This publication highlights the main tasks of social policy and its contribution towards achieving social stability, in addition to challenges facing social protection systems.

This report tackles microfinance amidst conflict in the ESCWA region through a review of the main issues, such as the provision of microfinance services, the role of microfinance in development and the unique challenges faced by conflict-affected countries concerning microcredit and the development of financial markets. It also surveys microcredit providers in ESCWA conflict-affected countries, with an overview of the Arab World and a country level analysis of Iraq, Lebanon and Palestine.

While 2010 was, for ESCWA member countries, a year of recovery from the effects of the global financial crisis, in 2011 the continued global economic recession and the popular movements in some Arab countries led to a downturn in economic growth rates in most member countries. These challenges and changes have placed added pressure on member countries to implement the commitments set out in the 2002 Monterrey Consensus of the International Conference on Financing for Development and reaffirmed in 2008.

Under the project “Strengthening the Statistical Capacity of ESCWA Member Countries in Producing and Disseminating Short-term Economic Indicators for Sustainable Growth”, the training workshop aims to enhance the capacity of the NSO’s to compile and produce the index of production in construction and to compile and produce external trade data and the methodology of calculating the related indices.

Meeting Details