Beirut, 27 September 2011 (UN Information Service) — 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 title of “Equitable Cities”, the expert group meeting (EGM) on “Urban Governance and the Millennium Development Goals: Towards Implementing MDGs' Target 11”, was inaugurated today 10 December in Kuwait. The meeting is held by UN-ESCWA (The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia), in cooperation with the Kuwaiti Office of the Minister of State for Municipality Affairs, Arab Towns Organization (ATO), and the League of Arab States (LAS), from 10 to 12 December 2007, at the ATO headquarters in Kuwait City.

The Seventh Session of the UN-ESCWA Statistical Committee convened today at the UN House, Beirut, under the auspices of Lebanese Minister of State for Administrative Reform Jean Hogassapian. Opening statements were delivered by the Vice-Chairman of the Sixth Statistics Committee, Mr. Abdallah Al Othayyem; Mr. Ahmed Hussein, Head of the Statistics Coordination Unit on behalf of UN-ESCWA Executive Secretary Mervat Tallawy; and Minister Hogassapian.

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.