Director General of the Institute Mr. El Hadi El Saidi, , participated in the Arab Forum for Sustainable Development organized by the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) during the period 9-11 April. The theme of the Forum focused on several topics including: inclusiveness empowerment and equality, the advancement of climate work in the Arab region, ensure the sustainable and widespread participation for adolescents and young people, the future of work and its impact on gender equality and regional consultations on the work for the integration of voluntary work in the 2030 plan.

It also touched Re-thinking about inequality in the Arab region and promoting social justice and social cohesion through comprehensive social protection in conflict-affected countries, as well as strengthening partnerships to support coherence in national policies and strategies for disaster risk reduction and achieve sustainable development. Among the other topics addressed by the Forum is enhancing the inclusion of women and girls with disabilities on the development path, and the need to develop Arab statistical production responding to the study of various topics in relation to sustainable development

Mr. El Saidi stressed in this regard the need to activate the role of the statistical agencies in participating in the process of building indicators of sustainable development and follow-up their implementation and evaluation, especially by providing the necessary data to diagnose the current status of the various goals and objectives and to ensure the quality of data and fill the gaps in statistical production. In addition to playing the pivotal role in the development of methodologies and support the rest of the capacities of producers. It is not possible to carry out all roles entrusted to the statistical agencies except by building an independent national system professionally and scientifically and ensuring the financing of all its statistical activities. He also emphasized the need for statistical training and the provision of financial and human resources to ensure the production of sustainable development indicators.

Mr. El-Hadi held several bilateral meetings with representatives of Arab and regional organizations, which focused on discussing areas of cooperation in the field of capacity building for statistical agencies in the Arab world. A joint organization of training workshops with ESCWA on poverty measurement, transport statistics and disability.

The Director General met with Mr. Abdul Khaleq Al- Touhami, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Institute. Mr. El-Hadi presented activities of the Institute for the first trimester of 2019 and briefed him on the Institute's work and bilateral agreements between regional organizations and the Institute, As well as some organizational issues related to administrative and financial matters. Mr. Al-Touhami approved the program after introducing some amendments related mainly to the Poverty Algorithm in the Arab Countries. He asked to send it to the Arab statistical agencies for review and to propose amendments if necessary.