Abhatoo - Centre Nationale de Documentation

The paper uses a structured database of national planning that ESCWA is compiling to identify the well-known and lesser-known features of development planning in the Arab region. The paper first explores international best practices and reflects on country-specific context to develop a typology of good planning criteria for the Arab region. Based on this typology, the paper offers preliminary stylized facts about planning and compares individual planning initiatives across the region. Above all, the findings indicate the region is suffering with the following difficulties : (1) a lack of structure among individual planning documents, (2) a weak relation to international frameworks, (3) the paucity of specific measurable indicators that would help to effectively monitor achievements, (4) many countries did not publish any planning documents targeting the long-term and medium-term development of their whole economy at all or (5) did not make them readily available on-line, which points towards insufficient transparency and impaired participation. Finally, the paper envisions a way forward for integrative planning in the Arab region while linking it to the 2030 Agenda.