The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which is a good collection of 17 global goals set by the United Nations in 2015 are broad and somewhat interdependent, yet each has a separate list of targets to achieve. Achieving all 169 targets would signal accomplishing all 17 goals. The SDGs cover social and economic development issues including poverty, hunger, health, education, climate change, gender equality, water, sanitation, energy, urbanization, environment and social justice.

Throughout its history, American University in Cairo (AUC) has balanced a strong commitment to liberal arts education with a concern for the region's needs for practical applications and professional specializations. Today, AUC offers 36 undergraduate, 44 master’s and two PhD programs rooted in a liberal arts education that encourages students to think critically and find creative solutions to conflicts and challenges facing both the region and the world. Acknowledging its responsibility as one of the leading universities in Africa, guided by the sustainable development goals (SDGs) and being the global university in Egypt, The AUC decided to take the initiative of hosting a peer-reviewed international conference with a generic theme of “Research on African Challenges” and specific themes that alternates biannually and that ensures that:

• its importance is recognized at an international level
• the theme is cross-disciplinary so as to encourage full participation from different faculty members across the disciplines, as well as multidisciplinary research