  In a fast-changing technology-driven era, drafting an implementable strategic
roadmap to achieve economic prosperity becomes a real challenge. Although the
national and international strategic development plans may vary, they usually
target the improvement of the quality of living standards through boosting the
national GDP per capita and the creation of decent jobs. There is no doubt that
human capacity building, through higher education, is vital to the availability
of highly qualified workforce supporting the implementation of the
aforementioned strategies. In other words, fulfillment of most strategic
development plan goals becomes dependent on the drafting and implementation of
successful higher education strategies. For MENA region countries, this is
particularly crucial due to many specific challenges, some of which are
different from those facing developed nations. More details on the MENA region
higher education strategic planning challenges as well as the proposed higher
education strategic requirements to support national economic prosperity and
fulfill the 2030 UN SDGs are given in the paper.
