In its first meeting for this year, the UN-ESCWA Advisory Committee convened at the UN House in Beirut on 1 February 2007. Executive Secretary Mervat Tallawy seized the opportunity to underscore the continuation of UN-ESCWA’s many activities in Lebanon and the region in a normal manner.

 

Speaking to the Advisory Committee, a consultative body that serves as a major means of communication between member countries and the UN-ESCWA secretariat and among member countries themselves, Tallawy said UN-ESCWA continued working on the implementation of its work programme by holding its meetings in Lebanon but had re-routed a few others to some member countries. She noted that, since September 2006, UN-ESCWA has held over 23 meetings, workshops, and training seminars in trade, environment, water, energy, financial markets, smart communities, statistics, transport and community development as well as other acitvities such as official missions, signing memorandums of understanding, launching websites and monthly newsletters, establishing smart community projects and other development centres and organizations.

 

Discussions included the report entitled “Delivering as One” prepared by the High-level Panel on United Nations System-wide Coherence in the areas of development, humanitarian assistance and the environment. Ambassadors were informed that the UN-ESCWA programme of work in 2008-2009 will focus on four regional priority areas, namely: integrated water resource management for sustainable development; integrated social policies; activating economic development and integration; and information and communication technology for integrated development. This is in addition to three inter-linked issues, which are statistics for data-based policy-making; women’s advancement; and reducing the degree of conflict and development.