The Beijing Platform for Action (BPFA) in its 8^th area of concern calls for the creation of institutional mechanisms for women that incorporate a gender component into all strategies, plans and policies of member states. These mechanisms, which were later called National Machineries for Women (NMW), would play an instrumental role in advancing women's issues in the national agenda of member states and in gender mainstreaming the work of the different ministries and governmental agencies, given they are provided with experienced and trained human resources. The efficient work of the national machineries for women depends on the expertise and skills of their staff.

All twenty two Arab States have either established high-level national mechanisms or restructured existing mechanisms to bring them in line with the Platform's recommendations on national mechanisms. These mechanisms, in their capacity as governmental authorities, have been entrusted with two functions: (a) coordination among various public institutions and among them and civil society institutions in order to effect the advancement of women and gender equality; and (b) monitoring and tracking the work of all governmental agencies in addressing women's issues and promoting gender equality. They have to advise on how to integrate gender mainstreaming in policy formulation, strategy, program, and project budget allocations.

From the onset of this international movement, ESCWA Centre for Women (ECW) provided substantial assistance to the National Machineries for Women whereby advisory services and technical cooperation were provided by the Centre for most of member states. Training workshops on institutional building and on gender mainstreaming national plans, policies and strategies were regularly offered to the staff of the national machineries for women in ESCWA member states

Engendering projects, plans, and programmes of the different ministries, which is among the many tasks of the NMW, necessitates the allocation of resources specifically for this purpose. Gender budgeting is therefore required in order to systematically mainstream gender into all areas of work. NMW staff and gender focal points of the different line ministries needs to be acquainted with gender budgeting techniques in order to advise on the integration of a gender component into all projects, programmes and areas of work.

Following gender budgeting and the allocation of resources, concerned staff in NMW and line ministries need to monitor and evaluate the efficiency of all projects and programmes through gender audit and monitoring and evaluation techniques.

In this context and in response to the numerous requests for technical cooperation -dated 2006/2007- on gender mainstreaming sent by ESCWA member states and as a follow-up to the two regional workshops on gender mainstreaming for the Mashreq and Gulf Region that were held consecutively in February and May 2007, ESCWA Centre for Women would like to organize a regional workshop on gender budgeting, gender audit and monitoring and evaluation.

The ESCWA Centre for Women is determined to pursue its efforts to assist ESCWA member states in gender mainstreaming their strategies, plans, and projects. To this effect, the Centre's strategic framework for 2006-2007 was developed with a view to increase of focus on women and gender issues with a view to reducing gender imbalances and empowering women. In response to the requests of the various member states, the Centre plans to hold in collaboration with UNIFEM a regional training workshop to assist in building the capacity of the staff of the national machineries for women and focal points in ministries of planning and finance of all 13 ESCWA member states (2 participants from each member state)

The two days regional workshop, which will be conducted by Ms Shirin Shukri from UNIFEM, will focus on how to conduct gender budgeting and gender audit of the different plans, programmes and projects. ESCWA Centre for Women which promotes partnerships among UN agencies will benefits in this workshop from UNIFEM long experience in conducting successful workshops on gender budgeting. The training will also refer to application of international methods of monitoring and evaluation

The direct beneficiaries of the workshop are the staff of the national machineries for women and gender focal points in different ministries in ESCWA member states. The indirect and long-term beneficiaries are policy-makers in the trainees' respective member countries through enhanced quality of information to enable better decision-making; and eventually women at large in the concerned member countries once gender is mainstreamed in the projects, plans and strategies of their respective states.

The workshop will be held in Arabic.

The proposed date is 27-28 November 2007.The duration of the workshop will be 2 days.

The workshop will tentatively be held in Amman, Jordan unless security improves in Lebanon; in that case it will be held in Beirut, Lebanon.