Bahraini Minister of Social Development Fatima Bint Muhammad al-Baloushi opened an UN-ESCWA workshop on “Orientation to Social Policy” held under her patronage in
Staff members of the recently established Social Policy Unit at the Ministry of Social Development participated in the training workshop, as well as employees of other divisions at the Ministry and representatives from a number of government agencies such as the Ministries of Health and of Education, and from several non-governmental organizations.
The two-day workshop addressed many issues, namely, concepts and objectives of social policy; designing and implementing social policy; social policy analysis; role of the various stakeholders; indicators and monitoring and evaluation; coordination; lobbying and advocacy; and the role of the Social Policy Unit at the Bahraini Ministry of Social Development. UN-ESCWA distributed copies of the following reading and reference materials: the success stories of Canada, Korea, Malaysia, Norway, and Tunis as well as a copy of its first social policy report: “Towards Integrated Social Policies in Arab Countries: Framework and Comparative Analysis”; Bahrain Country Profile as relates to social policy; a brief review of the joint project in this field between the Kingdom of Bahrain and UN-ESCWA.
At the end of the Workshop, participants were awarded certificates of attendance signed by both Minister al-Baloushi and UN-ESCWA Executive Secretary Mervat Tallawy.