In the context of the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development the Statistics Division and the Sustainable Development Policies Division at the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (UN-ESCWA) are organizing a regional Preparatory Meeting of the Arab Working Group on Sustainable Development Indicators in cooperation with the League of Arab States (LAS), the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), Abu Dhabi Global Environmental Data Initiative (AGEDI), the Islamic Education, Sciences and Culture Organization (ISESCO) and the Center for Environment and Development for the Arab Region and Europe (CEDARE), during 14-16 December, 2015 in Cairo, Egypt.

The main objectives of the meeting is to discuss the Regional Sustainable Development goals and targets of the Proposal on Strategic Framework for Sustainable Development, to be aligned to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development,  to review the proposed set of indicators and the outcomes of the second IAEG-SDG meeting in Bangkok , held during 26-28 October 2015, and to present the key findings of the Arab Sustainable Development Report on tracking progress and assessing sustainable development policies,  based on previous experiences of the Arab region about sustainable development statistics, data collection and dissemination under the Arab working group on Sustainable Development Indicators.