In observation of the international women’s day in 2016, ESCWA organized four events to commemorate the day under the global theme of “Planet 50-50 by 2030: Step it Up for Gender Equality”. The first event was held in partnership with the Institute for Women’s Studies in the Arab World (IWSAW) at the Lebanese American University (LAU). The commemoration was held on Thursday 10th of March 2016 with the presence of social, academic, and representatives from the diplomatic crops, international organizations and civil society.

Lebanese Minister of Communication Marwan Hamadeh, Lebanese Minister of Social Affairs ‎Nayla Mouawad and UNESCWA Executive Secretary Mervat Tallawy will launch the E-Caravan ‎project for South Lebanon during a press conference at 11:00am Wednesday, 18 January 2006, at ‎the UN House, Beirut. The project is implemented in cooperation with “Fondation Saradar”.‎

In an effort to raise awareness about the work of the United Nations and help people to address challenges of the third millennium, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will directly communicate with individuals from around the world via social media. The communication, through Facebook, Twitter, Weibo and Livestream as well as the UN Webcast (http://www.unmultimedia.org/tv/webcast/index.html), will take place on 13 September, at 11 am New York time.

The side-event focus on means of bridging the gap between policy-makers, civil society and statisticians, which constitutes a major obstacle and a hindrance to making progress on development of policies based on evidence and thus improving the lives of persons with disabilities. It will include presentation of a generic SDG-CRPD Framework of around 100 standard indicators that links CRPD articles to SDG policy areas, including SDG indicators that countries can disaggregate by disability status.