As is known, the United Nations announced the Sustainable Development Goals in 2015 to cover the period from 2015 to 2030, consisting of 17 development goals. Since their announcement, countries have raced to achieve their goals, and the Kingdom is no exception. Praise be to God, the Kingdom was able to achieve many of these goals, and even exceeded them by many stages. This article will be devoted to reviewing the report of the General Authority for Statistics on the indicators of the sustainable development goals for the year 2020. Based on the speech of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, in which he says: “We are part of this world, we live with its problems and the challenges it faces, and we all share in this responsibility, and we will contribute - God willing - effectively to developing solutions to many of the world’s pressing issues, including environmental issues and promoting sustainable development, and we will continue to work on that with international organizations and institutions and international partners,” as well as the speech of the Crown Prince, including: “In order to preserve the special and unique environmental character of the region, laws and mechanisms will be put in place regarding environmental sustainability, whereby Working to preserve natural resources in accordance with the best practices and standards applicable globally. The Kingdom’s Vision 2030 has adopted many programmes, initiatives and projects that enhance efforts to achieve sustainable development, including the Housing Programme, the Quality of Life Programme, the Financial Balance Programme, the National Character Programme, and the National Industries Development and Logistics Services Programme. In this context, the Kingdom continues to achieve remarkable achievements in many fields. Despite the difficulty of reviewing the content of the 136-page report, we will suffice with glimpses that reflect some important indicators, including: The gender parity index in education was impressive, as there are no significant gaps between the sexes (males and females), but what is striking is the low secondary completion rate for both males and females, as it does not exceed 63 percent for the total of the two genders, and the percentage for males drops to 61 percent. There is a noticeable improvement in ICT skills, especially among young people. On the other hand, the report indicates that the percentage of beneficiaries of safe drinking water services reaches 99.7 percent, the percentage of beneficiaries of sanitation services reaches 100 percent according to United Nations standards, and the percentage of wastewater treated in safe ways reaches 57 percent. One of the remarkable things is that the percentage of women between the ages of 20 and 24 who were married before the age of 15 does not exceed 1 percent. In the same context, that is, in the field of women’s empowerment, the participation rate in the Shura Council reaches about 20 percent. The report also indicates that income did not change much between 2016 and 2019, as it increased from 6,225 to 6,313 riyals, and this is for the total number of workers. The contribution of the tourism sector to the gross domestic product decreases, not exceeding 2 percent, and it is noteworthy that the percentage of employment in the industrial sector decreased from about 16 percent to 10 percent. One of the cheering statistics is the decrease in the death rate resulting from traffic injuries from 25.58 in 2015 to 16.82 per 100 people in 2019. This reflects the development of the efforts of the General Traffic Department and the benefit of modern technologies through the Saher system in particular. It is not surprising that there has been a significant increase in official development assistance flows for scholarships. For example, the Kingdom’s grant to cover the costs of the study program for Syrian refugee students in Jordan and Lebanon at the Arab Open University increased from 693 thousand to 937 thousand riyals. In conclusion, it is unfortunate that this report does not keep pace with the Kingdom’s development leaps and great achievements. It suffers from a major deficiency in some important indicators and inaccuracy in others, and it did not clarify the targeted quantitative levels to compare the Kingdom’s achievements with the international goals for sustainable development. Perhaps this report and others like it ring the bell of the urgent need to improve the accuracy and comprehensiveness of statistics and the standards for using them, because data is essential for evaluating the goals of the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 as well as the five-year development plans, and before that setting appropriate plans and conducting useful studies for society. Saudi. Source: Al-Eqtisadiah
