the entire region. Currently, the League of Arab States, UN Environment and UN- ESCWA are working in conjunction to consolidate an environmentally-focused SDGs Priority List of the Arab Working Group on Sustainable Development as was agreed in Amman in March 2017, with the environmentally-related SGDs Priority List of the Implementation Framework for the Environmental Dimension of the 2030 Agenda in the Arab Region adopted in Cairo in September 2017 in line with the recommendation of the Arab Ministers Responsible for the Environment. The Arab Land Initiative also provides a good framework which would help further the environmental dimension of development (UN-Habitat 2018a).
Progress and gaps
At present, the protracted conflicts, economic marginalisation, and increased stress on the environment and economy all endanger the progress of sustainable development in the West Asia and North Africa region. However, should the regional priorities be examined in isolation from social, economic, and institutional priorities, the scope and impact of solutions will be ephemeral. As such, SDG 13 on Climate Change is particularly critical to the successful implementation of sustainable development initiatives in the region as it not only tackles several pertinent climate hazards faced by West Asia and North Africa (e.g. increased temperature, variable rainfall, and rising sea levels), but also underlines the interconnected nature of sustainable development. Impacts of climate change are expected to be felt in water resources, agriculture, biodiversity, public health, and coastal development, all of which are pertinent issue areas to the West Asia and North Africa region and would benefit from their interconnectedness being acknowledged as a policy priority. Additionally, the economic, social, and environmental impacts and costs resulting from climate-related extreme events such as heat waves, floods, cyclones, droughts, as well as sand and dust storms, are already evident in the region. Indeed, under business-as-usual conditions, it is expected that unsustainable development will continue, accompanied by exponential population growth that exceeds the environment’s carrying capacity. Already the uncontrolled human consumption in the region has led to an increase in municipal solid waste production, 90 per cent of which is disposed of in unlined landfill sites and leachate from these is contaminating scarce groundwater reserves. The pursuit of SDG target 12.4 is generally hampered by technical, administrative, and financial shortcomings in some countries. Hence, achieving effective environmental governance requires a holistic examination of the nature of regional priorities and their interdependencies in order to propose solutions that
Road after a sandstorm in Dubai (Schwaerzler 2017).
are relevant and produce more permanent outcomes that reflect the seriousness of the region’s challenges.
Conclusion
Countries within North Africa and West Asia are showing various levels of capacity to monitor the implementation of SDGs. However, there is evidence of an impetus to advocate on behalf of and nurture the initiatives laid out by the 2030 Agenda. As such, the forward-looking focus for the West Asia and North Africa region should be to provide support, particularly in regard to capacity development of national bodies, wherever possible. This is the most direct route to identifying, assessing and monitoring progress. Although West Asia and North Africa has made some progress in relation to education (SDG 4), health (SDG 3), and infrastructure development (SDG 9), there still remains significant challenges in terms of achieving these goals in a proportionate and sustained manner. Furthermore, the region faces a multitude of challenges, with many threatening to worsen as a direct result of climate change, and it is only through the adoption of a holistic approach to these issues, and together with the establishment of environmental databases such as PRTRs as basis for monitoring and effective decision making, that significant and sustainable beneficial policies can be enacted.
Sustainable Development Goal
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