Workshop on Piloting the Gap Assessment Tool for Mainstreaming Social Justice in Public Policies

In cooperation with the Department of Social Promotion in the Ministry of Social Affairs in Tunisia, ESCWA organized a virtual workshop on 24 and 25 September 2020 to test a new tool that aims to assess the extent to which public policies are sensitive to -or mainstream- social justice principles.
 

The tool’s objective is to assist policy makers in identifying the gaps in public policies that are considered key to achieve social justice. It also creates a space to propose the required interventions and reforms to remedy these gaps and adjust the policy design and implementation processes accordingly.

Twenty government officials representing different departments in the Ministry of Social Affairs as well as other line Ministries in Tunisia gathered in Concorde Hotel in Tunis, while ESCWA facilitated the workshop from Beirut in close coordination with selected MOSA officials.

The workshop concluded with a set of recommendations that focused on:

1. Adopting the assessment tool in the design of national social and sectoral policies, and formulating a recommendation to the Prime Minister to mainstream the  tool in the work of the different ministries, as well as building national capacities on how to use it;
2. Activating the national high-level committee that ESCWA catalyzed in October 2019 to ensure that equality is mainstreamed in national plans, policies and programmes; and
3. Maintaining the technical cooperation with ESCWA to validate and endorse the tool in Tunisia as a pilot country prior to presenting it to the other Arab States.