Under the patronage of His Royal Highness Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Bahrain, more than 400 Arab ministers of environment, as well as concerned officials and dignitaries will gather tomorrow in the Second Session of the Arab High-Level Forum on Sustainable Development (AFSD) to set their priorities for regional and international cooperation on the growing number of environmental challenges facing the Arab region.

The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), with support from Saudi Arabia, held today a regional meeting, the first of its kind, gathering government representatives from Mauritania, Somalia, the Sudan and Yemen with regional and international donors, to launch the first regional dialogue on the new programme of action for Arab least developed countries (LDCs) up to 2030, which will be discussed in January 2022 at the

Beirut, 27 July 2007 (UN Information Services)-- On 30-31 July 2007, Cairo will host a workshop organized by UN-ESCWA on “Evaluation and Adaptation of Existing Water Visions and Forecasts for Shared Aquifer Management in the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership Region (MEDA)”, which includes Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, and Palestine (Gaza and the West bank) at the Mena House Oberoi Hotel. Participants in the meeting, which will open at 10:00 am on Monday 30 July 2007, will be representatives of water management institutions in selected MEDA countries.

Lebanese House Speaker Nabih Berri opened today ESCWA’s 26th Ministerial Session held under the theme “Youth are Change” at the UN House, Beirut, amidst a crowd of Arab ministers, officials and media representatives. In addition to the statement of Berri, the opening of the Session featured statements by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, delivered on his behalf by ESCWA Executive Secretary Bader AlDafa, who read ESCWA’s statement well.