Forum of Ministers: Private Sector’s Social Responsibility in the Arab States
22 Ministers of Social Development from the Arab States met in Amman, Jordan, from 12 to 14 November 2008. At the invitation of their Jordanian counterpart and the UNESCO Management of Social Transformations Programme (MOST), they attempted to identify and set up a common vision and the most appropriate means for coordinating their social policies.
This high-level meeting was placed under the auspices of H.E. Eng. Nader Al-Dahabi, Prime Minister of Jordan. It reflected the deep interest of Arab States’ governments in regional dialogue with the aim of establishing interfaces between social sciences research and policy in favour of the population of the region.
Since the creation of the Forum of Ministers for Social Development in the Arab States in 2007 in Marrakech, Morocco, great economic social transformations have been developed worldwide. This entails the enhancing by Arab governments of their cooperation through identifying and setting up a common vision and the most appropriate means for coordinating their social policies. To achieve this goal, the implementation of the recommendations of “The Marrakech Declaration” was viewed as a priority on the agenda for this 2nd Forum.
The main theme of the Forum in Amman was corporate social responsibility for the development of the Arab region. Engine of economic growth, the private sector indeed becomes one of the pillars for sustainable development. Without it, it would be impossible. The Ministers of the Arab region therefore envisaged to focus their exchange of ideas on how to increase the involvement of this sector in the implementation of their priorities and national social programmes as far as development is concerned. To assist them, many leading figures from the world of research, NGOs and private sector representatives were invited to intervene on social corporate responsibility from a theoretical and practical point of view.
In addition to strengthening the link between research and policy, this 2nd Forum of Ministers for Social Development also provided an opportunity to study the modalities for a greater cooperation between research institutions and civil society, in order to facilitate the consultations with the latter, to better respond to the needs of the population.
Read the recommendations from the Forum [PDF]:
English | العربية
This high-level meeting was placed under the auspices of H.E. Eng. Nader Al-Dahabi, Prime Minister of Jordan. It reflected the deep interest of Arab States’ governments in regional dialogue with the aim of establishing interfaces between social sciences research and policy in favour of the population of the region.
