ESCWA held an Expert Group Meeting on 19 and 20 July, to discuss the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in the Arab region, as part of a report to be published on the subject later this year.

Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) flows to the ESCWA region dropped by 15 per cent between 2009 and 2010, settling on 57 billion USD from the former 67 billion USD. Save for Oman and Lebanon, this drop affected all ESCWA countries.

UN Under-Secretary General and ESCWA Executive Secretary Rima Khalaf is keen on asserting UN agencies, and particularly ESCWA's, commitment to provide all forms of support to Member Countries' governments in furthering their national efforts towards sustainable development.

"You, senior officials, owe it to us to remember that we are the future of nations and that to the extent you care for us you care for the future of our nations.

In an effort to raise awareness about the work of the United Nations and help people to address challenges of the third millennium, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will directly communicate with individuals from around the world via social media.

ESCWA today opened a workshop on “Social Protection as Development” at the UN House in Beirut with the aim of developing effective and integrated systems in this field.

Against the backdrop of development challenges facing Arab countries and the popular movements sweeping the region, ESCWA today opened an expert group meeting at the UN House in Beirut to discuss recent transformations in the Arab world and develop the Commission’s strategic framework for the 201