The ministerial session is the governing body of the Commission and is normally held once every two years, in even years.

The twenty-fifth session of ESCWA was held in Sanaa from 26- 29 May 2008 in two segments, namely: the Senior Official’s segment inaugurated on Monday, 26 May 2008; and the Ministerial segment inaugurated on Wednesday, 28 May 2008. The theme of the twenty-fifth Commission session was "Financing for Development in the ESCWA region".

In addition to discussing the various activities undertaken by the Secretariat since the twenty-fourth session, the work programme of the current biennium and the draft strategic framework for the 2010-2011 biennium, the twenty-fifth session of the Commission addressed the following key issues in the Western Asia region:

• Implementation of the Monterrey Consensus in the West Asia region;

• Regional Cooperation for achieving the Millennium Development Goals;

• Signature of the Convention on International Multimodal Transport of Goods in the Arab Mashreq;

• Establishment of an Arabic Language Centre at ESCWA;

• Consideration of the request for membership in the Commission by the Sudan.