By Abdullah Al-Dahass

Okaz/Saudi Gazette

Makkah — National cohesion in Saudi society exceeded 84%, according to a recent survey conducted by the King Abdul Aziz Center for National Dialogue as part of launching the National Cohesion Indicator.

The indicator measures conduct and practices of people and institutions in society in expressing their individual and collective feelings toward political, economic, socio-cultural and security issues.

The indicator is a result of a field survey with a sample of 5,855 Saudi men and women in 13 regions of the Kingdom. Some 200 male and female Saudi researchers participated in collecting data.

The indicator showed that socio-cultural cohesion was 87.12%, security cohesion 85.83%, political cohesion 80.95% and economic cohesion 75.21%.

Earlier this year, the King Abdul Aziz Center for National Dialogue signed a memorandum of cooperation with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) to build qualitative and quantitative indicators to encourage national cohesion.

The collaboration aims to benefit from international experiments and experiences in designing and building indicators, so that the Center can develop, construct, and find the best strategies in the field of consolidating the values of national cohesion.