The International Year of Forests, 2011 Celebrating Forests for People Forests are essential renewable resources that are important for the survival and wellbeing of people around the World. They provide shelter, food and medicine to people and are a major habitat for biodiversity. They provide clean water and play a vital role in maintaining a stable climate and preserving the environment, to name a few. In order to highlight the important role of forests, the United Nations General Assembly declared 2011 as the International Year of Forests.

On 29 and 30 March 2011, ESCWA held an Expert Group Meeting on “Mainstreaming Gender in the Plans and Programmes of the Ministries of Labour in Selected ESCWA Member Countries” at the UN House in Beirut. The two-day meeting was a follow-up to a workshop on gender mainstreaming and organizational change for participants from labour ministries and national women machineries in six member countries - Bahrain, Kuwait, Lebanon, Palestine, Qatar, Sudan and Syria - that was organized in August 2010.