As the world is met by the unprecedented challenges from the COVID-19 pandemic, countries in the Arab region are facing multiple crises spanning a wide range of sectors.

Today, the League of Arab States, the Government of Japan, and the United Nations Development Programme convened the senior-level roundtable on “COVID-19 in the Arab Region: Impact and Responses” to bring together stakeholders and experts to assess impact of the pandemic and discuss responses towards recovery.

The first Arab-Japan Political Dialogue in September 2017 saw a great success, working as an important platform for achieving better understanding of regional and international issues of mutual concern.

In order to further enhance cooperation between Japan and the Arab states in multi-layered aspects, this policy roundtable, as a tri-partite partnership by engaging UNDP as a co-host, aims to establish a policy dialogue platform encompassing common priorities and concerns to support the Arab region, and it hosted the first roundtable in September 2019, themed around the topics of education and human development.

As challenges and uncertainty created by the pandemic linger regionally and globally, the second LAS-JAPAN-UNDP roundtable provided an important opportunity to address pressing issues associated with the numerous socio-economic impact of the pandemic on different sectors across the region. Representatives from the LAS Member States, the Government of Japan, and UNDP and other relevant UN agencies came together to assess the implications of the pandemic and discussed the need for coordination and cooperation to prevent further crises and recover stronger.

“The League of Arab States welcomes the findings & results of the LAS-JAPAN-UNDP Second roundtable, as they shed light on the Socio-economic impacts of COVID-19 pandemic in the Arab region, and provide different perspectives on the way forward to overcome the ramifications of this crisis”. Said Ambassador Hossam Zaki, Assistant Secretary General of the League of Arab States. He added that this roundtable “represents an opportunity to assess the difficulties and challenges the Arab region faces during the pandemic and to explore paths to recover from this unprecedented global health crisis with its dire Socio-economic implications.”

“I am glad to state that Japan and the LAS have developed more comprehensive, multi-layered, and strategic partnership, building on Japan-Arab Political Dialogue”, said TAKAHASHI Katsuhiko, Assistant Minister and Director General, Middle Eastern and African Bureau, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan. Mr. Takahashi also stated that Japan is committed to work together with Arab countries in the fight against COVID-19 and also to build resilience in the region.

“The current pandemic reminds us of the importance of solidarity and shared efforts to not only mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on development across the world, but also to urgently identify opportunities to build back better and seize a unique window of opportunity to move towards more inclusive and sustainable development, with a focus on supporting the most vulnerable,” said Sarah Poole, Regional Director for Arab States a.i., UNDP. “Today’s policy dialogue hosted by the League of Arab States, the Government of Japan, and UNDP is an example of that solidarity in action at the policy level – and we look forward to supporting the policy insights which emerged from this important forum.”