Arab social affairs officials call for eradicating poverty

CAIRO: Arab Social Affairs officials yesterday affirmed necessity of eradicating all forms of poverty in the Arab countries, as part of the sustainable development strategy ending in 2030. The ministers and officials, at end of the Council of Arab Social Affairs’ 36th regular session, said in a statement that they decided to hold a special session on sidelines of the UN forum on sustainable development, due in New York next year. They asked the technical secretariat to pursue efforts, in coordination with specialized UN agencies, to back the Arab League member states’ efforts for executing the Arab declaration on implementing the sustainable development strategy (2030). They also decided to set up a panel to examine proposed plans, adopted the five-year scheme for 2017-2021 and the one million dollar budget of the Arab social fund for 2017.