Achieving Sustainable Development Goals In The UAE

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has made significant progress in Sustainable Development since signing up to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals framework upon its establishment in 2015. The country has made significant progress since then, by shaping the National Agenda, establishing dedicated governance, and by deploying various initiatives.

Given the pace of economic development in the UAE, the Government understands that sustainability efforts are most effective if supported by the private sector. Open communication regarding priorities and challenges, and timely support for each other’s initiatives are key to enabling continuous progress going forward.

This report was written to facilitate a dialogue between the Government and the private sector in order to learn how they can support each other. It outlines the priorities for the UAE and analyzes other countries’ approaches to similar challenges. Extensive interviews have been conducted with UAE private sector companies to understand how they ensure the sustainability of their core businesses and contribute to addressing the UAE’s priority issues – all with the view to improve the country’s score on the UN’s 17 Sustainable development goals.