The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) is organizing a “Regional Meeting on Environment Statistics and Accounts and Evaluation of the ESIAP project” in coordination with the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) at the UN House, Beirut, during the period of April 7 to 9, 2010.

ESCWA and ECLAC have been implementing the development account project “Strengthening National Capacities in Environment Statistics, Indicators and Accounts in support of progress toward achieving the internationally agreed development goals in the ESCWA and ECLAC Region” with a total budget of $ 602,000 and a duration from October 2007 to June 2010. ESCWA and ECLAC provided assistance through training workshops, technical assistance missions, publication of studies and reports, and development of information systems, in coordination with regional and international agencies, particularly UNSD, the regional statistical cooperation programme between the European Union and Mediterranean partner countries (MEDSTAT), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and other partners.

The objective of the project was to enhance the national capacities of Member States in environment statistics, indicators and accounts in order to integrate environmental concerns into economic development, thus supporting progress toward achieving environmental sustainability and related international agreed development goals member countries.