On 17and18 June 2014, the National Council for Women (NCW) in Egypt hosted ESCWA’s Regional Advisor for Women’s Issues Wafa Al Dika Hamze, First Social Affairs Officer at the ESCWA Centre for Women (ECW) Lana Baydas, and Egyptian Legal Advisor Ahmad El Naggar in an advisory mission, which included a workshop entitled “Towards a National Legislative Framework to Protect Women and Girls against All Forms of Violence” organized by the NCW and the Egyptian Ministry of Justice in cooperation with ESCWA, UN-Women regional Bureau for Arab States and the Cairo based United Nations Office for Drugs

Upon invitation from the Gulf Studies Program at the College of Arts and Science, Qatar University, ESCWA Regional Advisor on Environment and Water, Ralf Klingbeil, participated in the conference “EU-GCC Regional Security Cooperation - Lessons Learned and Future Challenges” organised by the EU-funded SHARAKA project for “Enhancing Understanding and Cooperation in EU-GCC Relations” between 28 and 29 October 2013 in Doha, Qatar. The conference addressed a number of security-related issues relevant to EU-GCC relations including energy and food security.

The Qatari capital, Doha, hosted on 30 September - 2 October 2013 a regional workshop on industrial statistics and classifications for the Arab countries. The workshop was jointly organized with the Gulf Organization for Industrial Consulting (GOIC), the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), the New York-based United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) and the Arab Industrial Development and Mining Organization (AIDMO).

In an effort to learn from the experience of other countries, ESCWA, in cooperation with the Embassy of Finland in Lebanon, welcomed Drs. Ilkka and Vappu Taipale for an informal gathering on 9 December 2013 to talk about the economic and social models that have helped shape the modern Finnish economy and society. Presenting the Arabic translation of their book,"100 Social Innovations from Finland", Drs.