Resources

The guide aims to enhance the capacities of policy-makers in member states in integrating the concepts and principles of social justice into national development policies, plans and programs, and to improve the knowledge about the direct relationship between social justice and the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, as well as relevant recent global agreements.

The guide also provides a tool to address policy areas that are key for achieving sustainable development and to promote dialogue on how to design these policies using an approach that takes into account the concepts of social justice. To serve these goals, the guide provides a summary of the various approaches and factors that should be considered by Arab countries to ensure that public policies are sensitive to social justice concepts, irrespective of the countries’ capacities, needs, structures, and their economic, social, political and cultural contexts.

The guide builds on the conceptual approach to social justice adopted by ESCWA, which is based on the principles of equality, equity, human rights and participation. It reviews the interventions, institutional work mechanisms and the various elements that promote the mainstreaming of social justice in public policies. Going forward, ESCWA will organize national and regional workshops to build government capacities on the guide and use it in their planning processes.