In the context of the 7 Billion Campaign and in an effort to focus attention on the urgency of population issues and need to find solutions on the global and national levels, UNFPA Lebanon launched the State of World Population (SWOP) report 2011 as well as the national statistical booklet “Lebanon in a World of Seven Billion: New Figures … Pending Issues”, developed by the Population and Development Project (PD), a joint collaboration between the Ministry of Social Affairs (MOSA) and UNFPA Lebanon. This double event was held on December 12, in presence of the Minister of Social Affairs and UNFPA Representative, along with mass media coverage and participation.
The SWOP gained considerable attention given the wealth of information and data about development issues and challenges from global and regional perspectives while shedding the light on the ICPD and MDG frameworks.
The statistical booklet “Lebanon in a World of Seven Billion: New Figures … Pending Issues”compiles 36 country-specific indicators pertaining to the 7B Campaign’s messages. Developed in a fully participatory approach involving media personnel among others, the booklet was designed to serve as an advocacy tool addressed primarily to the media professionals but also to key stakeholders such as parliamentarians, officials in public administrations, researchers, and NGOs.
Media professionals showed great enthusiasm towards the information presented in the booklet and found it to be concise and reader-friendly. Of special relevance to them were the charts that showed the trends and patterns in indicators over time and in comparison across countries of the region. Moreover, the simple and yet comprehensive definitions of each and every indicator were highly appreciated by all participants from various sectors as they facilitated the interpretation of presented figures.
