Partnerships for the Goals

The Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) would like to thank the following national coordinators from member States for their efforts in coordinating, collecting data, communicating with national institutions to fill out the various forms of the Government Electronic and Mobile Services Maturity Index (GEMS) and making valuable observations: Mr. Laraj Zerrouki (Ministry of Post and Telecommunications, Algeria), Ms. Fatima Musaiger (Information and eGovernment Authority, Bahrain), Mr. Abbas Abdul Kadhim (Ministry of Planning, Iraq), Ms. Sura Al-Khatib (Ministry of Digital Economy and Entrepreneurship, Jordan), Mr. Abdul Karim Al-Fowzan (Central Agency for Information Technology, Kuwait), Mr. Mohamed Salem Al-Qambari (General Information Authority, Libya), Mr. Mohamed Ould Bob (Ministry of Digital Transformation and Modernization of the Administration, Mauritania), Ms. Asma Afifi and Ms. Salma Khales (Agency of Digital Development, Morocco), Ms. Sumaya Al-Kindi and Ms. Omaima Al-Khanbashi (Ministry of Transport, Communications and Information Technology, Oman), Mr. Fadi Morjana (Ministry of Telecommunications and Digital Economy, the State of Palestine), Ms. Haya Al-Ansari and Ms. Noor Al-Kuwari (Ministry of Information and Communications Technology, Qatar), Mr. Majid Abdulla Al-Haidar (Digital Government Authority, Saudi Arabia), Mr. Zakaria Ismail and Mr. Mohamed Shafi (Ministry of Communications and Technology, Somalia), Ms. Maysoon Yassin (Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, the Syrian Arab Republic), Mr. Riad Ouslati (eGovernment Unit – Government Presidency, Tunisia), Mr. Ahmad Al-Aleeli and Mr. Abdel-Rahman Nazir (Telecommunications and Digital Government Regulatory Authority, the United Arab Emirates), and Mr. Raed Saeed (Ministry of Telecommunications and Information Technology, Yemen).

GEMS aims to measure the maturity of government services provided through portals and mobile applications in Arab countries.

Amid uneven SDG progress and overlapping crises, efforts to deliver sustainable development that leaves no one behind continue to face persistent, intersecting barriers—even where commitments are strong. Consider, for example, the experience of a woman with a disability in an informal settlement: she cannot afford assistive devices, faces inaccessible infrastructure, encounters weak enforcement of rules, experiences hiring bias and may struggle to evacuate during an earthquake. This scenario shows how multiple barriers converge to deepen exclusion. This policy brief highlights five dimensions where exclusion is often observed—affordability, access, governance, participation and external shocks, among others—and illustrates how governments are responding in each through policy examples and observations. Insights are drawn from 2024–2025 country implementation updates from thirteen countries that announced commitments at the 2023 SDG Summit, as well as 2025 Voluntary National Review (VNR) reports from three additional countries3 with such commitments. The analysis is intended to inform global policy discussions, including, as relevant, the World Social Summit under the title Second World Summit for Social Development.

Non-tariff measures (NTMs) play a crucial role in shaping international trade. While tariffs remain important instruments of trade policy, NTMs increasingly play a prominent role in determining market access and trade costs. According to UNCTAD, NTMs tend to have a significantly greater impact on trade costs than tariffs. Thus, NTMs may - even unintentionally - act as barriers to trade. Moreover, they often serve legitimate public policy objectives, such as protecting health, safety and the environment. Unlike tariffs, which are relatively straightforward to quantify—typically expressed as a percentage of the product’s value or in monetary terms—NTMs are inherently more complex. They encompass a wide range of regulatory measures, including product requirements, health and safety regulations, and import quotas, whose trade effects are not easily measurable. Their administration is often fragmented across multiple government agencies, further complicating transparency and analysis. Tariffs are more transparent, as countries generally publish and communicate their tariff schedules to the public and World Trade Organization. As NTMs continue to grow in importance, understanding their nature, incidence, scope, implementation, and impact on trade is essential for policymakers, researchers, and stakeholders engaged in global trade. This guideline presents possible analytical approaches used to support policymakers in understanding and designing regulations that minimize costs to trading businesses while maintaining important public policy objectives. This document focuses on methodologies that can be used to assess the impact of NTMs on trade and development.

The TRAINS database enables transparency in how NTMs are used across countries, sectors and time. However, to use these complex data effectively for policy formulation and trade impact analysis, it is important to understand how to interpret them correctly and avoid common pitfalls.

Non-tariff measures (NTMs) play a crucial role in shaping international trade. While tariffs remain important instruments of trade policy, NTMs increasingly play a prominent role in determining market access and trade costs.