The SRTF participates in Madrid’s Conference on “Post-Conflict and Re-Construction in MENA”
Madrid – Monday, 19 September 2016 – Eng. Hani Khabbaz, Director-General of the SRTF participated in the 2nd “Post-Conflict Re-Construction in MENA: Previous experiences and stakeholders’ inclusive involvement in the future of Libya, Syria and Iraq” Conference held Madrid, Spain, today.
Organized by the European Institute of the Mediterranean (IEMed) – Casa Arabe - in collaboration with ICEX Spain Trade and Investment and the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation the conference was attended by a selective group of experts, stakeholders and institutions. These included, among others, the World Bank, the Islamic Development Bank, OECD, ESCWA, Chatham House, the Spanish Institute for Foreign Trade (ICEX), the EU Regional Trust Fund in Response to the Syrian Crisis (Madad) Fund, Madrid University, etc.
The 1st edition of this conference was held in Barcelona on 11 April 2016 addressed the evaluation and quantification of the physical reconstruction and examined priorities and strategies taking into account previous experiences of post-conflict reconstruction efforts in various sectors. The 2nd edition today focussed on different dimensions of post conflict reconstruction form political and economic perspectives, analysing different models and approaches and stakeholder’s inclusive involvement. The conference also addressed issues related to development and cooperation assistance, different schemes to finance reconstruction as well as the institutional and legal aspects of post-conflict reconstruction processes.
Addressing the participants, Eng. Khabbaz illustrated the main development and economic challenges facing reconstruction from the lack of security and rule of law to insufficient funding needed for reconstruction.
He also outlined the fundamental basis for the design and implementation of reconstruction projects from respect of human rights and fair labour pay to environmental protection, accountability and transparency. He emphasized the need for articulating clear strategic directions for every intervention while ensuring the donors’ “buy-in” and the participation of the concerned local communities.
The SRTF Director-General underlined the importance of the role of international corporations, foreign investors and multilateral instructions in supporting a versatile approach to reconstruction, in which “private-public” ventures will be essential for the development of vital economic sectors. In this context, he emphasised the need of full engagement of the local communities and civil society to ensure the successful implementation of “quick impact projects” to satisfy the immediate needs of people, alleviating their suffering from the long conflict. Eng. Khabbaz also addressed the need for involving the youth and unemployed men and women in the reconstruction efforts in order to help them meet their socio-economic needs and obligations and to prevent their radicalization by extremist movements.
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