Sustainable development in Saudi Arabia, past, present and future

This thesis examines the status of sustainable development in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It seeks to analyze the various factors supporting or hindering the progress of the Kingdom towards sustainable development. It will apply the framework developed by Ashford & Hall (2011) to assess the performance and interaction between economy, employment and environment while considering the forces of technology and globalization. The first part of the thesis will look at the current status of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Then, the three dimensions of sustainable development will be analyzed in great details followed by a short analysis of technology and trade. The analysis will then shift to the ambitious Saudi vision 2030 that aims to transform the Kingdom from an oil-dependent economy into a leading exporter of sustainable energy that has a diverse economy. The last part of the thesis will explore the focus areas which are limiting the Kingdom from progressing towards a greater degree of sustainable development. The major limitations include rapidly degrading environment, increasing unemployment rate, rising income inequality, endemic corruption, and minimal awareness about sustainable development. The thesis then concludes by summarizing the major points.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Engineering and Management Program

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2018

Author dc:creator

• Sayfayn, Nabil

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Nicholas A. Ashford.

• Engineering and Management Program.
• System Design and Management Program.

Statement dc:rights

• MIT theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed, downloaded, or printed from this source but further reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/120892

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/120892