumental collective challenge. To successfully steer efforts in pursuit of the SDGs, accurate and representative evidence should be made available to policy makers, among all other stakeholders. Utilizing data-driven approaches empowers all stakeholders to identify challenges and make informed decisions towards realizing the sustainable development goals.

At this crucial juncture, the aim of the Arab Region SDG Index and Dashboards 2023 Report is to provide a data-driven practical tool for governments, policymakers and other stakeholders to measure progress on the SDGs, and to highlight implementation challenges and data gaps, as a foundation for actions.

Practically, the Index comprises 113 indicators covering the 17 SDGs, each of which have an assigned score (0–100) and a traffic light color (green, yellow, orange, or red) to indicate performance. In addition, arrows visually indicate trends in progress towards achieving the goals for those indicators where data for multiple years are available. Among the indicators, the 2023 Arab Region Index has 29 unique indicators that specifically reflect regional priorities and challenges.

The findings of this report come at a point when the Arab region hosts the 28th United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conference of Parties (COP) in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which follows another COP hosted regionally, the 27th COP in Egypt. Therefore, this edition of the Arab Index, includes a section dedicated to highlighting findings related to environmental sustainability and climate action.