Introduction

The “indicator” web pages, developed in the framework of the monitoring of the implementation of the Mediterranean Strategy for Sustainable Development (MSSD), are intended to provide a first answer to the question: Are the Mediterranean countries progressing towards sustainable development?

The objectives of these web pages are to have the MSSD 2016-2025 implementation monitored and evaluated on a periodic basis through this agreed set of indicators in line with Sustainable Development Goals and to be presented as a Mediterranean sustainability online dashboard adopted by the Barcelona Convention COP 21, Naples 2 nd to 5th December 2019. 

This document includes 28 web pages, for each of the 28 indicators selected to monitor the progress made by the Mediterranean countries regarding the 6 objectives of the MSSD 2016- 2025, in line as much as possible with the SDGs:

1. Ensuring sustainable development in marine and coastal areas 
2. Promoting resource management, food production and food security through sustainable forms of rural development 
3. Planning and managing sustainable Mediterranean cities 
4. Addressing climate change as a priority issue for the Mediterranean 
5. Transition towards a green and blue economy 
6. Improving governance in support of sustainable Development

Some well-known composite indicators such Human Development Index (HDI) and Ecological Footprint are also included to show the overall progress observed in terms of sustainable development. The indicators shown in these webpages are those with sufficient amounts of data available mainly from international sources.

Common precautions:
- The access to the datasets varies among indicators. Sometimes the datasets are very simple and well structured, sometimes they are very complex which makes the extraction and the analysis more difficult (huge databases; access with a required password,...)
- We are in 2023 but the update dates vary from 2019 (for indicators 7, 12, 20, 23) to 2023 (for indicator 6)

Specific precautions:
- Indicator 3 faced a change of its calculation method from 2021.
- Indicators 4 and 27 don't have new data for this round of update.
- Indicator 5 title's changed compare to 2021
- Indicators 8 and 10 faced an "a posteriori" reassessment of their values. They have been redesigned based on the new datasets.
- Indicator 20: the unit changed (from "kg/cap/year" to "% or ton per year")

The indicators to follow-up the MSSD 2005-2015 were presented in paper factsheets updated and published every 2 years from 2005 to 2013 and from 2015 to 2021 for the MSSD 2016-2025. Since 2023, the indicators are available for the first time online in a digital and interactive manner.
The analysis can consider the groups of countries usually utilized by Plan Bleu:

- The Northern Mediterranean Countries (NMC) gather twelve countries or entities: AL, BA, CY, ES, FR, GR, HR, IT, MC, ME, MT and SI.
- The Southern and Eastern Mediterranean Countries (SEMC) gather ten countries or entities: DZ, EG, IL, LB, LY, MA, PS, SY, TN and TR