SD Minister partakes in Multidimensional Social Development Forum in Doha

Amman: The Minister of Social Development and Chair of the Ministerial Committee for Women's Empowerment, Wafa Bani Mustafa, participated in the Arab Multidimensional Social Development Forum on Wednesday in Doha. In her speech, Bani Mustafa said that the initiative of the Council of Arab Ministers of Social Affairs to establish the Arab Center for Social Policies and the Elimination of Multidimensional Poverty, headquartered in Amman, reflects the response of Arab governments to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals 2030, especially the first goal related to the eradication of poverty in all its forms. She also highlighted the importance of strengthening and building the institutional capacities of national structures working in this field and investing in collecting more comprehensive and detailed data. She added that the center is considered one of the arms of the League of Arab States and is affiliated with the Council of Arab Ministers of Social Affairs. Bani Mustafa stressed that Jordan looks fo rward to mobilizing regional and international efforts and international organizations to support the center technically and operationally, as it is the first of its kind in its response to gender issues and their relationship to poverty and in developing social protection mechanisms. She pointed out that the establishment of the center reflects Jordan's keenness to ensure that this important regional center meets the aspirations and expectations of Arab countries in achieving cooperation and coordination, exchanging information and expertise, sharing experiences between member states in social policies and poverty reduction in all its dimensions, and providing technical support and assistance to Arab countries in this field, especially within the framework of implementing the Sustainable Development Plan 2030. She explained that Jordan is moving forward to activate the center, where a strategic plan for the center's work will be developed this year in parallel with the procedures for ratifying its statute. She called on all partners from Arab, regional, and international organizations and specialized UN agencies to support the center to enable it to achieve its goals in supporting the efforts of Arab countries aimed at implementing effective social policies and eradicating poverty in all its dimensions. During her particiption in the second session of the forum, Bani Mustafa said that after approving the three political, economic and administrative modernization tracks in Jordan, and developing the implementation plans for the next ten years, the Ministry of Social Development, under the guidance of His Majesty King Abdullah II, has taken upon itself to update the national social protection strategy in a comprehensive manner so that participation in it is not limited to ministries and official institutions, but also includes the private sector and relevant civil society institutions for each of its tracks, and linking the social protection strategy with the three modernization tracks because social development cannot be viewed in isolation from economic, administrative and political development and modernization. On the sidelines of the forum, Bani Mustafa met with the Executive Director of the Arab Gulf Development Program (AGFUND), Nasser Al-Qahtani, and the Minister Plenipotentiary and Director of the Social Policy Department at the General Secretariat of the League of Arab States, Tariq Al-Nabulsi. They discussed the Arab Center for Social Policies and the Elimination of Multidimensional Poverty as an important step and the significance of its role in applying appropriate work methodologies to monitor poverty indicators in Arab countries and applying the monitoring and evaluation system in order to plan programs to eradicate poverty. Source: Jordan News Agency