In an effort to further anchor cooperation and coordination among UN-ESCWA and the Arab Labor Organization (ALO) signed today an agreement to revitalize the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between them, signed in 1986 and renewed in 2008. This agreement covers cooperation measures that extend until 2011.
Signing the mechanism were UN-ESCWA Executive Secretary, Bader Omar AlDafa and ALO Director-General Ahmad Muhammad Luqman. The singing ceremony was also attended by ALO Head of the Administrative Affairs, Tamer Mustapha Tamo, acting UN-ESCWA Deputy Executive Secretary Muhamamd Abdul Razzak, Secretary of the Commission, Albagir Ibrahim Adam, Chief of the Economic Development and Globalization Division (EDGD), Nabil Safwat, Social Policy and Participatory Development Team Leader in the Social Development Division (SDD), Walid Hilal and Chief of the Economics Section in the Statistics Division (SD), Giovanni Savio.
The mechanism agreed upon will strengthen cooperation and coordination between UN-ESCWA and ALO, namely through partnerships in conferences, workshops, and common activities. On the economic level, the mechanism focuses on studying the effects of the global financial crisis over the economic life in UN-ESCWA countries, convening to examine the issue of employment in the UN-ESCWA region and exploring women's economic empowerment. It also tackles drafting a report on the successful accomplishments of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in Arab countries, namely on the fronts of employment and poverty, alongside other matters. Coordination also takes on social colors, since some points of the agreement concern exploring the consequences of the financial crisis over the social life in the countries of the region, as well as migration, and youth employment in the Arab world.
