Excellency, Mr. Saad Al- Hariri, President of the Council of Ministers of Lebanon;
Excellency, Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ms. Asha-Rose Migiro;
Excellency, Assistant Secretary-General of the League of Arab States, Dr Sima Bahous;
Distinguished Ambassadors,
UN Colleagues and friends;
Honored Guests;

Good Morning to you all and a very warm welcome to the UN House in Beirut.

Mr. Prime Minister, we are honored by your presence, and we thank you for taking the time in your very busy schedule to be with us today. It signifies not only your support, for ESCWA, and the RCM process, but more importantly your commitment to the cause of Arab economic and social development, and human well being. The chairing of this meeting by Deputy Secretary-General Migiro demonstrates the high importance she attaches to the RCM function in support of the vision of the Secretary General, and the General Assembly. Madam Deputy Secretary-General, on behalf of all my colleagues, I thank you for leading our efforts in the coming two days.

I extend a special welcome to our partners from the region. In addition to the League of Arab States, with whom we signed a joint Plan of Action, we have with us, for the first time, representatives from the Islamic Development Bank, and the newly established civil society advisory board to ESCWA. We will continue to reach out to such regional organizations with whom we share a passion for the region, a concern for the wellbeing of its people, and a strong belief in its potential.

I must also make a special note of the commitment of the World Bank and IMF to the RCM process. Both are represented here today, and deserve our gratitude for their enthusiastic cooperation in the framing of this year’s agenda. Last but not least, I extend a very warm welcome to my UN colleagues. With them, we share common values and ideals, and a belief in the rights of all peoples to lead productive, fulfilling and dignified lives, free from fear and from hunger. All 22 organizations represented here, with mandates ranging from the promotion of human rights to combating poverty and deprivation, nurture a solid commitment to inclusive and fair development for the region. Their active participation in this forum, tells us that they not only want to continue to work hard in supporting our countries, but that they are keen to capture the synergies that arise from working in the spirit of Delivering as One.

Colleagues,

Despite the good progress our countries have made in some fields, our region has a checkered track record on achievement. On the bright side, our countries have made significant strides on many indicators of developments. Notable among these are the significant quantitative expansion in educating the young, especially girls, and a conspicuous improvement in fighting premature death and combating disease. We have achieved gender parity in primary education in 9 of the Arab States, and between 1999 and 2007 the out-of-school population was reduced by 28%. Arab countries are doing better than the average developing country on some of the MDGs including child immunization and access to improved sanitation and safe water. We clearly have done some things right.

But then, we may not have done enough of the right things. While progress has been made in education, alarmingly some countries, such as Yemen, oPt and Sudan are showing signs of regression. One in ten children in Arab LDCs, never reaches the age of five. And while unemployment remains a major challenge in most Arab countries, Arab LDCs have witnessed a dramatic increase in unemployment rates from around 14 percent in the 1990’s to around 19 percent, in the first decade of this century. Our shortcomings have often extended beyond the economic, to the societal. Injustice, marginalization, and foreign interference, have destabilized some of our societies causing extreme suffering. Civil wars and ethnic and sectarian strife are not uncommon in our region. The Israeli occupation of Palestinian and Arab territories is an historical anomaly seen nowhere else in our post colonial world. It continues to deprive Palestinians of their freedom, human security, and their inalienable rights under international law.

As a result of foreign occupations and regional instability, 47% of today’s 16 million global refugees are Arabs. This is not counting the close to ten million internally displaced people who, along with refugees, are subjected to the most humiliating of life experiences as they lose homes, roots, livelihoods and sometimes life itself. The complex challenges facing our region, will invariably impact the way we work. To be effective, we cannot pull ready-made policies from a handy toolkit. We have to be creative and enterprising to remain relevant. And we have to pool our resources by working effectively together to create a critical mass of innovative solutions to address the real needs of the region we serve. This gives added significance to our RCM. And I will work with my UN colleagues to make it a most dynamic forum for policy discussion on the key priorities for our region and the UN family.

But as we move forward with the RCM, we have to admit that we have not yet perfected the process. We have not in the past followed up as consistently, effectively, and resourcefully between meetings in support of the work of the Thematic Working Groups. We have not necessarily provided RCM members with a clear direction on the global policy agenda, nor have we always assisted in contextualizing these priorities to the region. And we have not explored enough the clear potential that exists of translating our discussions to a common message on normative work to our member countries. But with your help, this will change. I look forward to your feedback on areas where we most need to improve, and count on your partnership to make it happen.

We must do this to ensure that our role in the region, and the perception of it, are ones of support, relevance and influence that other actors cannot deliver. We are sometimes perceived as competitors- a description laden with different meanings. The way I see it, competition amongst our agencies, funds and programmes can be healthy – especially when we want to outdo others in serving the people of the region. And it can be beneficial, only when it is accompanied with genuine coordination amongst us. It is then that we can effectively lever our specialized mandates to amplify our strategic and coherent message to our member countries.

In parallel to the RCM, the role of the UNDG in guiding the Resident Coordinators and the UNCTs on implementing global and regional priorities at the national level is of unquestionable importance. It is fundamental to the effectiveness of the UN at the national level. And I will continue to commit resources to engaging in the UNDG’s Peer Support Group and other initiatives of the UNDG Regional Directors. The issues facing the Arab region are many, and while we often point to what makes us unique, we also have our own share of the economic and social challenges which confront humanity at the global level. We must ensure that we effectively place the concerns of our region on to the global policy agenda.

Enhancing linkages between the RCM and the High Level Committee on Programmes (HLCP) under the Secretary-General’s direct purview is another key priority. In this regard I am eager to hear from the Vice Chair of the HLCP this afternoon on line from Washington, on how we can build an effective dialogue for the benefit of our people. Within the region, we have a clear comparative advantage in furthering the development agenda with strategic regional stakeholders. This is a conversation which we can no longer reserve internally to the UN. In addition to our work with member countries, we must engage with civil society and the private sector if we want our vision for development to be inclusive, and to reach beyond our government interlocutors.

Finally, I am pleased that the topic of youth and poverty reduction was selected as the theme for this RCM meeting. It is our duty to prepare our youth for a more dignified and fulfilling life, and create an enabling environment that provides them with better opportunities. Whether the youth bulge will turn out to be a curse or a blessing depends on us. In the next two days, we must act strategically and with urgency to address the current predicament of youth in our region. We must brainstorm on practical tools which we can collectively develop and supply to governments to help them deliver opportunities to this unique but vulnerable demographic group.

I call upon you to conclude this meeting tomorrow with a clear vision, articulated in a statement which we all endorse as a reflection of a substantive, solution-oriented, and practical discussion around high level policy priorities for our region. Our member countries expect it from us, and our peoples deserve no less than that.

Thank you.