A number of UN initiatives exist within the Arab region to support the achievement of the MDGs. One of these initiatives is the publication of a regional Arab MDG Report (AMDGR), which aims to take stock of progress towards the achievement of MDGs within the region. The most recent AMDGR was published in 2005 and paints a diverse picture on the progress towards achieving the MDGs in the Arab world. While the high-income Gulf countries have demonstrated the most advanced progress towards achieving the MDGs, the least developed countries including Comoros, Djibouti, Mauritania, Sudan, Somalia and Yemen, in addition to Iraq and Palestine will fail to meet the majority of the goals by the year 2015. The majority of middle-income Maghreb and Mashreq countries including Jordan, on the other hand, vary in their potential for reaching individual goals. Supporting the achievement of the MDGs and reducing human poverty therefore constitute a key pillar of UNs work in the Arab States region and a number of regional programmes for MDG achievement address critical regional deficits and emerging human development priorities targeting poverty reduction (MDG 1), gender equality and women’s empowerment (MDG 3), scaling up the response to HIV/AIDS (MDG 6) and water resources management (MDG 7).

“Capacity 2015”is a UN global partnership mechanism assisting countries to develop the capacity of their professionals, institutions, and systems to formulate and implement strategies for sustainable development to achieve local, national and international development goals. It works with developing and transitional countries to build and develop their capacity for sustainable development based on proven successes.  The Capacity 2015 Arab States Programme is focused on five simultaneous tracks of: 

-        Mainstreaming MDG-Based Development into Planning Process, advocacy for the MDGs and Leadership Skills;

-        Localizing the MDGs

-        Direct MDG-Related Interventions: Gender Empowerment and Environmental Sustainability; 

-        Development of tools, how-to-guides, concept papers on focus areas;

-        Knowledge Sharing of Best Practices and Lessons Learned. 

Given these priorities, almost all of the programmes" activities in the region are MDG related. Having concluded the start-up phase and closed or converted all previous Capacity 21 projects, the Capacity 2015 Arab States Programme is now active in Djibouti, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestinian Authority, Sudan and Syria promoting MDG-based development.