Page 8 - DIVA_2_2018

INTERNATIONAL

renewable energy, use of technology where we are actively engaged. So, Q: When do you think the recon-
and innovation tied up to youth, de- there are many issues that we are pur- struction of Syria will start?
velopment - are all transboundary, suing while cooperating with agen- My thinking is that this is tied up to
and they are important to all coun- cies in New York and Geneva as well the political situation. There are safe
tries. Water and water management as with donors. areas now, some villages, but they
are definitely big issues for us too. want to tie it to the political situa-
Q: You just mentioned three of the tion.
Q: We have not heard a lot about worst humanitarian disasters - Ye-
EWCWA, and you have kept a very men, Syria and Libya. How do you Q: What is happening in Libya?
low profile. Is this going to change? cope with all these? Libya is a complicated situation.
Well I am newcomer. I took up this It is extremely difficult, and it con- Libya has two governments, and it
position in May 2017 and I am try- tinues to be extremely difficult, es- is split in two parts - East and West,
ing to make known the organization pecially for countries where a huge with two parliaments, two heads of
and the work we do in the various re- number of people have fled the war government. To bring them together
gions. Hopefully, in a year you will be zones, settling for example in Leba- is very difficult. The Gadhafi regime
hearing more about ESCWA. non and Jordan. Both countries have built weak institutions so there is
weak economies, and millions of ref- need to build on. The situation in
Q: Why only in a year? ugees residing there which put strain Yemen is far better for they do have
I think I need a year or a year and a on life. institutions, social and economic in-
half to work through all the different stitutions - for education, for water,
issues. I just had a meeting with Fran- Q: You are living in Lebanon, which for oil and others. In Libya, you need
cis Gurry of WIPO. He was saying is one of the biggest recipients of Syr- to start building these in addition to
that we do have cooperation between ian refugees. Do you really feel their everything else.
our organizations but that there has presence there? We have a project in Libya. We work
not been any communication be- Without any doubt. There are many with the Libyans to find out what the
tween us since 2012. So, I said, let us Syrians in Lebanon. Some of the Syr- priorities are, once the war is done,
start now. In this context, I think it ians are very entrepreneurial, and what the next steps are, what the costs
will take me a year or perhaps a little they have opened up bakeries, res- associated with building these institu-
longer to put ESCWA on the map. taurants and other small businesses. tions will be. How do we do capacity
We have a very attractive website; This is not the case for the poor Syri- building and train the Libyans? They
you could look at www.unescwa.org. ans who have very large families, and are smart and well educated, but we
We are also very active on the social some live in camps where it is very need to put the institutions in place.
media - Twitter and Facebook. We crowded —you know, a small space That requires a lot of work, so, I am
publish everything we do, so there is and huge families. That put a tremen- not surprised that you have not heard
a lot of information on all the differ- dous stress on Lebanon's Budget and about that yet.
ent activities we carry on. I therefore is really causing the Lebanese a lot of
encourage you to take look, and I am tension, as well as demand for edu- Q: What are your ambitions for the
sure that you will find that many of cation, demands on health services, organization?
the things we do are very attractive water, and sanitation - all this puts That ESCWA is serving on the eco-
and useful as well. tremendous stress on the Lebanese nomic and social side for 18 coun-
infrastructure. tries is a major plus. Our ambition is
Q: We live in Europe where many really to look at the real issues facing
do have a biased image of the Arab Q: It is sad to say so, but many people the societies of these countries and
world. Do you perceive this point of do not really want to know, nor care proceed from there.
view? any longer, about what is happening Today poverty is very high, and it is
Yes, and that is also one of the chal- in Syria and least of all the refugee multi-dimensional poverty, not clear-
lenges we face. We have to see how problem. ly delineated poverty. We are collect-
the information flows and push it Well, it is a challenged area. At the end ing data: how is housing affecting
up. We work a lot with donors from of the day, we are talking about human people, how is education affecting
the Nordic countries, Germany and beings. They need to get home, get people, how are living conditions?
other countries to support some of their schools back, their hospitals, get When you put them together they
our activities. We also have a proj- their lives back. People are only happy become multi-dimensional, and then
ect on Syria, which is post-conflict when they are back home. Lebanon we see that the poverty of children is
and, hopefully, reconstruction; we and Jordan are providing temporary acute, about 40 per cent. This is from
have one on Yemen and one on Libya hospitality, but it is not enough. UNICEF data. We did the survey for

6 DIVA - INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMAT