Madinah Shines Light on Innovative SDG Initiatives in UN Forum in New York
RIYADH / NEW YORK Madinah Region Development Authority participated in the main session of the United Nations Headquarters-hosted High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development in New York to highlight the local Saudi leadership in advancing the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
At the session “Transformation from the Ground Up: Action at Local Level,” the agency highlighted Madinah’s pioneering steps towards localizing sustainable development as an international model of effective, evidence-based implementation.
Abdulrahman Ibrahim, the agency’s Chief Data and Innovation Officer, emphasized that Madinah is gaining prominence for adopting global best practices in SDG localization. Some of the staggering milestones highlighted include:
2023 Madinah City Voluntary Local Review – the Kingdom’s first and the Arab world’s second.
2024 State of Sustainable Development Report for Madinah Region the Arab region’s first Voluntary Subnational Review.
Atlas of Sustainable Development in Madinah City Neighborhoods a world first with neighborhood-level SDG analysis.
These state-of-the-art tools reflect Madinah’s commitment to precise, people-oriented reactions to sustainable development and reflect the broader hopes of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030.
The workshop additionally touched upon models of successful regional and local approaches for speedy rollout of SDGs and emphasized ways in which data, innovation, and good governance can be utilized as drivers of transformational change.
Madinah’s presence was represented under the Saudi delegation led by Economy and Planning Minister Faisal Alibrahim, and this echoed the Kingdom’s drive to establish a strong and inclusive development trajectory in line with global goals.
The UN session, which continues until July 23, also involves talks on city resilience, sustainable innovation, and city-level data strategies for global development.
