The National, an English-language daily newspaper published in the United Arab Emirates relates how government nudging units are spreading around the world, with the number of such units having more than quadrupled in the past three years (without acccounting for the many ad hoc governmental teams involved in applying behavioural insights to policy issues using randomised trials).

Besides the well-knowned units advising the UK government, the US presidency, or in Singapore and Australia, the recent creation of the Qatari nudge unit in August last year marks a milestone, as it is the first dedicated institutional set up of its kind in the Middle East. The article quotes that other countries in the region are also planning similar units, governmental and non governmental, for example, Kuwait at the Secretariat for Development Planning, Lebanon in academia and civil society.