ESCWA opened yesterday its regional meeting on the Follow-up to the Outcome of the World Summit on the Information Society in Damascus, with keynote speakers stressing the importance of building and strengthening the information society in the Arab region, to further push the development process. "Establishing the information society in our region requires the combination of efforts by the governments and the private sector, including regional training and research organizations", ESCWA Executive Secretary Bader AlDafa said.

The Arab region suffers from pressing environmental challenges such as water scarcity, desertification, land degradation and reduction in arable land areas, which negatively impact access to food especially in rural and marginalized areas. Since more than a decade, ESCWA works closely in partnership with the League of Arab States (LAS) and UN Environment on sustainable development issues including provision of adequate tools to monitor and assess the environmental dimension of the 2030 Agenda. 

Cairo, Egypt, 3 December 2019 - Under the auspices of the Working Group on International Migration in the Arab Region, the co-chairs of the Working Group - the League of Arab States (LAS), and the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for West Asia (ESCWA), and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) Regional Office for the Middle East and North Africa organized a Regional Conference on the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration: Implementation and Policy Implications for the Arab region.