Established in August 1973, the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) is one five regional commissions created in order to fulfil the economic and social objectives set out in the United Nations Charter. ESCWA aims at supporting economic and social development in member countries, promoting cooperation both within the region and with other regions, and raising awareness of regional needs. Eighteen Arab countries are members of the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia: Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, the State of Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the Sudan, the Syrian Arab Republic, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen.
In addition to supporting and managing projects, and establishing partnerships with non-governmental organizations and regional organizations (the Arab League for example), an important part of the mission of ESCWA is to participate in the production of knowledge on the region. The Publications page gives access to a wide variety of documents such as Reports and Studies, Data and Statistics, Working Papers and Brief Papers, all of which can be downloaded in PDF. Publications can be searched, browsed by type, by theme/sub-theme, or by year of publication (2005-2017)
The website and all documents are accessible in English and Arabic.