“Gender Mainstreaming In Public Institutions” is one of the main issues that will be discussed during the 29th Ministerial Council of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), which will held on 13-15 December 2016 at the Sheraton Grand Hotel in Doha, Qatar.

ESCWA is  implementing a project entitled “Gender mainstreaming in public institutions” to help national women’s machineries in Arab countries face the numerous challenges that lie ahead in achieving Sustainable Development Goal 5 on gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls, and the goals set out in the Beijing Platform for Action. The project specifically aims to support the region’s institutions in upholding gender equality, based on the success of ESCWA in implementing the United Nations System-wide Action Plan on Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-SWAP).

Putting its technical expertise and the lessons learned through UN-SWAP implementation at the service of Arab States, the ESCWA secretariat will support their endeavours to strengthen administrative efficiency and optimize staff capabilities, while upholding gender equality and women’s empowerment within national bodies. For this objective, ESCWA has prepared a report that provides an overview of the UN-SWAP and its matrix of performance indicators, the experience of ESCWA in implementing it, and the proposed actions to be taken to transfer this experience to Member States.
 

ESCWA is one of the five UN regional commissions. It provides a framework for the formulation and harmonization of sectoral policies for member countries; a platform for congress and coordination; a home for expertise and knowledge, and an information observatory. It aims at supporting economic and social cooperation between the region’s countries and promoting development process in order to achieve regional integration.

Mauritania became member of ESCWA in September 2015. By this new membership, the number of ESCWA countries rose to 18, including: Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the Sudan, the Syrian Arab Republic, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen.