http://www.escwa.un.org.com/ Weekly Updates en-us Copyright 2012 ESCWA. All Rights Reserved. 6/19/2013 4:20:17 PM 20 http://www.escwa.un.org/main/scroll/printwhatsnew.asp?id=779&referenceNUM=CoE-201314 Jun 2013 00:00:00:000]]>The progress achieved in the field of Energy in the ESCWA member countries; the projects achieved and those planned to be implemented in member countries; and the adoption and implementation of renewable energy technologies in member countries were the main subjects of discussion by the ninth session of the ESCWA Committee on Energy, which was held at the Regency Hotel of Kuwait City on 12-13 June 2013 with the participation of representatives from member countries specialized in the field of Energy. The session discussed the outcomes of international and regional meetings in the field of Energy, and especially those of the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20), and the Intergovernmental Consultative Meeting on the Water-Energy Nexus in ESCWA Member Countries. Following the opening, which included the statement of ESCWA delivered by Director of the Regional Commission’s Sustainable Development and Productivity Division Roula Majdalani, and the statement of the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research (KISR), delivered by Osama Al Sayegh, the Committee elected the session’s officers. In accordance with the Arabic alphabetical order employed by the United Nations, Libya assumed the chairmanship of the Session, Lebanon and Egypt the vice-chairmanship and Morocco the role of rapporteur. In her opening speech, Majdalani said that much can be done to increase energy efficiency in most Arab countries, which, in coming years, will suffer from the dangers of falling short of meeting the increased demand for power that will rise by 115 percent during the years 2011-2020. Majdalani emphasized the importance of the energy sector for the United Nations. She noted that UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has launched an initiative entitled “Sustainable Energy for All” in September 2011, which includes three objectives to be realized by 2030: firstly, stabilize climate change and ensure universal access to modern energy services; secondly, double the global rate of improvement in energy efficiency, and thirdly, double the share of renewable energy in the global energy mix. “As such, we are working within these directives, with a focus on our region-specific priorities. It cannot be overlooked that 70 percent of the Sudanese population and 50 percent of the Yemeni population are left without electricity to this day,” Majdalani said. “Evidently, climate change is a comprehensive and ongoing crisis that gives reason to worry, especially in our region, where dangers of desertification, water scarcity, and warming. Fighting climate change requires urgent and ambitious work that respects the principles and provisions of the Framework Convention on Climate Change. However, we assert that even though the responsibility is shared, it is certainly differentiated. Developed countries that were essential protagonists in the accumulation of emissions in space since the industrial revolution, should fulfill their duty in supporting developing countries, of which Arab countries are part,” Majdalani noted. She concluded by saying that achieving aforementioned directions and objectives requires laying the grounds for good governance, creating a supportive environment that is stable on the political, security, social and legislative fronts, and an investment-friendly atmosphere that boosts public-private partnerships.” For his part, Al Sayegh, said that compared to natural gas and non-fossil fuel, oil is expected to be the slowest growing demanded fuel over the next 20 years. “The main growing supply regions of natural gas are the Middle East with 26 per cent of global growth and the Former Soviet Union with 19 per cent growth rate, considerable incremental supply growth of 12 per cent is also expected from Australia, China, and the USA,” he added. Al Sayegh concluded that the foreseen era of the East Asia is refining petrochemical industry to meet the growing demand of oil refine products. “Hence, we need to establish strong foundation to develop the right working skills and put more investments in reinforcing refining and petrochemical technologies. Moreover, policies should be developed and applied to promote renewable energy and apply energy efficiency practices,” he noted. The ninth session of ESCWA Committee on Energy was preceded by a workshop on Oil and Gas Pricing Parameters Influencing Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Activities, held at KISR headquarters on 11 June 2013. The workshop aimed at exchanging ideas and opinions, and exploring visions and latest developments in this regard. http://www.escwa.un.org/main/scroll/printwhatsnew.asp?id=776&referenceNUM=WED201305 Jun 2013 00:00:00:000]]>ESCWA celebrated on 5 June the World Environment Day with an event held at the UN House, Beirut, and attended by foreign and Arab diplomats and a host of representatives from the local, regional and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs). This year's celebration was marked by a statement from the British Ambassador to Lebanon Tom Fletcher, in addition to remarks by ESCWA Deputy Executive Secretary Nadim Khoury, representative of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Veronique Robert, and the chairperson of NGO, the Food Establishments Recycling Nutrients (FERN) International Meredith Danberg-Ficarelli. In his statement, Fletcher said "at a time of austerity and insecurity, protecting the environment becomes more not less urgent. The people that matter most are individuals and communities who do not point to a dirty river but get in and clean it." For his part, Khoury said that ESCWA aims to build on available opportunities in order to improve food security in the region through encouraging more relaxed standards to have cosmetically perfect foods for import and export; encouraging the export of crops to prevent dumping them to the end of fixing prices; coordination of food collections throughout food banks in connection with food establishments and supermarkets; and adjusting shopping behavior to waste less. For her part, Robert pointed out, “the sudden arrival of large numbers of people in a small area can place significant pressure on the local environment. Refugees and internally displaced persons often have no choice but to rely on natural resources for their survival, particularly during an emergency." "The pressure of refugees may lead to natural resources deterioration, it may impact health, social conditions and have serious social and economic consequences in hosting countries," she added. As for the World Environment Day theme for this year, "Think.Eat.Save", Robert said that for UNHCR it applies more to nutrition and food security, linking into livelihoods and natural resource management in view to enhance the protection and wellbeing of refugees and internally displaced persons. In her statement, Danberg-Ficarelli noted the establishment of FERN in November 2012 seeking to engage the public around issues of food waste and resource scarcity by facilitating composting and recycling in restaurants. “We believe that people in Lebanon and beyond must become accustomed to waste. Not used to seeing it in their homes or on the streets, but aware that there is value in the stuff we throw away. Resources are finite, and we should treat them as such,” she said. According to the United Nations, every year, 1.3 billion tonnes of food is wasted, equivalent to the amount produced in the whole of sub-Saharan Africa. At the same time, 1 in every 7 persons in the world goes to bed hungry and more than 20,000 children under the age of 5 die daily from hunger. While resources to sustain 7 billion people (and growing to 9 billion by 2050) are increasingly scarce, the United Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that a third of global food production is either wasted or lost. Food waste is an enormous drain on natural resources and a contributor to negative environmental impacts. http://www.escwa.un.org/main/scroll/printwhatsnew.asp?id=774&referenceNUM=ECW-Web05 Jun 2013 00:00:00:000]]>ESCWA held an expert group meeting on 30-31 May at the UN-House, Beirut, to discuss and assess the key findings of the study "Policies to Empower Women in the Arab Region: Combating Violence against Women and Girls". ESCWA and the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN WOMEN) had prepared a study with support from the Norwegian Embassy in Lebanon. The study aims to contribute to the evidence base for continued work on gender based violence by examining the specific scope of certain types and areas of violence within the domestic sphere, as well as the legal system that responds to these categories of violence. Director of ESCWA Centre for Women Samira Atallah, pointed out in her opening statement to the agreed conclusions of the fifty-seventh session of the Commission on the Status of Women, stating that the responsibility of eliminating violence against women and girls does not lie solely with the State, though it is the primary party responsible for protecting all individuals within its boundaries, but it is the duty of every member of the society, every institution, be it governmental, or non-governmental". Speaking of the study, Atallah said it "focuses on domestic violence against women and girls, to shed light on this phenomenon that is still considered a private affair in our Arab region, and dealt with from the perspective of protecting the privacy of the home before protecting women and girls. The importance of putting together this study stemmed from this point, since as the administration of the ESCWA Centre for Women, and in close partnership and coordination with our colleagues at UN Women, we have found it was necessary to examine the roots of this issue in our region from all aspects: legislative, institutional, service and cultural, to determine the gaps that need to be remedied, and offer practical recommendations on strengthening the capacities of concerned stakeholders to treat and fight this phenomenon." The United Nations system has been increasingly focusing its efforts on eliminating gender-based violence as an essential requirement to implement successful development policies and national legislations built on a coherent rights-based approach. Within this international framework, ESCWA works closely with its member countries to achieve gender equality and women’s empowerment. The ESCWA Fifth Session of the Committee on Women, held in December 2011, resulted in drafting "The Beirut Declaration" with recommendations to fill the gaps through evidence-based research and through examination of existing legislations and services. http://www.escwa.un.org/main/scroll/printwhatsnew.asp?id=772&referenceNUM=RIM2013-Web06 May 2013 00:00:00:000]]>Dubai hosted the deliberations on the sustainable development agenda in the Arab region, through the "Regional Arab Implementation Meeting" (RIM), held on 29 and 30 May at the Dubai Police Academy. ESCWA had organized the meeting in partnership with the League of Arab States (LAS), the United Arab Emirates Ministry of Environment and Water, the UN Environment Program/Regional Office of Western Asia (UNEP/ROWA), and the Zayed International Foundation for the Environment. Participating in the meeting were representatives of Arab countries and regional and international organizations, experts and representatives of the main groups from the civil society, and a host of stakeholders concerned with issues of environment and development. The meeting concluded with the "Dubai Statement for Regional Arab Implementation for the Outcomes of Rio+20". Out of their commitment to sustainable development in the Arab region, and placing people at the heart of development, the document signatories asserted their commitment to ensuring sustainable development in the Arab region, and stressed the need to base all future development-related agreements on the Rio principles, notably the seventh principle on common but differentiated responsibilities, underlining the concept of right to development for all peoples and groups, in line with national proprieties, leading to a proper and decent livelihood for everyone. The document recommendations included working on achieving sustainable development in the Arab region within available capabilities, and in compatibility with the region’s vision; calling on Arab countries to diversify their energy sources, including new and renewable energy to achieve sustainable development; and prioritizing programs that target poor and marginalized groups. Director of ESCWA Sustainable Development and Productivity Division Roula Majdalani had said at the opening session of the meeting that the Arab region is facing complex and interrelated challenges at the economic, social, political and environmental levels, which calls for following an approach for the development of integrated policies appropriate to the circumstances of the region. Majdalani enumerated some of these challenges such as freshwater scarcity, the regression and degradation of arable lands, threats facing the region at the food, water and energy security levels. She added that the Arab states also face challenges including the provision of economic opportunities and jobs for youth, as well as the basic services for urban residents where a steady growth is recorded. Majdalani added that the outcomes of Rio+20 offer a promising opportunity to meet these interconnected challenges through a developmental perspective centered on human well-being and environment preservation with its limited resources. The Arab RIM sought to provide a platform for deliberating on the main outcomes of Rio+20 and their implications for sustainable development agenda in the Arab region, and identifying and discussing priorities for implementation as per the priorities and needs of sustainable development in the Arab region. The final meeting report will be submitted to the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (CSD-20) in view of ensuring an Arab regional contribution to Rio+20 follow-up. http://www.escwa.un.org/main/scroll/printwhatsnew.asp?id=770&referenceNUM=ICT-SocioEcon-201330 Apr 2013 00:00:00:000]]>ESCWA organized an expert group meeting on the Role of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in Socio-Economic Development on 9 and 10 April 2013 at the UN House, Beirut, to discuss the role of ICTs in sustainable development. Themes of the meeting were specifically chosen for their high priority to the Arab region, such as the impact of ICT policies in development; empowering youth, women and marginalized groups through the use of ICTs; the impact of innovation and entrepreneurship on generating new employment opportunities; the role of ICT start-ups and Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) in generating employment and the impact of using social media in social change. The meeting featured a presentation on an upcoming ESCWA study entitled "Impact of Selected e-Services on Socio-Economic Development", which provides a framework for measuring the impact of using selected e-services in the member countries. Discussions around the study resulted in a set of recommendations highlighting the need to develop a road map on improving data collection methodologies for indicators that are relevant to the information society and knowledge-based economy as well as supporting statistical data with analytical studies that aim to assist policy-making. Others presentations included two entitled "The role of innovation and entrepreneurship in socio-economic development" and "Social effects of ICTs and social networks on the Arab region", in addition to a range of expert presentations and local, national, and international experiences. The meeting concluded with a number of recommendations, which stressed on the importance of measuring the impact of ICTs in development; raising awareness on the importance of e-government services and of developing a framework to support and stimulate the use of e-services in the region; the need to update current national ICT policies while emphasizing their role in the development process and focusing on digital Arabic content, investing in innovation and entrepreneurship, and including new technologies; the importance of launching national initiatives for DAC promotion in various fields using different mechanisms such as crowd sourcing, in addition to requesting ESCWA to develop a clear framework for the advancement of DAC and the DAC industry in the region; the importance of studying social changes and interaction with ICTs as well as opportunities for cooperation with universities to conduct research in this area despite the difficulty of measuring the social impact of ICTs; the need to encourage investment and stimulate the establishment of start-up companies and the private sector in generally in the ICT field in addition to pointing out the role of governments in supporting innovation and entrepreneurship by providing an appropriate enabling environment. The meeting was attended by 38 participants representing ICT ministries and authorities in member countries as well as experts from the private sector in the region, the e-government program in Turkey and international organizations such as UNCTAD and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.