The Forum is the primary regional mechanism for the follow up and review of the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in the Arab region.  

ESCWA’s project entitled Social Expenditure Monitor (SEM) is a pioneering tool for Arab States that provides a comprehensive mapping of public social expenditure to inform budgeting and social policy reforms. The establishment of SEM in a national context would require collection and analysis of data according to an agreed and adapted SEM framework

Within the framework of the “Regional Initiative for Promoting Small-Scale Renewable Energy Applications in Rural Areas of the Arab Region (REGEND)” project, the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), in partnership with the General Commission for Regional Development (CGDR) and the National Agency for Energy Conservation (ANME) in Tunisia, is organizing a “capacity-building workshop of rural women on packaging, customized trademarks adoption, and labeling of local products to improve their promotion”.
 
This workshop aims to build/enhance the knowledge and the practical capacities of a group of rural women in the region of Chorbane (Governorate of Mahdia, Republic of Tunisia) in the field of packaging by providing them with the necessary skills regarding techniques and modern types of packaging, especially ecological ones, packaging design, branding and labeling of local products, and their best use. The workshop also aims to raise the participants ’awareness/enhance their knowledge regarding sanitary legislation and standards regulating packaging processes and their proper application, and to carry out practical exercises in packaging design, branding, and labeling of local products. The workshop also aims to provide the participants with skills regarding the conduct of product quality and cost studies, and compliance with environmental standards, and others, by adopting modern methods of training that integrate theoretical and practical dimensions together.