United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) Rima Khalaf; UN Assistant Secretary-General, and Chair of the UN Development Group for the Arab Region Sima Bahous; and Secretary-General of the League of Arab States Nabil Elaraby will open the 21st Meeting of the UN Regional Coordination Mechanism (RCM) on the 25th of November, 2015 at 10.00am, at the League’s Cairo based headquarters.

The speakers will set the scene for this year’s RCM, which comes at a defining moment in the Arab region. The recent adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development provides the perfect opportunity to discuss and review for the first time the adaptation, implementation and monitoring of this ambitious agenda at the regional level. Identifying new priority areas for joint work and enhancing existing mechanisms for cooperation will be important for ensuring that the RCM can meet the needs of the governments and people of the Arab region at a time when the region is experiencing unprecedented levels of crisis, conflict and instability, which threaten to compromise development gains in several countries.

Members of the RCM include all UN regional agencies, representatives from LAS General Secretariat and representatives from regional and international funding institutions, such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. The RCM seeks to improve coordination among the work programmes of the organizations of the UN system development entities at the regional level.

Media institutions are cordially invited to attend the opening session of this important meeting. For more information:

In Cairo-Egypt: Ms. Dalia Farghal. Tel: 0020227940412, email: df@unic-eg.org
In Beirut-Lebanon: Mr. Nabil Abu-Dargham. Mob: 0096170993144, email: dargham@un.org