Press release

30 Jun 2010

Beirut

ESCWA Launches Three E-Fora
On Social Participatory Development

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Beirut, 30 June 2010 (UN Information Service)-- The Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) is launching as of 1 July three electronic fora, as part of the portal called “Towards an inclusive Participatory Development in the ESCWA region”, to achieve social integration and promote the participation of civil society and media in social development. Lasting for 2 months each, the e-fora will tackle the following issues respectively: ‘Participation in Public Policy processes’ (1 July to 30 August); ‘Media and Development’ (1 August to 30 September); ‘Social Integration: towards achieving inclusive participation in Western Asia’ (1 September to 30 October). Launched on the following site http://pdwa.escwa.org.lb/fora.php, these e-fora aim at triggering discussions on specific social-related issues that feed into the broad portal theme in order to find room for possible suggestions, ideas and experiences on practical strategies to be adopted in the Arab region. The e-discussions also aim at creating an inclusive society and enhancing the participation of civil society, including media, in development efforts, decision-making, as well as the promotion of peace-building operation and conflict prevention. In these three open, multi-stakeholder e-discussions, ESWCA brings together experts, social practitioners, policy-makers, media actors, local leaders, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), being all fundamental to realizing a truly participatory human development approach. The outcomes of the e-discussions will be crowned by a consolidated comprehensive report that provides an assessment of the three electronic fora, includes a number of conclusions and recommendations, sheds the light on the effectiveness of using this portal, and defines the way forward. Contributions to each of the three e-fora will be automatically included in a multi-country competition to win the ‘best ESCWA e-forum contributor award’. Upon completion of the three scheduled e-fora, three best contributors will be selected from each e-forum to be awarded a Platinum Certificate for first place, a Golden certificate for second place and a Silver certificate for third place. A Committee of three Senior Social Affairs Officers from ESCWA will oversee, monitor and judge the participants’ contributions anonymously throughout the discussions process, and will announce the winners in a maximum of eight weeks from the date of closure of the three e-fora (i.e. tentatively 30 October 2010). The total of 9 winners (3 from each e-forum) will be invited to attend a ceremony in Beirut and receive their awards soon after their notification. This will also constitute an opportunity to launch the consolidated report. The UN Information Centre in Beirut encourages media institutions to visit the abovementioned website and participate in these fora, noting by such the essential role that media has in activating and promoting development.
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