The Pearl Initiative conducted a survey in October 2016 engaging business leaders from across the Gulf Countries to get a sense of the current awareness on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The survey report was launched during the Pearl Initiative and United Nations Global Compact Second Regional Forum on 27 October 2016.

Some of the key findings were that 92 percent of respondents believe working towards the SDGs will positively impact their business sustainability. 80 percent believe in the power of multi-stakeholder collaborations to move the SDG agenda forward, while 64 percent claimed that their company has made a commitment towards the SDGs. However the results also demonstrated that only 20 percent of the respondents believed that a majority of regional companies will be effectively implementing initiatives to progress the SDGs in the next 5 years.