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Beirut, 5 July 2003 (United Nations Information Service)--The
United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia
(ESCWA) will bring together Arab and international experts in a
meeting on "Iraq and the Region after the War" from 9 to 11 July
2003 at the United Nations House, Riad El-Solh Square, Beirut.
The Meeting, which will open at 10:00 a.m. on Wednesday 9 July
2003, aims to discuss alternative courses of action to be
undertaken by governments and peoples in the region – including
Iraq – as well as possible courses of action by intellectuals and
non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in order to face the
challenges of economic, social, cultural and humanitarian
reconstruction and development efforts in a war torn country
within a region plagued by wars and instability.
Participants in the Meeting will deliberate on proposals provided
by various parties to cope with the occupation and reconstruction,
with the aim of highlighting the views of experts from the region
on these efforts. They will also try to place these efforts within
a legal international framework, taking into consideration issues
of human rights, good governance, culture of democracy and
tolerance; monitoring and assessing action on the ground and
actual initiatives for reconstruction; the need to mobilize the
international community’s contribution and to properly formulate
the role of the United Nations and other international agencies;
and the experience and lessons learned from earlier reconstruction
efforts such as Lebanon, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, East
Timor, Cambodia and Iraq after 1991.
The impact of war over Iraq and the region; the reconstruction,
rehabilitation and development of Iraq, including social safety
nets in the absence of State subsidies, role of the civil society
and international community; the ongoing process of the
reconstruction of Iraq, will be the main topics of discussions
during the Meeting.
A series of riveting papers will be discussed during the Meeting,
focusing on the Impact of the Gulf Crisis on Developing Countries;
Housing and Physical Infrastructure in Iraq; Environmental Impact
of War on Iraq; the Impact of Gulf Crisis on the Economies of
Western Asia Countries; the Impact of Gulf Crisis on the Social
Situation in Western Asia; Oil-for-Food and
Oil-for-Reconstruction; the Economic and Financial Situation in
Iraq; and the Impact of Iraq War on Information and Communication
Technologies.
It is worth noting that the call for this three-day meeting, is an
ESCWA initiative to respond to other international initiatives
concerning various schemes and methodologies for the
reconstruction of Iraq, after many wars and long years of embargo
and isolation; most of these initiatives were neglecting the
regional perspective and the views of experts from Iraq and the
region.
This Meeting, organized in cooperation with the United Nations
Development Program (UNDP) and the Lebanese Centre Policy Studies
(LCPS), is coming within the regional and international efforts to
analyze and deliberate on the political, economic, social and
cultural impact of instability that has been prevailing in the
Arab region for more than a century.
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