Within the context of the ESCWA-lead project on "Strengthening National Capacities in the ESCWA Region on Developing Green Production Sectors", which officially kicked off in April 2012, three Green Help Desks (GHDs) have been established and are currently operational in Oman (September 2012), Lebanon (June 2013), and Jordan (August 2013). The GHDs are respectively hosted by the Omani Ministry of Commerce and Industry, the Association of Lebanese Industrialists (ALI), and the Royal Scientific Society (RSS) in Jordan.
In line with the project objective which is to build the capacity of stakeholders (policymakers, civil society, businesses and industry associations) in developing green production sectors in the ESCWA member countries, through the design and implementation of effective policies and programmes, the GHDs have been particularly active in raising awareness and better understanding of the opportunities presented by different green production sectors, emphasizing on the integration of the three interrelated pillars: economic, social and environmental.
As such, and since their establishment, the GHDs organized several national workshops in cooperation with various national stakeholders, covering a variety of issues on top of them "Renewable Energies", "Sustainable Packaging", "Industrial Pollution" and "Cleaner production" issues.
Building on the success of the established GHDs, additional requests have been submitted to ESCWA to replicate this experience in other Arab countries. In this context, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between ESCWA and the Centre for Environment and Development for the Arab region and Europe (CEDARE) in September 2013 to initiate a similar cooperation.
Read more: http://www.escwa.un.org/sites/gps/index.asp.
