Since the very inception of the SDGs, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia took an active part in related consultations and has pledged its commitment to meet the goals once they were endorsed in September 2015. Since then, Saudi Arabia has always reaffirmed its commitment during its participation in various regional and international conferences and forums. The Ministry of Education and Planning (MEP) promotes the role of the private sector and charitable societies and associations towards realization of the SDGs, through development of methodologies and proposals designed to improve productivity and efficiency of the public, private and third sectors. In addition, MEP assigns tasks to government agencies to track and monitor the goals that fall within their jurisdictions. In this regard, the General Authority for Statistics builds the indicators which measure progress made towards the realization of goals, through expansion of statistical work carried out to provide the necessary information and the data.

In addition, Saudi Arabia has developed several strategies and plans that are bound to promote the seventeen goals of sustainable development. Among these are the National Environmental Strategy, the National Strategy for Conservation of Biodiversity, the Vegetation Restoration Strategy in Riyadh region, the National Plan for Management of Natural Disasters, the National Marine Disaster Management Plan and the National Chemical and Bacteriological Incidents Management Plan.

Since the SDGs also have strong relevance to universities and the tertiary and academic sectors more broadly, so education, research, innovation and leadership will be essential in helping societies address these challenges. It should be noted here that the contribution of universities to the SDGs is much broader, as they can support the implementation of every one of the SDGs as well as the implementation of the SDG framework itself.

In this sense, and due to its broad remit around the creation and dissemination of knowledge and its unique position within the Saudi society, KAU has a critical role to play in the achievement of the SDGs and consequently aligned its strategy, internal policies and governance to embrace and implement the SDGs with the collaboration of the Saudi government and NGOs.

KAU has started this journey by aligning existing activities to SDGs, identifying pain areas & weaknesses, developing/updating policies and strategies to empower SDGs, and maintain a close follow up on this overall process for the sake of continuous improvement.

As a result, KAU has established the “Strategic Center for Kingdom's Vision Realization” with the following list of goals:

• Contribute to achieving the Kingdom's vision and its programs within the university.

• Upgrade the performance of university employees to reach excellence in implementing the programs initiatives that achieve the Kingdom's vision.

• Provide data and information related to the Kingdom's vision and strategic planning to support senior management decisions and university sectors, according to jurisdiction.

• Work on building the self-capabilities of the university’s employees in the field of the Kingdom’s vision, national transformation programs and various strategic planning fields.

• Adopt the scientific methodology in planning and strategic management as a means for all fields and sectors of work at the university.

• Collect data and information related to the center's competences, its tasks and assignments, as well as documenting, analyzing, processing and preserving that data and information.

• Prepare forward-looking studies, following up on developments and challenges in the university's fields of work and interests and submitting the necessary suggestions to them.

• Contribute to spreading and educating the university community about the Kingdom's vision, the programs emanating from it and the university's strategic plans, which contribute to activating the positive university participation and contribution at all levels and sectors.