After more than half of the period until the 2015 deadline to achieve the Millennium Development Goals has passed as stated by the UN General Assembly in 2000, the progress made toward Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, Achieving universal primary education, promoting gender equality and empowering women, reducing child mortality, improving maternal health, combating HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases, ensuring environmental sustainability, and developing a global partnership for development is still slow due to many factors that expanded widely because of the recent global economical, financial and food crises. That made the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015 difficult and unobtainable.

The MDGs-related activities held at ESCWA, the convener of the LAS-UN Thematic Working Group (TWG)1 on the attainment of MDGs in the Arab Region (TWG on Arab MDGs), represent an opportunity (ies) to discuss and follow-up on the efforts and work done by the members of the TWG on Arab MDGs and concerned parties in the Arab countries toward the achievement of MDGs by 2015.

In this regard, ESCWA organized the 1st meeting of the TWG on Arab MDGs on 23 July 2009 at the UN House, Beirut, to discuss the occurring global issues and crisis and their impacts on the attainment of MDGs in the region. The meeting also discussed the preparation for the forthcoming report on Arab MDGs 2010.