HPC, represented by its Secretary General, Dr. Abla Amawi, who is also the Chair of the Arab Council for Population and Development (ACPD), participated together with other HPC staff members in the second advisory committee of experts meeting via video conference on Sunday. Organized by the General Secretariat of the Arab League (Social Affairs Sector-Population Policies Department- Technical Secretariat of the Arab Council for Population and Development), the meeting was attended by committee members representing Arab population and development councils and committees.
Dr. Abla Amawi stressed during the meeting she headed in her capacity as ACPD Chair the need to intensify Arab efforts to address population and development challenges in the Arab region, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic exacerbated the existing challenges. Amawi called for the formulation of new policies in the fields of economy, employment, health, education and governance to address the needs and challenges faced by Arab states and achieve the desired goal of advancing communities.
Amawi stressed the importance of sharing experiences among Arab states to identify the best options to overcome challenges and encourage countries to adopt and implement successful models in their own contexts, especially those recommended by socially and demographically similar countries. Amawi also called for further promoting collaborative learning and sharing of best practices and field experience to enhance responsiveness to population and development challenges.
The meeting followed up on the implementation of decisions made at the first ordinary session of ACPD, the formulation of the Arab Strategy for Population Planning and the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic. The meeting also offered the opportunity to share experiences and review best practices in the field of population and development.
Participants at the meeting discussed preparations and means to coordinate Arab states’ contributions to the 54th Session of the Commission on Population and Development, which will be held next year under the banner “Population, Food Security, Nutrition and Sustainable Development”. In addition, participants explored mechanisms to introduce the Population and Development Composite Index (PDCI) to Arab countries and provide training in how to collect related data, and looked into establishing ACPD focal points.
