United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia


The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for West Asia is one of five regional commissions under the jurisdiction of the United Nations Economic and Social Council. The role of the Commission is to promote economic and social development of Western Asia through regional and subregional cooperation and integration.
The Commission is composed of 18 Member States, all from the North African and Middle East regions.
The Commission works closely with the divisions of the Headquarters in New York and United Nations specialized agencies, as well as with international and regional organizations. Some of its regional partners include: the League of Arab States, the Gulf Cooperation Council and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation.

History

The Commission was first established by the Economic and Social Council on 9 August 1973 as the United Nations Economic Commission for Western Asia. The Commission was the successor to the United Nations Economic and Social Office in Beirut, which was absorbed into the framework of ECWA. Its main mandate was to "initiate and participate in measures for facilitating concerted action for the economic reconstruction and development of Western Asia."
On 26 July 1985, in recognition of the social component of its work, the Commission was renamed to the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia by the Economic and Social Council.

Member States

The following are all Member States of the Commission:
The Commission's headquarters have been located in the Central District of Beirut, Lebanon since 1997. Prior to this, the headquarters moved between various cites. The first headquarters of the Commission were located in Beirut from 1974-82. They then moved to Baghdad, Iraq, from 1982-91. Finally, they were located in Amman, Jordan, from 1991-97 before moving back to Beirut.

Executive Secretaries

The following is a list of the Executive Secretaries of the Commission since its foundation:
TermName of Executive SecretaryHome Country
1974-1985Mohammad Said Al-AttarYemen
1985-1988Mohammad Said Al-Nabulsi Jordan
1989-1993Tayseer Abdel Jaber Jordan
1993-1995Sabbaheddin Bakjaji Syrian Arab Republic
1995-2000Hazem El Beblawi Egypt
2000-2007Mervat Tallawy Egypt
2007-2010Bader Al-Dafa Qatar
2010-2017Rima KhalafJordan
2017-2018Mohamed Ali AlhakimIraq
2019-Rola DashtiKuwait

Funding

The budget of Commission comes mainly from contributions from the United Nations, but also from donations from governments, regional funds, private foundations and international development agencies. In 2017, the total budget of the Commission was $27.4 million. Additionally, since 2014, the Commission has received $7.1 million in voluntary contributions to help implement national and regional activities.
The Commission has four main budgets: the regular budget, the regular programme of technical cooperation, the development account and the extrabudgetary projects account.

Regular budget

The regular budget line item is voted on by the United Nations General Assembly on a biennial basis and provides the Commission with resources fulfill its mandate as laid out in the Strategic Framework. In 2017, the regular budget was $19.9 million.

Regular programme of technical cooperation (RPTC)

The regular programme of technical cooperation line item works to support Member States in formulating sustainable socioeconomic development policies. It fosters cooperation, creates knowledge networks and promotes the sharing of experience between countries. In 2017, the regular programme of technical cooperation budget was $2.3 million.

Development account

The development account line item helps fund capacity building projects at national, subregional, regional and interregional levels. In 2017, the development account budget was $1.9 million.

Extrabudgetary projects

The extra budgetary projects line item supports economic and social development under the seven subprograms of the Commission: Economic Development and Integration, Gender and Women Issues, Governance and Conflict Issues, Natural Resources, Social Development, Statistics and Technology for Development. In 2017, extra budgetary projects budget was $3.2 million.

Israel-Palestine report controversy

On March 15, 2017, UNESCWA released a report accusing Israel of being an "apartheid regime" due to Israel's relations with Palestinians both inside and outside Israel. This report proved controversial, and it was ultimately withdrawn and removed from UN websites after criticism from the Secretary General that it had been issued by ESCWA without approval.
The document was authored by Richard Falk, professor of International Law and Practice Emeritus at Princeton University and a former U.N. human rights investigator for the Palestinian territories, and Virginia Tilley, professor of Political Science at Southern Illinois University. Rima Khalaf, United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of the ESCWA, had said it was the first to accuse Israel of being a racist state. The report itself said it had established on the "basis of scholarly inquiry and overwhelming evidence, that Israel is guilty of the crime of apartheid". Israel has condemned the report. "We expected of course that Israel and its allies would put huge pressure on the secretary general of the UN so that he would disavow the report, and that they would ask him to withdraw it," Khalaf said to AFP.
The UN Secretary-General António Guterres had distanced himself from the report and the document was removed from UN website on Friday, March 17, 2017. The report Executive Summary was also deleted from the United Nations Information System on the Question of Palestine
On March 17, Khalaf submitted her resignation to Mr Guterres. "I resigned because it is my duty not to conceal a clear crime, and I stand by all the conclusions of the report," she stated.
The full report is still available on Archive.org.