The Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) supports its 20 member States in their efforts to ensure prosperity and equality. By analysing regional and national economic, social and environmental trends in the light of global United Nations agendas, ESCWA provides Arab countries with policy recommendations that build on a thorough analysis of facts and commonalities. It also underscores the benefits of integration and creates regional public goods, including knowledge, data, tools and capacity.
ESCWA acts as:
Since 2017, ESCWA has launched several initiatives on ICT for development and regional integration to align the action lines of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) with the SDGs.
ESCWA conducts national and regional digital development reviews to assist member States in monitoring the development of their information societies and their digital development agendas. It has created, for this purpose, a comprehensive conceptual framework for digital development structured in five clusters:
ESCWA has also co-led the development of a comprehensive Arab Digital Agenda (ADA), developed as part of the project "Advancing Digital Cooperation and Development - Arab States Action Programme" (ADCD-ASAP), with the aim of encouraging dialogue and collaboration among various stakeholders and experts on critical issues pertaining to digital development and digital cooperation.
ESCWA, in partnership with the League of Arab States (LAS), holds regular and inter-sessional Arab Internet Governance Forum (ArabIGF) meetings to keep pace with internet issues and developments pertinent to the Arab region.
ESCWA launched the fourth eCommerce Acceleration Programme (eCAP), with the support of the ICC-ESCWA Centre of Entrepreneurship, to empower Arab small and medium enterprises (SMEs) through their transition journey into online selling.
