ESCWA in partnership with the Technical Secretariat of the Council of Arab Ministers Responsible for the Environment and UNEP organized the Preparatory Meeting for the 3rd Arab Forum on Sustainable Development and the 2nd United Nations Environment Assembly on Thursday 14 April 2016 at the UN House in Beirut.
The meeting had the following objectives:
- Exchange perspectives on the priorities of the Arab region with respect to the goals related to the environment and natural resources in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the impacts of the region’s context on the implementation of the Agenda, and the means of “Ensuring that no one is left behind”, in line with the HLPF theme for 2016;
- Exchange views on efforts in the Arab region to ensure “Healthy Environment, Healthy People”, in line with the theme of UNEA-2, and discuss the policies adopted in the region in critical areas such as air and water quality, healthy ecosystems, chemicals and waste;
- Engage participants in a dialogue on the proposed future steps, and the adequate regional and national institutional frameworks, to monitor and review the SDGs related to the environment and natural resources. In this regard, the meeting will benefit from the insight of the Arab countries volunteering to make national reviews during the 2016 HLPF (Egypt and Morocco).
Cairo, Egypt
