The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) will hold a workshop on 'Capacity-Building for Partnership in Democratic governance in Iraq' in partnership with the Iraqi Business Council (IBC) and in cooperation with the League of Arab States (LAS) and the Arab Gulf Fund for Development (AGFUND) from 23 to 25 January 2015, in the Grand Millennium Hotel, Amman. The opening of the workshop will be attended by Ambassador of Iraq to Jordan Jawad Hadi Abbas.
The workshop will provide participants with technical knowledge and skills on a participatory approach to democratic governance, and constitue a platform for experience-sharing on good governance competencies and participatory tools to public-policy making. The workshop is also expected to offer the participants with cutting-edge skills and techniques to support ongoing changes resulting from political transitions in several countries of the region, and more specifically on how to practice just and good leadership; engage civil society in the reform process; build alliances for public policy-making; uphold accountability and transparency; promote dialogue and building consensus; and design public policies based on the principles of equity and social justice, among other competencies.
This meeting comes within the ESCWA efforts to establish a National Community of Practice in Iraq that aims to measure the extent of achievement of ESCWA’s participatory approach in both targeted countries and report on how the acquired skills and capacities are put into practice at the policy level; to sensitize additional national counterparts to the tools and mechanisms available in ESCWA to ensure a participatory approach to development and means to institutionalize them; and to sensitize governments and civil society activists to the importance of a more dynamic and active public-civic participation process in public policy formulation.
The workshop will be attended by officials from governmental institutions (including decision makers and memebrs of the Iraqi parliament), civil society organizations, academic institutions, experts, media and private sector representatives in Iraq.
ESCWA is one of the five UN regional commissions. It provides a framework for the formulation and harmonization of sectoral policies for member countries; a platform for congress and coordination; a home for expertise and knowledge, and an information observatory. ESCWA aims at supporting economic and social cooperation between the region’s countries and promoting development process in order to achieve regional integration.
Libya, the Kingdom of Morocco and the Republic of Tunisia became members of ESCWA in September 2012. By this new membership, the number of ESCWA countries rose to 17, including: Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, The Sudan, The Syrian Arab Republic, The United Arab Emirates and Yemen.
For further information, kindly contact:
ESCWA Communication and Information Unit (ECIU) on either of the following numbers:
Mr. Nabil Abu-Dargham (+961-70-993 144), Ms. Mariam Sleiman (+961-03-910 930), and
Ms. Mirane Abi-Zaki (+961-76-04 64 02).
Please direct your emails to: escwa-ciu@un.org
Tweets and updates of ESCWA events can be found on: @ESCWACIU, and https://facebook.com/unescwa