On 25 October 2013, ESCWA and the Rafik Hariri Foundation joined hands in organizing "Water, Food and Energy Nexus Conference" at the United Nations House in Beirut. Speakers in the conference were Roula Majdalani, Director of the ESCWA Sustainable Development and Productivity Division (SDPD); Salwa Siniora Baassiri, Director-General of the Rafik Hariri Foundation; Nadim Khoury, Deputy Executive Secretary of ESCWA. The event’s keynote speaker was Dominic Waughray, Senior Director and Head of Environment and Sustainable Initiatives of the World Economic Forum.

Western Asia saw slightly slower economic growth in 2013 compared to 2012 but growth is expected to accelerate in 2014 even with fallout from military conflicts, said Abdallah AlDardari, the ESCWA Chief Economist and Director of the Economic Development and Globalization Division said on 24 January 2014.

During the Week of International Women Day (8-15 March), ESCWA elevators were dressed in Arabic calligraphy, the language of the region where the Commission is working alongside governments to implement women’s rights.

From words to achievement, "من مربوطة إلى مبسوطة", was an internal visual campaign inside the UN House, Beirut, that showed the difference empowerment can make through a simple, to-the-point, Arabic illustration.

On 2-4 April 2014, the Jordanian capital Amman hosted the “Arab High Level Forum on Sustainable Development” organized by ESCWA in cooperation with Ministries of Planning and International Cooperation and of Environment in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, the League of Arab States (LAS) and the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP). The Forum, which was inaugurated by HRH Prince Hassan Bin Talal, gathered a crowd of government officials, officials from the United Nations and its specialized agencies, LAS specialized agencies, funding institutions and the civil society.