The Arab World Region is composed of 22 countries. The AWR has a total population of 342million, 78% of which is covered by 12 AWR MA’s.
Studies assessing the impact of international conferences indicate that although there has been a general agreement on the ICPD programme of action by countries of the region, yet national implementation of comprehensive reproductive health programmes has been slow in Arab countries. Inadequate public and financial support to SRH programs is an important challenge.
The access of donors is increasingly channelling their funds into the countries they wish to support. The growth of coordinated aid mechanisms such as the Sector Wide Approaches (SWAPs) and the World Bank-promoted poverty reduction strategies puts control of development aid in the hands of national governments and reduces the influence of the donor. There are certain key challenges for these organizations with the current shift in aid modalities. It is likely that they will have to engage more forcefully in national level advocacy to receive funding and competition could become fiercer. However, the biggest challenge is engaging with the relevant policy dialogues which result in funding for SRHR work.

Despite substantial progress in the areas of population and sexual and reproductive health rights (SRHR) in Arab countries, there is still much to be done with regard to adolescents, access, abortion, advocacy, HIV/AIDS and gender.
Fertility rates remain high; the total fertility ratio is 4.3. Despite the progress of contraceptive prevalence in many Arab countries, the average is still low (29.7%). There are still many unmet needs regarding family planning especially in remote and underserved areas. Maternal mortality and morbidity remain unacceptably high. Every year in the Arab region, some 32,000 women die in childbirth or from complications arising from pregnancy.
Young people number close to 100 million, they constitute a substantial portion of the population of AWR member countries; estimates indicate that 60% of the Arab World population is less than 25 years of age but they lack access to youth-friendly reproductive and sexual health services, including counselling
Most of the Arab States have relatively low HIV infection rates, but half a million people in the Arab States are HIV positive, including 160,000 young people. Most states have instituted national HIV prevention programmes, but implementation and monitoring are problematic and services for high risk groups remain largely inadequate.
Violence against women and girls is pervasive, but not well documented in the Arab States.
Harmful practices, such as female genital mutilation/cutting, often result in debilitating reproductive health conditions.
In some Arab states, between 70 per cent and 97 per cent of women have had the procedure, most of them before the age of 12.
Women continue to suffer in the face of discriminatory customary laws and practices that undermine their social and economic autonomy and the right to good reproductive health. In some Arab countries, women still need their husbands' permission to seek medical care and having many children is highly valued.
It is these challenges that advocacy strategy at regional and country level is aiming to address.

In this regards, AWR built a strategic partnership with the Arab Parliamentarian forum in Population and Development and had an observer status of the forum since 2003. AWR support the activities of the forum and contributed to the organization of several meetings dealing with SRH and population issues.
At the MA level, working with religious leaders is a key strategy to advocate and raise public awareness on   many challenging issues such as AIDS, YSRH etc….
Organizing public events such as national forums, conferences to generate widespread attention to issues such as abortion, FGM is another advocacy strategy. These events generate national media coverage and bring together many key persons from the country. 
Some MAs build strategic partnership and coalitions with NGO, governmental organization using their political power to press national leaders to act and succeed in changing laws, policies and programs.