This publication reports on the achievements of the region, based on ten WSIS Action Lines, in building the Arab information society between 2003 and 2015.

The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) and Carnegie Middle East Centre are organizing a panel discussion on “The Arab Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) Report: Facing Challenges and Looking Beyond 2015” to be held at 10:00 am on Friday, the 15th of November 2013 at the UN House, Riad El-Solh Square, Beirut. This panel discussion is a follow up to the launching ceremony of the 2013 Arab MDGs Report that took place at the United Nations Headquarters in New York in September of this year.

The youth group in the ESCWA region faces numerous challenges, including poor quality of education, incompatibility of education system outputs with the labour market, high unemployment rates, unhealthy life styles and low participation in decision-making and public and political life. In that regard, ESCWA focuses its activities on the need to address youth as a socio-demographic group that should be targeted with special national policies. As part of those activities, ESCWA publishes the fourth issue of the Population and Development Report which contains three parts.

The baseline study of Tunisia, which is developed within the REGEND framework, provides an assessment on the socioeconomic and political dynamics, and the environmental considerations in terms of access to energy services and availability of supply sources and associated technologies needed to support resilience
in rural communities.