News

2 Aug 2013

Executive Secretary Meets with Moroccan Minister Delegate for Public Affairs and Governance

With Boulief.jpg

Within the framework of her visit to the Kingdom of Morocco to participate in the Second High-Level Meeting on Transition to Democracy, which was organized by ESCWA in the City of Rabat on 5-6 February 2013, United Nations Under-Secretary-General and ESCWA Executive Secretary Rima Khalaf met with Moroccan Minister Delegate for Public Affairs and Governance Mohammad Boulif. The visit intended to discuss ways to strengthen cooperation between Morocco and ESCWA. Khalaf expressed her delight in the Kingdom’s hosting of the Second High-Level Meeting on Transition to Democracy, stressing that Morocco’s accession to ESCWA’s membership boosted the Commission’s work. For his part, Boulif welcomed cooperation with ESCWA to support issues related to regional integration in the region, and the development process in Morocco. He pointed out the importance of exerting concerted efforts to overcome the challenges faced by the countries in the region at this critical stage. Khalaf briefed him about activities implemented by ESCWA, and noted that the Commission, being the regional arm of the UN in the Arab region, seeks to provide integrated and new approaches to challenges faced by the region. She said that the comparative advantage of ESCWA is its ability to bridge the economic, social and political gap through providing an integrated sketch, which deals with development issues. In the context of his intervention on the national priorities of Morocco for the coming phase, Boulif expressed his willingness to cooperate with ESCWA to find out how to develop ways of monitoring and follow-up on development plans so that decision-makers can identify the imbalances in the plan’s implementation at an earlier stage, which allows them to modify it when needed. Minister Boulif pointed out in this context the efforts exerted by the Kingdom of Morocco to prepare a national plan for “Governance” in public policy making that is based on the ability to measure and evaluate performance, calling on ESCWA to take part in the national preparations for this plan. Executive Secretary Rima Khalaf concluded by inviting Minister Boulif to delegate concerned officials to visit ESCWA in order to develop specific proposals for technical cooperation with the concerned working group in the Commission in light of development priorities in Morocco.
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