WGS 2026: Arab Cities Culture & Creative Industries Index launched

The Mohammed Bin Rashid School of Government (MBRSG) announced the Arab Cities Culture and Creative Industries (CCI) Index at the 2026 edition of the World Governments Summit, taking place in Dubai from Feb 3-6.

The index is the first regionally-grounded and evidence-based framework building on UNESCO’s frameworks to quantify the contributions that culture and creativity make to urban development in the Arab region. It is planned as an advanced policy-enabling tool designed to position culture and creative industries as a core component of future governance models, marking a significant paradigm shift where culture is recognised not merely as a social asset, but as a strategic pillar of economic resilience, innovation, and inclusive growth.

A panel was held to launch the index at the Summit, with a keynote speech from Ernesto Ottone Ramirez, UNESCO’s Assistant Director-General for Culture, followed by a panel discussion bringing together Hala Badri, Director General of Dubai Culture & Arts Authority (Dubai Culture), and Dr. Ali bin Sebaa Al Marri, Executive President of MBRSG, and moderated by Dr. Fadi Salem, Director of Policy Research at MBRSG.

“Launching the Arab Cities Culture and Creative Industries Index marks a definitive transition from ambition-led strategies to data-informed cultural policymaking,” said Dr. Ali Al Marri. “By positioning culture as a core component of governance and a productive economic sector with measurable impact, we provide Arab cities with the tools to benchmark their creative ecosystems against global standards while respecting our unique regional context. This, in turn, resonates with our mission at the Mohammed Bin Rashid School of Government to empower governments and nurture leaders to shape a better, more prosperous future.”

“This Index is more than a measurement tool,” Al Marri added. “It paves the way for deeper diversification into the creative economies, strengthens capacity-building, and enables closer regional collaboration, which, in turn, brings international visibility for Arab cultural and creative ecosystems and highlights the region’s ambition to shape, rather than merely follow, the global discourse on the creative economy.”

Ernesto Ottone Ramirez, Assistant Director General for Culture at UNESCO, said: "UNESCO welcomes the launch of the Arab Culture and Creative Industries (CCI) Index, which strengthens the evidence base on CCI in the Arab region, providing reliable, comparable, and policy-relevant figures.

Such data is essential to guide public investment, inform decision-making, support inclusive cultural policies, and monitor culture’s contribution to sustainable development.”

Hala Badri, Director General of Dubai Culture: “Dubai is proud to be among the first participating cities in the Arab Cities Culture and Creative Industries Index, led by the Mohammed Bin Rashid School of Government in partnership with UNESCO and the World Governments Summit.”

She emphasised that the launch of the index marks a significant step in highlighting culture’s role in advancing societies and positioning the cultural and creative industries as a key contributor to the emirate’s knowledge- and innovation-driven economy.

She added: “The Index is a strategic tool for assessing the creative ecosystem across the Arab region, identifying policy and investment priorities, and fostering regional cooperation. It provides valuable insights to guide evidence-based decisions in cultural policy and investment in the creative economy.”

She continued: “With its ambitious vision and supportive legislative framework, Dubai has built an ecosystem that attracts entrepreneurs and talent from around the world. Incubators for start-ups enable creative professionals to pursue their ambitions and generate economic value, reinforcing Dubai’s position as a global centre for culture, an incubator for creativity, and a thriving hub for talent.”

The Arab CCI Index is distinct in its “by the region, for the region” design, which enables it to respond specifically to the institutional and economic contexts of Arab cities, while remaining fully aligned with international standards to ensure global comparability.

The index serves as a vital policy-enabling tool, providing governments and urban planners with the insights needed to make evidence-based decisions on cultural policy and governance, urban planning and regeneration, economic diversification strategies, and creative economy investment.

Moreover, the Index adopts a city-level approach, allowing Arab cities to benchmark their cultural and creative ecosystems, identify policy and investment priorities, and strengthen collaboration across the region.

The index leverages the strengths of each partner: MBRSG’s research and regional capacity-building expertise, UNESCO’s inclusive frameworks and insight as the global authority on culture, and the global platform of the World Governments Summit. It also benefits from the vision and expertise of leading entities across the region that spearheaded the development of the cultural and creative economy development.

The partnership ensures that the Index will serve as a long-term knowledge platform, with annual updates intended to drive capacity-building and regional collaboration for years to come.