Regional Launch of the Report on "Social Expenditure Monitor (SEM) for Arab States: Towards Making Public Budgets More Equitable, Efficient and Effective to Achieve the SDGs"

The report titled “Social Expenditure Monitor (SEM) for Arab States: Toward Making Public Budgets More Equitable, Efficient and Effective to Achieve the SDGs,” jointly produced by ESCWA, UNDP, and UNICEF, offers a pioneering assessment of social policy spending in the Arab region, with detailed analysis on trends and issues, as well as recommendations on how it can help accelerate towards the SDGs. The report will also provide useful inputs to the forthcoming 2022 Arab Sustainable Development Report. The main objective of the launch event is to disseminate key findings and recommendations of the report toward better understanding the landscape of social expenditure in Arab States and assess the challenges and opportunities for optimizing links between expenditure choices and macroeconomic objectives. Addressing the challenges of enhancing social expenditure by taking into account equity, adequacy and efficiency and addressing systemic Public Financial Management challenges are some of the key concerns that the report deals with. The launch event will foster dialogue among participants represented through various entities of government including finance, social and planning and economy across the region, academia, members of the United Nations System, regional organizations and international experts engaged in social and fiscal policy reforms in Arab States toward progressing on the SDGs. The one-day regional workshop will be hosted by ESCWA at the United Nations House in Beirut, Lebanon on Thursday, 24 November 2022.