Statement of Ms. Rima Khalaf, Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Secretary of ESCWA, at the opening of the ministerial segment of the twenty-eighth session Tunis, 17 September 2014 Your Excellency, Mr. Monji Hamdi, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Excellencies, Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to welcome you all to the opening of the ministerial meetings of the twenty-eighth session of the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA).

This brief defines the concept of the Social and Solidarity Economy and provides international and regional examples for this system as a tool for enhancing social justice.

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.