ESCWA WEEKLY NEWS No. 48

Executive Secretary nominated for UNSG award

ESCWA Executive Secretary, Rola Dashti, was nominated for this year’s UN Secretary-General (UNSG) Award for “Staff Engagement”.
 
Dashti, a Kuwaiti former minister and a leading economist, assumed her duties at the helm of ESCWA last February. In April, she established “Young ESCWA”, a network of junior staff, to drive internal reforms and launch a dialogue aimed at including the highest possible number of employees in decision-making. Dashti was shortlisted among some 140 nominations for the 2019 UNSG awards.

By this annual award, the UN seeks to honour an individual staff member, a team or an initiative, for engaging staff and creating an enabling environment for constructive interaction.

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ESCWA, LAS and UNFCCC sign cooperation agreement

On 6 November, ESCWA signed an exchange of letters with LAS and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) secretariat on collaboration for the implementation of a climate finance project in the Arab region, aimed at assessing the finance needs of member States for climate action.

The signing ceremony followed the opening of a 2-day Technical Workshop on Climate Finance in the Arab Region-An inception workshop for the Needs-based Climate Finance Project organized by ESCWA, LAS, UNFCCC and the UNFCCC - World Green Economy Organization (WGEO) Regional Collaboration Centre (RCC) based in Dubai.

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Youth arts competition for the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-based Violence

On the occasion of the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-based Violence (25 November – 10 December 2019), ESCWA is organizing a regional youth arts competition in partnership with the Arab Institute for Women at the Lebanese American University (LAU).

The arts competition invites all young people aged under 25 from the Arab region to use art to address the theme “My City, My Space”. It is open to all art forms, including photography, paintings, drawings, collages, videos, songs, poems and music. There will be a special category for children under the age of 10.

To enter the contest, participants are invited to email their original submission, along with the application form, to aiw@lau.edu.lb before 25 November 2019.

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High level conference on women, peace and security

In Amman, from 7 to 8 November, ESCWA, in partnership with the League of Arab States (LAS), UN-Women, and the Arab Institute for Women at the Lebanese American University (LAU), held a high-level conference on “Women, Peace and Security: Measuring Progress and Addressing Gaps”.

The conference was an avenue to discuss progress in the implementation of the UN Security Council resolution 1325 (2000) on women, peace and security (WPS), and to accelerate response to the women peace and security agenda in the upcoming phase, including through national action plans.
 
Participants also discussed the 2nd edition of the WPS Index.

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Did you know...

… that economic growth in least developed countries is again on the upswing, with real GDP growth expected to climb to 5.7% in 2020, but still falling short of the 7% target? 

Performance in terms of GDP per capita has been weak in the region in the past decade, with more than half of the countries displaying negative trends. Women are at a disadvantage in the labour market and youth unemployment is the highest in the world, standing at an alarming 26%.

^{Photo credit: Omar Farid, Egypt}

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