This guide promotes the adoption and integration of the Sustainable Livelihood Approach (SLA) and helps improve and develop the well-being of the population in the ESCWA region. This approach is divided into four steps: analysis of the situation, design and selection of relevant strategies, implementation, and follow-up of adjustment. Moreover, the guide highlights the need to build appropriate capacity in order to facilitate the adoption and integration of the SLA through policies and programmes.

Development generates such major forces as rural-urban migration, population growth and socio-economic developments. This study sheds light on the role of these major forces in shaping the character of the Arab city and presents the results of a comparative analysis of three case studies, namely, Amman, with its challenge of continuous growth; Beirut and its reconstruction predicament; and Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, as the city of many cities.



This report analyses past trends in domestic energy policy in the Arab region and the capacity of today’s policies and institutions to reverse current unsustainable production and consumption patterns, and meet development and energy security needs. It also contains recommendations for more effective policies and greater regional cooperation on the development of sustainable energy systems.

The information society, in which information is processed efficiently, including the production, exchange, adaptation, and use of information, is the appropriate environment for achieving sustainable development and enhancing the quality of life for all citizens. However, the move towards the information society constitutes a real challenge to developing countries, particularly in view of the expanding digital divide with developed countries, thus rendering them increasingly vulnerable to a reduction of their productive and economic capacities.