Physical activity policy in Saudi Arabia: analysis of progress and challenges

ABSTRACT

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is currently undergoing radical and dynamic changes towards development and prosperity across various domains. The Saudi government is focused on promoting physical activity because of its economic, health and cultural benefits. Therefore, sport policy represents a key part of the Saudi government’s Vision (Vision 2030) within the national Quality of Life Programme. The purpose of the study was to analyse the initiatives within the policy that relate to physical activity promotion across the population. The analysis was based on the Comprehensive Analysis of Policy on Physical Activity framework to audit and assess relevant parts of the policy. Published materials were appraised to provide evidence on the progress with achieving the policy’s goals and semi-structured interviews were conducted with stakeholders. Our analysis indicated an ambitious but well-founded policy and the achievement of several objectives. The most apparent achievements have thus far been the rapid, albeit modest cultural change in terms of physical activity, allowing women’s sports and stimulating the level of physical activity among Saudis. Nonetheless some goals are further from being achieved, particularly those around female participation in sports. In conclusion, some progress has been made in realising the policy in relation to physical activity, but various factors exist that have hindered success in certain areas.

KEYWORDS:

• Physical activity
• Sport participation
• Sport policy
• Saudi Arabia
• Vision 2030
• Women sports

Introduction

Physical activity is identified as a major policy lever for various social issues, including health, education and sustainability. Insufficient physical activity has been associated with multiple adverse outcomes. Forms of active transport, such as walking and cycling have been lauded for their health and social benefits. However, it is apparent that policy progress has been slow with limited change noted in population-wide physical activity levels (Guthold et al. 2018, Hallal and Pratt 2020).

In the Arab region, several governments have begun to create and implement specific physical activity policy (Amara 2017). In Saudi Arabia, Saudi Arabia’s Council of Economic and Development Affairs, which is chaired by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, has recently developed a national strategy called Vision 2030 (KSA-Government 2016b). The strategy is centred around three main themes: a vibrant society, a thriving economy and an ambitious country. The primary purpose of Vision 2030 is to transfer the national economy from its current state, which is highly dependent on oil income, to an economic and developmental pattern with independence from oil. Furthermore, the vision seeks to develop sectors such as health, industry, education, recreation, tourism, mining and infrastructure (KSA-Government 2016b). The Council of Economic and Development Affairs has developed eleven assistance programmes (examples are Public Investment Fund, Fiscal Sustainability, Human Capability Development and Quality of Life), including action plans to implement them in succession in order to enhance the opportunity of success in accomplishing the targets of the vision and to measure outcomes (KSA-Government 2016a). These ambitious programmes are intended to be short-term plans that contribute directly to achieving the vision goals. The Kingdom’s Vision 2030 is a long-term strategy, which means that positive results cannot be achieved in a short period, but several targets are planned to be achieved successively each year until 2030 (KSA-Government 2016a).

In May 2018 the government of Saudi Arabia launched the Quality of Life (QOL) Programme 2020 (KSA-Government 2018). The programme is aimed at improving the ‘liveability’ and ‘lifestyles’ of citizens and identifies public services, urban landscapes, heritage, culture, tourism, entertainment and sport as target areas. The importance placed on promoting population-level physical activity is evident from one of the primary specified programme objectives: ‘to increase public participation in sports and athletic activities’. The focus on physical activity represents a central part of the ‘Living healthy, Being Healthy’ section of Vision 2030 which falls under the overall goal of a ‘Vibrant Society … with Fulfilling Lives’.

Physical activity context of Saudi Arabia

Recent research has shown that physical inactivity has a detrimental impact on economies around the world (Janssen 2012, Min and Min 2016, Ding et al. 2016), compounding the damage to general population health and wellbeing. Guthold et al. (2018) reported that in 2016, physical inactivity was one of the most serious global challenges with more than 1.4 billion people at risk of developing diseases associated with physical inactivity. Specifically in Saudi Arabia, studies have consistently reported low levels of population physical activity (Al-Hazzaa 2018, Alahmed and Lobelo 2018, Althumiri et al. 2020, Alqahtani et al. 2021). The latest national survey conducted by the Saudi General Authority for Statistics in 2019 concluded that 78% of Saudis were inactive (General Authority for Statistics 2019).

Physical inactivity is established as a major contributor to noncommunicable diseases such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes and some cancers (World Health Organization 2018). Furthermore, an unambiguous relationship was indicated between physical inactivity and increasing obesity rates. In Saudi Arabia, it has been reported that among the population aged over 15 years, 1.6% of Saudis suffer from cardiovascular disease, 9.2% have hypertension and 10.1% are diagnosed with diabetes (General Authority for Statistics 2018). Moreover, according to a recent study, the obesity rate among Saudi adults reached 24.7% (Althumiri et al. 2021). In anticipation of the negative health consequences and in an attempt to reduce them, the QOL programme focuses on encouraging people to participate in exercise and shift to healthier lifestyles.

Physical activity policy in practice

While governments strive to implement their policies successfully, they face obstacles in achieving their goals. Therefore, over the last fifty years, there has been an increasing interest by researchers in examining and identifying the factors that affect the successful execution of policies. Hogwood et al. (1984) determined ten elements that contribute to the success of policies. These included for example the absence of insuperable external restrictions, the availability of sufficient resources and time, the availability of required combinations between resources and the availability of ideal communication between authorities. These elements correspond with most criteria for successful sport policies by Bull et al. (2004), such as the necessity of cooperation between authorities, the availability of resources and a clear time period. While Corkery and Schoenberg (2021) found that in the implementation of sports policy, accessibility, a focus on development, and availability of education and support all improve outcomes. The importance of formulating clear goals as a key factor in the success of the process has also been identified (Sabatier and Mazmanian 1979). Other authors have indicated research evidence to be important in facilitating policy implementation (Lengerke et al. 2004), along with adequate timeframes for developing implementation plans (Theis and White 2021).

However, much academic literature has acknowledged that seldom is policy executed as successfully and hoped for by policymakers (Smith 1973, Hogwood and Gunn 1993). Consequently, in recent years, policy design has been the focus of research to improve this rather than focusing on traditional administrative stumbling blocks (Ansell et al. 2017). Indeed modern physical activity policy guidelines tend to promote collaboration, inclusivity and adaptability as key tenets for effective implementation (World Health Organization 2019). Ultimately, the nature of physical activity however is that it represents a concern which is diffused throughout society, with the importance of physical activity not necessarily widely recognised, and there is often a lack of ownership of the problem of inactivity (Bull and Bauman 2011). Therefore, critically examining the progress and challenges of applying policy is an important step in order to create adaptive and effective policy.

In order to understand current physical activity policy in Saudi Arabia, this study was designed to address the following three aims.

1. Identify the parts of the Vision 2030’s Quality of Life programme that relate to physical activity promotion.

2. Evaluate the progress towards achieving programme goals through published and unpublished sources.

3. Explore the perspectives of stakeholders and academics regarding the challenges and opportunities involved in fulfilling elements of the policy.

Methods

The Comprehensive Analysis of Policy on Physical Activity (CAPPA) framework (Klepac Pogrmilovic et al. 2019) was used to guide this analysis. The CAPPA framework was developed specifically to guide analyses of physical activity policies in determining the purpose and scope of analysis along with identifying the policy sector, level, type and stage. As well as aiding researchers in providing a standardised format for examining relevant policy, the framework was suggested to help policymakers in the development, monitoring and implementation of policies for physical activity promotion.

According to the framework, analyses are conducted with the purpose of auditing and/or assessment of policies. The current study involved both these purposes. In the initial auditing phase, the framework was used to contextualise the policy by identifying and describing each of the elements of Vision 2030’s QOL programme that relate to physical activity promotion. This included extracting and summarising content from the official document issued by the Saudi government in 2018 on the QOL programme (KSA-Government 2018). Initiatives relating to physical activity were examined and information was reported about the policy type and level as well as the sectors involved and the current stage in its life cycle.

The assessment purpose of the analysis was addressed through two forms of data collection. The second phase of the study involved secondary data collection to examine the extent to which the governmental objectives related to physical activity promotion had been achieved. Information was collected from digital and paper newspapers from 2018 to middle of 2021, official government accounts on Twitter over the same period and the official website of Vision 2030. For each objective being examined, the sources were read systematically to identify any evidence that related to the achievement of specified targets. Saudi Press Agency, AlEkhbariya net, Alriyadh Newspaper and ArabNews are examples of the digital and paper newspapers reviewed. Many Twitter accounts were examined such as @SSSF_edu the official Twitter account for the Saudi School Sports Federation, @Susfchannel the official Twitter account for the Saudi Universities Sports Federation and @DawriMadaris the official Twitter account for the football league of Saudi schools.

The third phase of the study involved primary data collection in the form of interviews with stakeholders and independent academics engaged in policy research. Ethical clearance was obtained from Loughborough University’s Ethics Approvals (Human Participants) Sub-Committee (SSEHS-2616) and all interviewees provided informed consent to participate. Participants were purposefully selected for study due to their involvement in creating or applying the policies of the QOL programme or as academics with research programmes in sport policy, physical activity policy, sport management or public health. Nine individuals (all male) agreed to be interviewed. One was a policymaker and two were policy implementers associated with the main leading authorities (Ministry of Sport (MoS) and Ministry of Education (MoE)). The leading authorities are responsible for implementing the physical activity initiatives of the QOL programme. Six other academics were working in Saudi Universities with research programmes including physical activity, sport management and sport policies. The academics have been working in these fields for at least 20 years and collectively have published 223 journal papers and books on these subjects.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted face to face in Arabic between 10 January 2020 and 30 January 2020. Three versions of the interview guide were developed (one each for the policymaker, implementers and academics). For the policymaker, questions focused on the phases of planning, designing and evaluating the policy (e.g. What are the most important goals for the policy?). The guide for the policy implementers included questions about their roles in the implementation, current and former difficulties, and opportunities (e.g. Can you tell me about some of the difficulties you faced to implement the initiatives and how did you deal with them?). For academics, the questions were related to the extent to which the planned policies have been successfully implemented, anticipated challenges with implementation and realistic of desired outcomes of policy (e.g. In your opinion, what are the most difficulties that might face the implementation, and why?). Interviews lasted between 30 and 60 minutes (total of 397 minutes) and were audio recorded. All interview recordings were transcribed, then translated from Arabic to English and analysed using the process of thematic analysis outlined by Braun and Clarke (2019). This involved re-reading the transcripts to gain familiarity with the data, then uploading to a software programme NVivo12 (Version 12.7.0, QSR International, Melbourne, Australia), that was used to organise data and assist with coding. Following this, codes were collated into potential themes by the first author based on repetition, similarity, difference and causation and the authors met in order to discuss, review and refine the final themes.

Results

Phase one: a descriptive overview of the policy

For the audit purpose of the analysis, Table 1 provides a summary of the Vision 2030 QOL programme based on the CAPPA framework in relation to the policy aims of promoting physical activity. This covers the CAPPA elements of identifying the policy type, level, sector and stage. The programme represents a formal written national policy developed by the government aimed at improving multiple domains of QOL across all population age-groups. It involves four specific initiatives that are directly related to physical activity promotion, identified within the sport sector which are all at the stages of implementation and evaluation by the government. The four initiatives are 6.3.1 (enhance girls’ sports participation at the school level); initiative 6.3.20 (‘My Sport is My Future’ programme); initiative 6.3.21 (develop individual and collective sports competitions in universities), and 6.3.22 (national mindset and behavioural shift campaigns). The assessment purpose of the current analysis examines the progress made with these initiatives and the challenges involved, outlined in phase two and three. The scope of this analysis is primarily around the content and effects of these policies.

Table 1. Audit of the vision 2030 quality of life programme based on the Comprehensive Analysis of Policy on Physical Activity (CAPPA) elements.

CAPPA elements	Physical activity policy within the Quality of Life Programme
Type of policy	The policy is a formal written type published in 2018 including 220 initiatives across all sectors with associated key performance indicators for improving the quality of life of citizens (KSA-Government 2018). One of the primary aims is identified as increase public participation in sports and athletic activities’.
Level of policy	The policy is at national level targeting the whole population (children, adults and older adults) including people with disabilities. The programme was developed by the Saudi Council of Economic and Development Affairs (KSA- Government 2016a).
Policy sector	The policy involves nine sectors: health, sport, recreation and leisure, education, transport, environment, urban/rural planning and design, tourism and public finance (KSA-Government 2018). The initiatives that are directly related to physical activity promotion fall within the sport sector: initiative 6.3.1 (enhance girls’ sports participation at the school level); initiative 6.3.20 (‘My Sport is My Future’ programme); initiative 6.3.21 (develop individual and collective sports competitions in universities) and 6.3.22 (national mindset and behavioural shift campaigns.
Stage of Policy	The policy has progressed through four stages of the policy cycle (KSA-Government 2016a) and is currently at the implementation and evaluation stages.1) Agenda setting and formulation stage: the Saudi government attempted to link the programme to numerous agendas, so all members of the Saudi Council of Economic and Development Affairs attended the agenda setting and the development process of the programme (KSA-Government 2016b).2) Endorsement/legitimisation stage: the Saudi Cabinet approved Vision 2030 on 25 April 2016 (Saudi Press Agency 2016).3) Implementation stage: several ministries and general authorities are involved in the implementation of the programme. However, the MoS and the MoE are the leaders of the implementation in the sport sector. Furthermore, the Saudi Council of Economic and Development Affairs developed the partnership between the government and the private sector to share funding for initiatives and projects, use current resources effectively and interchange information and knowledge.4) Evaluation stage: the policy has a process to evaluate and monitor the progress in the achievement of objectives. Moreover, multiple procedures will be utilised to monitor and measure the policy’s results. The programme will have three reviews per year and an annual review (KSA-Government 2016a). 1) Agenda setting and formulation stage: the Saudi government attempted to link the programme to numerous agendas, so all members of the Saudi Council of Economic and Development Affairs attended the agenda setting and the development process of the programme (KSA-Government 2016b). 2) Endorsement/legitimisation stage: the Saudi Cabinet approved Vision 2030 on 25 April 2016 (Saudi Press Agency 2016). 3) Implementation stage: several ministries and general authorities are involved in the implementation of the programme. However, the MoS and the MoE are the leaders of the implementation in the sport sector. Furthermore, the Saudi Council of Economic and Development Affairs developed the partnership between the government and the private sector to share funding for initiatives and projects, use current resources effectively and interchange information and knowledge. 4) Evaluation stage: the policy has a process to evaluate and monitor the progress in the achievement of objectives. Moreover, multiple procedures will be utilised to monitor and measure the policy’s results. The programme will have three reviews per year and an annual review (KSA-Government 2016a).

Phase two: evidence of achievement for policy objectives from published sources

Initiative 6.3.1 ‘Enhance girls’ sports participation at the school level’

The first initiative is to ‘enhance girls’ sports participation at the school level’ for which the MoE is the responsible ministry. The initiative had three goals to be achieved by the end of 2020. The first was to have 325,000 schoolgirls enrolled in physical education classes. The second was to have 1500 girls’ schools equipped with well-maintained gyms. The third goal was to have 7,500 qualified schoolmistresses to teach physical education courses. To achieve these goals, the MoE in Saudi Arabia approved the inclusion of a physical education course in girls’ schools in 2017, with work to start in 2018 (Paul 2017).

However, offering a physical education course in girls’ schools requires appropriate facilities and teachers. Research has revealed a significant lack of sport facilities in schools around Saudi Arabia (Al-Nuaim et al. 2012, Alsubaie and Omer 2015, Samara et al. 2015, Abdel-Salam and Abdel-Khalek 2016, Alsabih et al. 2018, Alzamil et al. 2019). Due to the lack of teachers and sport facilities in girls’ schools, the first and second targets are unattainable.

In regard to the third target, in the middle of 2018, some Saudi universities, in partnership with the MoE, launched a higher diploma programme in physical education to prepare teachers to teach physical education courses in girls’ schools (Princess Nourah Bint Abdulrahman University 2018). After researching and communicating with all Saudi universities that offer programmes in the field of physical education, we identified that only nine universities out of thirty government universities offer a higher diploma programme in physical education, with a total 250 female graduates by the end of 2020 (Saudi Universities, personal communication, 11 October 2020). Also, only nine universities offer a bachelor programme in physical education, with no graduates to date (Saudi Universities, personal communication, 11 October 2020). No physical education course has been offered since the approval from MoE to include a physical education course in girls’ schools in 2017, however some girls’ schools offer physical activity as extra-curricular activities (Ministry of Education, personal communication, 11 October 2020).

Initiative 6.3.20 ‘my sport is my future’ programme

Given the importance of school sports, this initiative was developed to encourage sports competitions among school students. The MoE was responsible for this initiative. The targets of this initiative are, by 2020, first to have a 25% student participation rate in extra-curricular activities; second to have 4% of school students participate in local, regional and international competitions; third to provide a total of 18 grants; and fourth to decrease obesity by 3% among school students.

AlMakadma and Ramisetty-Mikler (2015) observed a lack of interest in extra-curricular activities in Saudi culture. However, the MoE indicated that extra-curricular activities are an important factor, and the Ministry is keen to develop it and improve its outcomes. Accordingly, 3.58 billion Saudi riyals (equivalent to $953,811,774 US dollars) was allocated for the development of extra-curricular activities in 2007 (Abdul-Ghafour 2017). It should be mentioned, research has revealed that most Saudi school students engage in sports activities when they are given an opportunity to choose between all extracurricular activities (Alfnifie 2012). In 2016, only 15.5% of all school-aged children in Saudi Arabia participated in extracurricular activities (Evidence for Policy Design 2018). This number has increased because the MoE introduced Activity Hour in 2017/18, so the school day has added an extra hour dedicated to extra-curricular activities (Saudi Press Agency 2017), however, at the time of writing in 2021 no further statistics had been available.

In order to achieve the second goal of the initiative, the MoS in partnership with MoE launched the first version of the Saudi School Football League in 2019. More than 150,000 students participated, representing all regions of the Kingdom (Ministry of Education 2020). In the beginning of 2020, the MoS, in partnership with the MoE, launched the second version of the Saudi School Football League, wherein 131,000 school students were supposed to participate (ArabNews 2020, Ministry of Education 2020). Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the competition was suspended on 8 March 2020 (Dawri Madaris 2020).

The third target which is to provide a total of 18 grants was more easily achieved due to the Kingdom’s financial resources. In July 2019, the MoE, in partnership with Saudi Telecom Company, organised a football camp for the best players from the first version of the Saudi Schools Football League (Ministry of Education 2019). In addition, a number of players were chosen to play for professional local and international clubs (Alharbi 2020).

Countries constantly strive to reduce the rate of obesity among their population because of its serious health consequences. One of key objectives of ‘My Sport is My Future’ was to reduce obesity among school students through increased physical activity at schools. According to a study recent study, in 2016, the obesity rate among school-aged children was 7.1%, while the overweight rate was 14.4% (Al Shaikh et al. 2020). While in an interview with the Al-Ekhbariya television channel in 2020, the Director of the Health Food Administration at the Saudi Food and Drug Authority stated that, based on the latest data obtained from the Saudi Ministry of Health (MoH), the obesity rate among school-aged children had reached 9.3% which indicate that there is a continuous increase in the rate (net 2020).

Initiative 6.3.21 ‘Develop individual and collective sports competitions in universities’

In order to increase the number of sport participants in Saudi universities, policymakers developed an initiative that focuses only on university sports. The MoE was the responsible ministry for delivering this initiative. Two main targets were established to achieve by 2020: first to have 8000 male students and 2000 female students participate in sports competitions and second to have 30 male university sport federations and 30 female university sport federations.

In October 2010, the Saudi Universities Sports Federation (SUSF) was established (Saudi Universities Sports Federation 2016). Since then, the number of participants in sports competitions in Saudi universities has increased yearly. The number of male students participating in the first season was 1238; however, no female students participated in that season (Saudi Universities Sports Federation 2019). According to the SUSF report (2019), the first time that female students participated in sports competitions was in the ninth season, which ran from 2017 to 2018. Also, according to the same report, 1540 female students participated in internal sports competitions at five universities. In addition, 8026 male students participated in sport competitions in the ninth season. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Saudi Universities Sports Federation announced the cancellation of championships of the tenth season on 8 March 2020 (Saudi Universities Sports Federation 2020a). Nine sports competitions were scheduled for female students (Saudi Universities Sports Federation 2020b). Hence, the number of female students who might participate was supposed to increase and be higher than last season when only one competition was held.

It is axiomatic that the diversity of sports attracts more participants because people are different in what sports they like. Hence, the initiative planned to have 30 male university sport federations and 30 female university sport federations in order to organise competitions in different sports. According to the SUSF report (2020a), there are 16 sports for male students to compete in and nine sports for female students to compete in. However, university sport federations are not yet established.

Initiative 6.3.22 ‘NatiOnal mindset and behavioural shift campaigns’

Increasing the percentage of people practising physical activity by changing the sports culture among the population is the main target of this initiative (KSA-Government 2018). There have been notable changes in the percentage of engaging in regular physical activity over the last three years. However, these changes vary according to source. For example, according to the official website of Vision 2030, the percentage of active adults rose from 13% to 19% by the end of 2020 (Saudi Press Agency 2021). Another estimate indicates that 24.5% of the Saudi population does physical activity weekly (General Sport Authority 2019). Although small differences in percentages exist between the sources, they both noted the rise in the percentage of active people in the Saudi population.

The MoS is considered the leading authority to implement this initiative. The MoS has made efforts to motivate society to practice sports and physical activity, and the Sports for All Federation has been mandated to plan and implement a set of sports programmes and events that will encourage society to practice sports (Sports For All Federation 2021). An example of this effort is the organisation of more than ninety sport programmes and events in nine regions of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, with more than a million participants (Sports For All Federation 2021).

Phase three: interviews with stakeholders and academics

Table 2 provides a summary of the results of the thematic analysis with two broad themes of facilitators and challenges and their underlying sub-themes.

Table 2. Summary of themes emerging from interviews with stakeholders and academics.

Themes	Sub-themes	Definition of sub-themes
Facilitators for policy progress	Shift in culture	The cultural transformation on the prevailing sports culture in Saudi society.
	Media support	Efforts made by the Saudi media to contribute to achieving the desired goals by encouraging Saudis to take a part on the sports events and programmes.
Challenges to policy progress	Cultural difficulties	Challenges associated with changing the sports culture of the society and its view of sports.
	Traditions difficulties	Challenges related to the customs and traditions followed by some groups of Saudi society.
	Environment difficulties	Challenges associated with the lack of various sports facilities.
	Implementation difficulties	Challenges associated with executive authorities who are responsible to implement the programme.
	Policy difficulties	Challenges associated with the policy design and planning stages.

Facilitators for policy progress

Shift in culture

Shift in culture can be considered as the most significant facilitative factor of the policy so far. Several participants commented on the level of awareness of the importance of sport among the population with two of the academics agreeing that this had increased: ‘There is a noticeable development in the level of awareness of the importance of physical activity’ (academic 3) and ‘At the present time, there has been a drastic change in terms of awareness about the importance of physical activity compared to the previous time’ (academic 2). This change corresponds with increasing physical activity levels: ‘The policy targets is to increase the rate of physical activity to 33%, and now (January 2020) the rate has reached 24% while it was 13% before the Vision’ (policymaker). In contrast, two of the participants believed that there is a lack of awareness among Saudis: ‘There is another difficulty, without the awareness of parents about the importance of physical activity for them and their children, they will not encourage themselves and their children to exercise’ (academic 6) and ‘One of the main causes of physical inactivity among Saudis is the lack of awareness of the importance of sport’ (policy implementer 1).

The change in women’s sports is noteworthy, as they are a major and influential component of society: ‘A former difficulty has been resolved, which is allowing women’s gyms’ (policymaker) and ‘We were facing some difficulties to implement some programmes and events, especially women’s and mixed programmes and events in non-large cities due to the lack of acceptance of societies to this, but gradually we began to find a better response’ (policy implementer 1). It is also worth noting that by January 2020, 388 women’s gyms have been licenced so far around Saudi Arabia (policymaker).

The programme has auxiliary factors that may contribute to achieve some of the targets of its initiatives. An example of these auxiliary factors is the availability of sport groups in a number of regions of Saudi Arabia: When we began our planning, we found that there are sport groups in some regions so we started to communicate with them to support them. Now there are 330 sport groups, and our goal is to have 1500 sport groups (policy implementer 1).

Media support

Although some academics believe that there is a lack of support within the media for physical activity promotion: Through my observation and my knowledge of some studies and reports, most of the users of social media programmes who receive messages with the aim of spreading awareness of the importance of physical activity are aged 12 to 35, however, the messages have no incentive. So, that is a lack of media work (academic 5), and ‘The media should target all groups of society, children, youth and the elderly’ (academic 3). The programme has full access to government (and non-government) media, as it is the main supporter of the programme, and the policy implementers benefit from it: ‘We began to publish ads in media, which contributed to attracting more participants’ (policy implementer 1).

One of the obstacles related to a lack of sport culture among Saudis: ‘There are deficiencies in sports culture among the Saudis because Saudis are affected by the luxury life due to the excellent economic level’ (academic 6) and ‘Another obstacle is that physical activity is not a culture in the Saudi society’ (policymaker). Another factor affecting the lack of sports culture in Saudi society was that some participants mentioned that many Saudis have an erroneous understanding of the culture around physical activity and sports, where they perceive sport purely as a leisure activity: ‘Unfortunately, our societies consider sports as an entertainment rather than a lifestyle’ (academic 1) and ‘What society needs now is to consider sport as lifestyle rather than entertainment’ (academic 2). In the same vein, believing that physical activity is for obese people only is another difficulty that the policy needed to change: ‘We faced difficulty in changing a culture that sport is for obese people only’ (policymaker).

Tradition difficulties

Traditions are a powerful influence on the acceptance of women’s sport in the Saudi society: ‘I found that women in Saudi society do not have a full right to exercise due to some of the customs and traditions imposed by families’ (academic 6). As a result, some families do not allow their daughters to take part in sport or any physical activities. In addition, as a consequence of some societies still not accepting women’s sports, implementing some initiatives in some areas of Saudi Arabia is impossible: ‘Due to the lack of acceptance of women’s sport in some Saudi cities, we are still committed to not implement some sports programmes and events for women’ (policy implementer 1).

Environment difficulties

Lack of suitable outdoor facilities can represent a major barrier to achieving the policy target: ‘There are a small number of public facilities, for example public parks, and not all of them are appropriate for all of categories of society’ (academic 4). Nevertheless, 10 million trees were planted in 2020 in Saudi cities (KSA-Government 2020) for many purposes for example to improve the appearance of the environment and to create attractive outdoor environments for physical activity. In addition to the lack of outdoor facilities, the unavailability of government facilities for women only, even in schools, counted as a barrier to achieve the policy target: ‘There are no government facilities for women be able to exercise with privacy’ (academic 2) and ‘Equality between the sexes is required, so sports facilities for girls’ schools should be similar to those available in boys’ schools’ (academic 6). Moreover, Saudi cities are still not fully prepared for outdoor sports: ‘In the second stage, the focus will be on the design of urban cities to make sure that the cities are suitable for walking’ (policymaker).

Implementation difficulties

There is a concurrence between academics and policy implementers that one of the most important difficulties facing the implementing of the policy is bureaucracy: ‘In my opinion, the biggest obstacle that the policy will face is bureaucracy’ (policy implementer 2) and ‘The implementation of policy initiatives in schools and universities takes a long time due to the procedures that are carried out with the responsible authorities’ (policy implementer 1). Academics indicate that the lack of specialists in the physical activity field will be an obstacle to the implementation of some initiatives: ‘One of the difficulties that the government may face in implementing its plans is the lack of abundance of specialists in physical activity and sports’ (academic 6) and ‘One of the big problems that we can fall into is the emergence of individual efforts from those who are not specialised in physical activity’ (policy implementer 2).

Some academics pointed out that the failure of activating the role of the available government sports facilities to implement some of the policy initiatives will contribute to not achieving some targets of the policy: ‘I will have a great interest in the beginning to activate the role of government sports facilities’ (academic 3) and ‘Those who are in charge of managing government sports facilities are unable to activate the role of facilities in the community, thus that creates difficulty for the government’ (academic 5). Even the role of Saudi universities, especially the universities that have sport facilities and scientific departments specialising in areas related to physical activity, is not properly activated: ‘Coordination must take place between the policy implementers and Saudi universities to have the universities play their role’ (academic 4) and ‘The policy should benefit from the departments of physical education and physical activity in Saudi universities’ (academic 5).

Many of the academics believed the media should play a role to spread the awareness of the importance of physical activity to assist the executive authorities in implementing the initiatives: ‘The media should spread the importance of physical activity in public health’ (academic 3) and ‘The government will face a big difficulty to change sport culture because the media in Saudi Arabia is moving in the opposite direction, as the primary interest in the media in Saudi Arabia is football’ (academic 6). It is worth noting that sports federations place most of their attention on professionals only and do not have a significant role in community sports: ‘The greater interest of the sport federations now is on the professionals only’ (policymaker).

Lack of cooperation between executive authorities can be deemed as a major difficulty that will face the implementation process, as was mentioned by academics and policy implementers: ‘There is no productive cooperation between the two sides, MoS and MoE, at the present time’ (academic 2) and ‘We do not have partnership contracts with the other executive authority yet, but they will be developed soon’ (policy implementer 1). Also, the cooperation between executive authorities and the private sector is not working properly to increase the efficiency of implementation: ‘It was necessary to coordinate in advance with the private sector to be a partner with the MoS so that the chances of success in implementing the policy initiatives becomes greater’ (academic 2). Likewise, several academics highlighted that limiting the implementation of the policy to two ministries (MoS and MoE) will have a negative impact: ‘I believe that more authorities and ministries should take a part in the implementation with MoE and MoS’ (academic 6) and ‘MoH is doing a wonderful job to raise awareness of the importance of physical activity in society, but it is not among the main or assistant responsible implementers of the policy!’ (academic 5).

Some academics believe that one of the major aims of the programme is to make sport be seen as entertainment rather than as an intrinsic part of the culture, which makes some of the sport programmes and events that the executive authorities run flawed, and this does not encourage continuity: ‘I found that the policy is based on two elements (entertainment and economic gain) rather than changing the lifestyles, and this what the MoS is currently implementing’ (academic 4) and ‘Sport programmes and events must have incentives to encourage people to continue’ (academic 2). Also, the quality and the types of sports programmes and events provided by the MoS are not alluring to some age groups in society, which prevents them from participating: ‘Executive authorities must be creative because people are bored with the traditional programmes that they offer, and many young people are reluctant to participate due to the lack of modern programmes’ (academic 2). This is despite most of the sport events and programmes being based on those from developed countries: ‘A large number of our events and programmes that have been implemented or are planned to be implemented in the future, are mainly events and programmes that succeeded after being implemented in developed countries such as the UK and Australia’ (policy implementer 1).

Policy difficulties

An academic raised a concern about the government’s aspiration to lead sport in a specified direction, which is to convert it into a source of income rather than make it part of the lifestyle of the Saudi population: ‘Policy should focus on the cultural aspect rather than economic gain’ (academic 4). In spite of the fact that the government allocated a considerable budget for the QOL programme of 130 billion Saudi riyals (equivalent to $34.6 billion US dollars) (Al-Awsat 2018), it is notable that the policymaker considered the economic gain as the most important goal of the policy: ‘On top of the goals of policy is an economic goal, in the sense of increasing the contribution of sport in raising the gross domestic product’ (policymaker). Moreover, the QOL programme operates under the government procurement system, which negatively affects implementation speed: ‘The government should develop the procurement system or transfer the programme QOL from government work to institutional work’ (policy implementer 2).

In terms of the time period set to achieve goals, an academic regarded the time set as a barrier to achieving some goals due to its short length: ‘Some goals are dreams if the period for its implementation is the end of 2020’ (academic 3). Even the policymaker agreed with the academic about the time period: ‘Sometimes we find that some of the targets of initiatives are not logical to be achieved in the short, specified time period’ (policymaker). However, the policy evidently has procedures to address problems that might hinder the achievement of targets ‘We can take corrective action to solve any problems such as contacting the head of the executive authorities to find quick solutions (e.g. Minster of Sport), or changing the owner of the initiative’ (policymaker). It is worth noting that the end of 2020 was chosen as the date for achieving all initiatives’ targets.

Discussion and conclusion

The present study is the first to examine the Saudi Vision 2030 strategy in relation to physical activity promotion. It has identified challenges that might face Saudi physical activity policy and assessed progress with the policy goals.

The results of this study indicate that the Saudi government has succeeded in achieving some goals despite the challenges that existed. The most important achievement for the government was the rapid cultural change in terms of physical activity, even though it was not large. This is particularly relevant to women. Alhazmi and Kamarudin (2021) have indicated an increase in women’s physical activity levels in society since the Vision 2030 was launched. Due to the recent changes Saudi women are now able to exercise in gyms and some outdoor facilities. The current analysis showed that the government is making substantial efforts to enhance physical activity opportunities for women by authorising 388 private women’s gyms within a short period. Nevertheless, this needs to be considered in the context of the costs of using facilities. Exorbitant membership prices for women’s gym were identified as a significant barrier to joining in a recent study (Aljehani et al. 2022). The current analysis confirms that inequality of physical activity opportunities remains between women and men. Given the delay in actively developing women’s sport and exercise facilities, it will inevitably take some time to reduce the longstanding inequalities in opportunity.

The cultural changes observed are also relevant to the role of universities as important settings for helping to raise the level of physical activity in society (Majeed 2015). The current study showed that these have contributed to increasing participation levels in universities and schools, particularly in promoting women’s sport. The findings highlighted that the government is working on training female graduates from different disciplines to become physical education teachers by establishing a higher diploma at nine universities and restructuring some of the schools limited facilities to be suitable for practicing sport and exercise. However, government efforts to include physical education courses at girls’ schools will take time to deliver; by the end of 2020, no student has graduated and few schools had developed suitable facilities for physical activity. This aligns with the work by Shahab et al. (2021) demonstrating that the lack of sports facilities and teachers in girls’ schools makes offering a physical education course in girls’ schools currently unattainable. Despite the substantial overall budget provided for the QOL programme, it is not clear if the allocation of resources to developing facilities in girls’ schools have been sufficient to enable the achievement of this target.

Although the Vision 2030 policy has had some significant positive achievements, it has also faced some difficulties that have hindered progress. The results of this study show that the QOL initiatives and implementer programmes and events run by the leading authorities have been developed using evidence from scientific studies and the experiences of developed countries. However, this might have brought challenges for the government because all developed countries have different traditions and cultures. For example, some sports programmes and events that can be run in the UK or Australia could not be run in Saudi Arabia due to some Saudi traditions and culture. Overcoming this difficulty requires the presence of specialists who can reconfigure these programmes more appropriately for Saudi society. However, the results of the current study indicate a shortage of Saudi sports specialists in Saudi Arabia. This finding supports a study by Al-Hazzaa and AlMarzooqi (2018) who indicated that there is an urgent need for training specialists in physical activity.

Another important finding was that culture, traditions and environment are key factors that may impede achieving the targets of the policy. The results of the current study indicate that changing culture or traditions can take a long period of time, especially among traditionally conservative people such as those in Saudi society. Also, the lack of public sports facilities has played a part in creating disruptive challenges while carrying out the initiatives. Accordingly, the timescale for achieving some targets will be longer than anticipated. In addition, providing motivating conditions (such as an appropriate environment) that help to achieve change is essential.

There were some indications that the policymakers did not seek to anticipate and address the potential problems during the policy design phase. Responsibilities were allocated between authorities in advance, specifically between the MoE and MoS, but there are suggestions that other authorities should be involved such as MoH and Ministry of Media to accelerate the pace of implementation. In addition, some initiatives require cooperation between authorities, but the policy has not outlined the responsibilities of multiple agencies who might be involved in these kind of initiatives. The current study reveals that bureaucracy and a lack of cooperation between the authorities are fundamental difficulties that impede effective policy roll-out, exemplifying previous findings by Shephard et al. (2004). This may reflect insufficient planning in some areas at the time of policy development. It should be noted that due to the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19), progress with some initiatives was inevitably stalled.

It is clear from the analysis that promoting physical activity requires government attention to all segments of society and all age groups. In particular, for young females (<18 years) and for adult males (≥18 years) there is a lack of appropriate opportunities for physical activity. For example, as discussed, many girls’ schools lack the facilities or resources to offer physical education lessons. Moreover, events available to adult males (such as marathon running) are often unattractive and do not encourage long-term participation. Similarly, Saudi seniors lack convenient physical activity or sport opportunities to engage with. These findings corroborate the ideas of Al-Hazzaa and AlMarzooqi (2018) who suggested that the government needs to develop innovative programs to promote physical activity for all age groups and all segments of society. It is notable that three of the Vision 2030 initiatives analysed here relate specifically to young people in the attempt to develop positive life-long physical activity attitudes and behaviours.

The current study reveals the government’s concerns about the consequences of physical inactivity, one of the most important being the prevalence of obesity. However, the findings indicated that, even though population physical activity levels have increased, obesity rates remain high. This is in accordance with other research showing the high prevalence of obesity and the strong relationship between physical inactivity and obesity rates in Saudi Arabia (Althumiri et al. 2020). There is an unambiguous relationship between diet and obesity and evidence suggests that diet plays an important role in reducing obesity (World Health Organization 2004, Stephens et al. 2014). However, it is apparent from the current study findings that QOL programme is focusing on physical activity to overcome obesity, and inadequate attention has been paid to diet. This suggests the need to consider the role of diet alongside the promotion of physical activity, and that providing appropriate strategies to tackle obesity should be one of the government’s priorities.

Despite the insights provided by this study, some limitations need to be acknowledged. Overall a limited number of published evidence sources were identified and approximately half represented government reports rather than independent publications. Nonetheless it was observed that some government reports clearly indicated the failure to reach intended goals rather than distort the impression of success. As with all qualitative research, the data generated through interviews with stakeholders and independent academics reflects their perceptions and opinions rather than objective information. In addition, the number of interviewees was relatively small and only male participants were included. The study focused on policy implementers, policy makers and academics but the inclusion of community members could be useful to bring a fuller indication of the perceived impact of the policy. More research is needed to find effective processes for engaging the policy in a manner compatible with Saudi society. It would also be worthwhile to compare the sports policies of Arab countries and to evaluate their effectiveness.

In conclusion, some progress has been made in delivering the QOL programme in relation to physical activity, but it is apparent (similar to the experiences in many other countries) there are various barriers and constraints that can hinder successful policy from being realised. Despite the quality of the Saudi physical activity policy and the worthwhile ambition of the leaders, some of its goals were difficult to achieve by the end of 2020. At the time of writing, with eight years remaining to achieve various Vision 2030’s goals, and with the possibility of fewer pandemic-related constraints, significant positive policy outcomes regarding population physical activity are still achievable. It is intended that this study serves as a useful early-stage evaluation and can be used as a benchmark for both Saudi Arabia and other countries.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.