ESCWA Releases 2012 Annual Report

Under the overall message of “Go Forward”, ESCWA has launched its annual report for the year 2012, in Arabic and English. The report reviews a year of achievements for the regional commission against the backdrop of continued transitions and socio-economic challenges in the Arab region. It focuses on the seven key substantive areas of the ESCWA mandate: sustainable development, social development, economic development, information and communications technology, statistics, advancement of women, and conflict mitigation and development. The past year saw continued political transitions in the Arab region accompanied by unfolding economic and social challenges. In the midst of those changes, ESCWA has realigned its programmes and priorities to provide the best support for new realities in the Arab region, and steered its technical assistance services to respond promptly and efficiently to these changes. Recognizing the need to support Arab countries suffering from the ramifications of social uprisings, occupation, and civil war, ESCWA held high level meetings on the challenges of democratic transition, which have provided and continue to provide a forum for the Arab region to learn from similar experiences in other parts of the world. Throughout 2012, ESCWA has also invested in empowering women and young people, and has provided member countries with capacity-building services and technical support in areas of population, persons with disabilities, labour, economic modelling, statistics, knowledge economy, good governance, strengthening of state institutions and advancing citizen engagement, among others. The report also explains how ESCWA has actively sought to build on its existing partnerships and forge new ones in order to provide the most relevant, timely and efficient assistance for the development of the Arab region. It highlights the welcoming of three new member countries in 2012, namely: Tunisia, Libya, and Morocco, and gives special attention to the Commission’s further “revitalised” standing cooperation with the League of Arab States, and its role in Rio+20, the Sustainable Development Goals and Post-2015 dialogues. The report also explains how ESCWA has undertaken a shift in the technical cooperation services from the provision of ad hoc services to the mobilization of its regional knowledge base in the preparation of country plans. ESCWA Annual Report is published on a yearly basis to provide information to member countries, other UN bodies and the wider international community on the regional commission’s achievements. It is a yearly documentation of the Commission’s consistent delivery of its mandate; commitment to supporting member countries; and transparency concerning changes it implements to improve its efficiency and service-delivery. The report can be found in Arabic and English on the following link: http://www.escwa.un.org/information/pubaction.asp?PubID=1321 * *** *