ESCWA WEEKLY NEWS No. 61

26 February 2020



	Dashti expresses full ESCWA support to Bahrain Last week, ESCWA Executive Secretary Rola Dahsti lead a mission to Bahrain to support the country in strengthening its statistical system and discuss other potential areas of collaboration. She held bilateral meetings with Mohammed bin Ibrahim Al Mutawa, Cabinet Affairs Minister and Chair of the National Committee for Information and Population; Abdullatif Al Zayani, Foreign Minister; HRH Princess Sabeeka Al-Khalifa, President of the Supreme Council for Women; Hala Al-Ansari, the Supreme Council’s Secretary-General; and H.E. Shaikh Salman Al Khalifa, Minister of Finance and National Economy. During the mission, Dashti emphasized the keenness of ESCWA to support Bahrain in transforming its development vision into action and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. She also expressed ESCWA readiness to assist the country in its efforts to empower women and increase their participation in society. Read more

	Cooperation between ESCWA and the Litani River Authority The Litani River Authority (LRA) announced this week the approval of a proposal put forward by ESCWA to rehabilitate and equip the Litani River laboratory station in Kherbet Kanafar - West Bekaa, Lebanon. The proposal also entails providing capacity-building to implement a water monitoring protocol. ESCWA has been cooperating with LRA since 2019 on several issues, including that proposal. It has supported LRA to develop the water monitoring protocol and conduct a study to assess the physical and human assets in the laboratory, and the technical methods used to evaluate water quality. Read more

	ESCWA conducts a workshop on gender mainstreaming in public policies On the occasion of World Day of Social Justice, marked by the UN every year on 20 February, ESCWA organized a two-day workshop on gender mainstreaming to raise awareness on related tools. The workshop revolved around the gender dimension in policymaking, particularly in the context of conflict. Most Arab countries have already introduced institutional arrangements to support gender mainstreaming in public bodies. Many have also established entities devoted to gender matters; however, their work has often been hampered by limited resources and mandates. ESCWA works closely with such entities to support their development and advance gender mainstreaming in government institutions. Read more


	Did you know... … that the monitoring of violence is complicated and diverse by its very nature? It often encompasses social tensions and lack of safety at neighbourhood level, all the way to armed internal conflict and wars between States. There is no single measure that covers all the dimensions of violence and absence of peace. The indicators proposed by the Inter-Agency and Expert Group on Sustainable Development Goal Indicators (IAEG-SDGs) associated with SDG 16 partially refer to the multidimensionality of violence by including variables related to crime, intensity of armed conflict, and perception of security. However, those variables do not cover the entire spectrum of violence. Read more