Abdullah Alharbi: Saudi Arabia doubled number of sites on UNESCO World Heritage List

Saudi Arabia has achieved its goal of doubling the number of UNESCO World Heritage sites ahead of schedule, Abdullah Alharbi, a representative of the Saudi Arabian Center for Quality of Life Program, said during a panel discussion at WUF13, as quoted by Report.

"In 2016, we had four UNESCO World Heritage sites. By 2024, this number had increased to eight," he noted.

Alharbi emphasized that the program's results are reflected in international rankings.

"Since the launch of Saudi Vision 2030, the Kingdom has risen 15 places in the World Happiness Report and now ranks 22nd globally," he concluded.

He also announced that Saudi Arabia, together with UN-Habitat, is implementing the global Quality of Life initiative, aimed at assessing the quality of life in cities, taking into account their local characteristics.

According to Alharbi, the initiative emerged due to the lack of tools to objectively assess the impact of urban programs and projects on the quality of life of the population.

"Today, there are numerous different indices that evaluate countries, not cities, and consider the global, not the local, context," Alharbi stated.

According to him, the initiative covers nine areas, including infrastructure, housing, education, transportation, and social cohesion.

He noted that the initiative was launched in 2023 and has already attracted the interest of more than 100 cities from over 50 countries on six continents.