The study explores the concept of open government, investigates the status of open government in the Arab region, and describes the ESCWA open government policy framework.

This tool aims to analyze the extent to which the principles of social justice are integrated into public policies and development programs in the Arab region by identifying the gaps and deficits in policies that are considered key to achieve social justice.

The Review presents two selected key papers, namely: the specifications and indicators of wastewater treatment for use in irrigation; and the environmental impact assessment arising from the liberalization of trade on small and medium enterprises. The latter paper deals with the case of the textile and garment industries in Morocco and in the countries of the southern Mediterranean. The Review also provides a briefing on the main ESCWA activities during 2004, including studies, reports, meetings, projects and advisory services related to the sustainable management of water and energy resources, environment and related sectoral developments. Additionally, it includes a statistical profile of selected sectors in the water and energy fields.

This report includes evaluation results of GEMS maturity index in 2020 at regional and national levels, with some recommendations that could be followed up to foster digital transformation of these public services, and make them available through digital channels (portals and mobile apps).