Enhancing integrated national development planning

The Arab region faces many political and socio-economic structural challenges. National development planning plays a vital role in economic prosperity and improving social dynamics and the wellbeing of populations.

Arab countries pledged to reach the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and integrated many of the goals into their national development priorities. However, many national plans in the region are badly structured and poorly implemented due to structural and behavioural obstacles in the planning process.

Our approach

In order to ensure sustainable and inclusive growth, ESCWA  supports Member States to achieve their long-term development visions through enhancing integrated, strategic and better-coordinated development planning.

ESCWA works to enhance awareness and engage policymakers in an integrated approach to development planning through strengthening their capacities to design integrated and implementable national development plans.

Our partners

• Ministries of planning in Member States
• Ministries of economy, industry, trade, education others directly engaged in development planning
• Civil society organizations and the private sector
• League of Arab States
• The United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs
• The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean
• United Nations Development Programme
• United Nations Country Teams

Our activities

ESCWA established the Arab National Development Portal to support Member States in sharing information and resources. The portal aims to demonstrate the extent to which Arab national development plans align with the SDGs.

ESCWA publishes research and develops materials on integrative national development planning such as a toolkit and manual on behavioural insights and strategic planning guidelines. The manual is also available as an online course.

ESCWA organizes national and regional workshops and capacity-building programmes on the need to revisit the current framework for development planning. It also develops complimentary planning tools for forecasting targets and determining policies and builds the capacity of policymakers to design integrated and implementable national development policies. ESCWA develops capacity-building programmes on regulatory reform and effective budgeting towards integrated planning.