Increasing evidence shows that policies that are not grounded in the principles of inclusiveness, empowerment and equality can have harmful impacts on the communities and exacerbate tensions and conflict. The meeting will aim to unpack the principles of inclusiveness, empowerment and equality, how they relate to sustainable development and peace building in conflict settings.

Beirut, 8 April 2019 (ESCWA)--Tomorrow, the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) is welcoming over 300 participants at its headquarters in Beirut for the annual 3-day (9-11 April) Arab Forum for Sustainable Development (AFSD).

The workshop aims at building the national capacity in the technical, financial and legal fields related to the reforming and restructuring of the electricity sector. Besides, increasing the capability to road a map for sector reform, based on the Egyptian experience in the following areas:

•  Sector restructuring, including analysis of strengths, weaknesses, challenges and opportunities as well as appropriate legislations,
• The institutional framework of the Electricity Regulatory Agency, in terms of competences, tasks, working mechanisms, relations with concerned Government agencies and the private sector, including licenses for electricity production, energy pricing, accounting and auditing,
• Economic operation of the sector in terms of improving performance, reducing energy losses, rationalizing consumption, developing technical capabilities, improving customer services, supporting public-private partnerships, enhancing good coordination among relevant sector institutions,
• Automatic Control Center and the reginal electrical interconnection.

This paper proposes an Equality-Justice-Inclusion Nexus Approach to mainstream the SDGs in national strategies, policies and programmes of Arab countries.