From 22 to 27 March 2015, the Jordanian capital, Amman, hosted governmental meetings organized by ESCWA. These events, which were attended by high-level figures and experts in the areas of energy, water and food security, included the 10th session of the ESCWA Committee on Energy, an expert group meeting on the Water-Energy-Food Security Nexus in the Arab Region, and the 11th session of the ESCWA Committee on Water Resources.

 Committee on Energy

Under the umbrella of ESCWA and the League of Arab States (LAS), the first meeting of the Multistakeholder Advisory Group (MAG) of the Arab Internet Governance Forum (Arab IGF) was held on 18-19 June 2012 in Cairo, Egypt. The meeting was convened by the Arab IGF secretariat, represented by the National Telecommunication Regulatory Authority (NTRA) of Egypt, in collaboration with the Arab Administrative Development Organization (ARADO), and was sponsored by the Kuwait Information Technology Society (KITS) and CISCO Systems.

ESCWA launched the “Regional Profile of the Information Society in the Arab Region, 2003-2015,” the last publication in a series that kicked off in 2003 to monitor and evaluate various aspects of the information society in its Member States, and measure the progress towards building such society.

UN-ESCWA has published the “Survey of Economic and Social Developments in Western Asia, 2005-2006”. The annual publication outlines a set of economic policy principles aimed at contributing to the design of development strategies in the region. The principles are employment-intensive, pro-poor and based on human rights. The Survey was completed before the conflict in Lebanon of July-August 2006. Consequently, some of the economic indicators set forth in this year’s publication, particularly with regard to Lebanon, will need to be revised in a subsequent issue.