ESCWA organized a virtual regional workshop to present the tool for assessing the gaps in the compatibility of public policies and programmes with the principles of social justice and launching the regional report on the assessment of national policies on wages and protection of workers on 14-15 April 2021.
 
The workshop contributed to meeting a number of objectives related to the tool including a detailed presentation of the evaluation tool and its methodology. It also aimed to clarify the practical procedures and steps related to evaluation at the planning and implementation level, and to guide the stakeholders on how to use the evaluation tool and draw conclusions. The workshop also sought to launch the preparation process for the regional report and to inform the participating countries on its course of action. In this regard, the workshop reviewed the electronic platform created specifically for the evaluation tool, which constitutes a practical means of collecting the required information in an interactive and systematic manner, which allows those involved in the evaluation to come up with an indicator / barometer of social justice that measures the gaps in the extent to which the policy being evaluated takes into account the principles of social justice in all stages of its preparation and implementation. Based on the evaluation results, this process will provide an opportunity for the national evaluation team to agree on a specific and detailed work programme that incorporates the next steps required to fill the gaps revealed by the evaluation and improve the national wage policy.
 
The workshop was attended by representatives of the Ministries of Labour in ESCWA member countries and their different departments responsible for formulating public policies directly related to wage policies and the protection of workers and for their implementation at the national and local levels.