On 25 February 2014, UN Undersecretary General and ESCWA Executive Secretary Rima Khalaf launched from Tunis a remarkable report entitled “Arab Integration: A 21st Century Development Imperative” with the participation of Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki, former Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati and a crowd of political, economic, intellectual and public figures. Media representatives who took part in the ceremony received a press kit, which we will re-publish over five parts, in view of the importance of the issues the Report addresses.

By initiative of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) on International Women’s Day, 58 Arab figures from various intellectual backgrounds today decried violence against women in an appeal that they signed, cognizant of the challenges faced by women in the process of democratic transition in the Arab region. It was circulated in member countries undergoing political transition (Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia and Yemen) as well as in the ESCWA host country, Lebanon. Below is the complete text of the appeal:

Beirut, 14 May 2019 (ESCWA)--Recent studies show that youth unemployment’s rates in the Arab region are twice as high as the global average and 40% of the Arab population is suffering from multi-dimensional poverty. In this context, a 2-day expert group meeting (EGM) at the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) in Beirut discussed “Leaving No One Behind: Reaching the Most Marginalized in Selected Countries in the Arab Region,” namely Egypt, Lebanon, and Tunisia.
 

UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of ESCWA Rima Khalaf today said that full Arab integration, which takes into account its economic, social and cultural dimensions, can no longer remain a purely intellectual luxury. Rather, it is a strategic choice and a fundamental prerequisite of an Arab renaissance, which can provide security and welfare for people, and prosperity and invincibility for countries.