This paper advocates a sustainable long-term approach to ensure a social protection floor.3 In doing so, it follows the initiative of the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the United Nations, which are promoting a social protection floor in Arab countries. To fund such social spending, Governments have to build fiscal space. While there are different ways to do so, this paper focuses on revenue mobilization through taxation. The objective of the paper is to analyse the role of tax revenues within a fiscal space context in the Arab region.

 
Beirut, 24 November (Communication and Information Unit)--Three major meetings will be held next week in ESCWA headquarters in Riyad al-Solh square in Beirut:
 
Monday 27 November, at 9:00am: Lebanese Minister of State for Administrative Reform Dr. Inaya Ezzeddine will open the Regional Forum on “National Knowledge and Technology Development and Transfer Systems.”
 

ESCWA’s Social Development Division (SDD) is conducting a 5-day senior level workshop for national dialogue partners, in Sudan, from 22-26 February 2015, in cooperation with the Sudanese Ministry of Welfare and Social Security. The workshop’s objective is to explore innovative approaches to the expansion of social protection schemes to rural informal sector workers in Sudan, and to propose ways to formulate and implement social protections policies.  The workshop is organized in three different modules:

This issue of the Survey focuses on the robust economic expansion experienced by most ESCWA member countries during the period 2006-2007, with the exception of Iraq, Lebanon and Palestine, where regional conflicts and political instabilities significantly reduced economic potential. This edition focuses on the lessons that can be drawn from previous oil booms, highlighting policies designed to harness financial and human resources in order to meet development requirements and achieve the Millennium Development Goals.