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. The workshop’s opening was attended by Palestinian Minister of Social Affairs Magida El Masri, Jordanian Minister of Labor Mahmoud Kafawin, ESCWA Deputy Executive Secretary Nadim Khoury and Lebanese Minister of Social Affairs’ representative Randa Bou Hamdan.

ESCWA today held a workshop on “Voluntary Sustainability Standards (VSS) to promote sustainable agricultural production, food quality and safety, environmental protection and trade in the Arab Region,” at the UN House in Beirut. The workshop was organized in cooperation with the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ) and under the patronage of the Lebanese Minister of Agriculture Hussein Al Hajj Hassan.

Under the patronage of Lebanese Minister of Economy and Trade Nicholas Nahhas, the Technical Committee on Liberalization of Foreign Trade, Economic Globalization and Financing for Development in the Countries of the ESCWA Region opened today its seventh session. Statements at the opening session were delivered by Acting Director General of the Ministry of Economy and Trade in Lebanon Fouad Fleifel, representing Nahhas, the Director of ESCWA’s Economic Development and Globalization Division Adballah Dardai and president of the session Ahmad Al Douchari of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Cairo, 17 Oct 2011 (UN Information Service) — Officials and experts participating in a meeting of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) called for seizing the opportunity of political and social changes of the Arab Spring to review adopted patterns of development with a view to addressing sustainable development challenges in the Arab region. Participants agreed that failures in achieving development is mainly attributed to developed countries’ evasion of their obligations towards developing ones, as provided for in international conventions.