The ESCWA Center for Women, in collaboration with UN Women, the League of Arab States, the Swedish Institute in Alexandria and the United Nations Development Program is organizing a regional capacity building workshop for members of the UN-ESCWA Subcommittee on Gender on the implementation of SDG5. This workshop, which will be held in Beirut, Lebanon on 17-18 April 2018, aims to develop the capacity of National Women’s Machineries and statistical bureaus in ESCWA member states, and to support them in preparing their Voluntary National Reviews (VNR) to be presented at the United Nations High-level Political Forum, noting that eight Arab Countries will be presenting their VNRs this year.

The workshop will focus on introducing participants to the pillars of reporting (developing national indicators, nationalization of strategies to be aligned to 2030 Agenda…etc.), the steps involved in preparing national voluntary reports, the tools available at the regional level to report on SDG 5, and the role of national stakeholders in preparing the voluntary national report. It will also address some global experiences in this area bringing forward some global voluntary reports such as Sweden's report and other national reports from the region to capture lessons and best practices.

This workshop is the first of two workshops that are planned to focus on this issue.  Based on the needs identified and in order to address key remaining capacity gaps, another workshop is expected to be held in December 2018 in Alexandria, Egypt.