The IPC-IG is supporting a high-level Ministerial Forum in the Arab region

Por IPC-IG
Arab Ministerial Forum

The Arab Ministerial Forum 2021 – The future of social protection in the Arab Region: building a vision for a post-COVID-19 reality, a high-level forum with 20 Arab region's Ministers in charge of social protection, employers and workers’ representatives, as well as civil society and regional social protection experts, will be held on 30 November 2021, from 3pm to 6 pm (Beirut time).  

 

The Forum aims at reflecting on and formulating a social protection vision and declaring principles for the countries in the Arab Region in the post-COVID recovery phase, based on lessons learned from the pandemic and developments in the social protection field in recent years; as well as identifying priority areas for UN support (at regional and/or country levels). Participants are expected to endorse a Ministerial Declaration, which will establish essential guiding principles for post-pandemic social protection that will guide policy decisions of the region's governments and international partners. 

 

The event is organised by the Regional UN Issue Based Coalition (IBC) for Social Protection, coordinated by the United Nations International Children‘s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) and the International Labour Organization (ILO), in collaboration with the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (UN-ESCWA), with the support from the International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth (IPC-IG) and the socialprotection.org platform. Simultaneous translations will be available in English, Arabic, and French. 

 

Even though the countries have seen significant policy changes in the social protection sector in recent years, the COVID-19 crisis has exposed some of the most serious shortcomings of national systems—such as significant coverage, adequacy, and comprehensiveness shortages, as well as governance, coordination, and financing issues—leading to a discussion about the future of social protection in the region. The event will be structured around four main themes and guiding questions: (i) coverage, (ii) shock-responsiveness, (iii) financing, and (iv) Governance, all regarding social protection systems in the Arab region.  

 

Prior to the Ministerial Forum, a preparatory technical meeting took place on 21 October 2021, to debate countries’ priorities, share their experiences and challenges, inform the coordination of the declaration of principles and vision for post-COVID-19 social protection in the Arab region, and fine-tune the main topics of the Ministerial Forum.

 

Register here for the Ministerial Forum.