Integrated Social Policy in Egypt, why and what’s the purpose? Is there a difference between social policy and social services? Will the absence of social policy lead to a vacuum? Who will fill this vacuum? Irresponsible factions or extremists?

As the world is still struggling to fight the COVID-19 pandemic and its disruptive impact on agricultural value chain, the private sector and farmers in the Arab region are facing burdens on how to continue delivering along the agricultural value chain and ensure the continuity of supplies to consumers, for sustaining their livelihoods, from farm to fork. The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) leads on this Zoominar session to highlight the role of the private sector in the use of innovation and technology and the potential role of the public-private partnership and regional cooperation in reaching out to smallholders and building their resilience to crises, disasters and COVID-19 pandemic. The session is being held within the context of the International Forum on “International Forum on Innovation in Agri-Food Systems to achieve SDGs”, that was planned to take place in Saudi Arabia in March 2020 in preparations for the G20 meeting in KSA.



This workshop intend to provide capacity building support to Member countries and Regional Organizations on the Arab trade integration performance with the objective to accelerate the full implementation of PAFTA and facilitate the negotiations on the ACU taking into account Arab trade integration projects with the rest of the world and the changing global trade policies.

Upon the invitation of the Arab Industrial Development and Mining Organization (AIDMO) and co-organization of ESCWA and the Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO), a workshop was held on “Linking Research Institutes with Industry in Arab States” on 5 October 2016 in Amman.