The project aims at enhancing the capacity of the target groups in the following selected countries in Africa: Angola, Namibia, Uganda and Zimbabwe to engage in constructive policy dialogues and/or participatory mechanisms, with a view to develop strategies and initiatives to advance inclusive development and SDG achievement for indigenous peoples in the framework of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Through capacity building of both national and local governments and indigenous leaders, the project aims to promote the participation of indigenous peoples in decision-making processes at all levels, with a special focus at the local level, where the most vulnerable indigenous peoples live. The project also intends to enhance the capacity of governments to develop and implement policies, programmes and legislation that recognize and respect indigenous peoples’ development priorities and rights, that include their full and effective participation in national socio-economic development policies, enhancing dialogue mechanisms among indigenous peoples, the government and UNCTs. The project also aims to strengthen the capacities of stakeholders in targeted countries to engage in those processes, as well as to work in the implementation of national action plans, policies and measures on the Declaration.

The overall objective of the project is to contribute to government capacity to effectively produce and use time-use data in policy formulation for the implementation of the 2030 Agenda in Africa, Latin America and Western Asia. More specifically, in collaboration with ECA, ECLAC and ESCWA, the project will contribute to building capacity in countries to produce and use time-use statistics, in support of measuring and monitoring their national development plans and indicators, including SDG 5.4.1 on unpaid work, as well as indicators on other development issues such as employment and learning. This will be achieved through the development and testing of methodological guidelines on how to modernize the collection, analysis and use of time-use data based on assessments of national capacity and needs in the following regions Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Western Asia (one project country per region). The resulting guidelines will cover cost-effective tools and a sustainable model to institutionalize the systematic collection of time-use data. As part of the rollout phase, the guidelines will be available for use by all countries and will be widely promoted through regional training workshops and national events in the project countries (one project country per region) to promote stronger collaboration between users and producers of time-use data where participants will also identify/map time-use data needs to national development policies. This way, the project will also contribute to improved data/policies integration.

As a set of interconnected goals, monitoring and measuring the progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals necessitates the use of integrated frameworks. The United Nations System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA) is an international statistical standard which integrates economic and environmental information into a common framework to measure the contribution of the environment to the economy and the impact of the economy on the environment. The SEEA provides countries with a framework to derive internationally comparable sets of statistics and indicators, supporting measurement of progress towards the SDGs as well as the Aichi Targets, green growth etc.  The project aims to address the technical and institutional barriers to the establishment of routinely produced environmental-economic accounts at the national level by national statistical offices. Project activities will focus on: building the institutional framework in support of SEEA implementation, taking into consideration existing initiatives and activities in the countries and policy priorities; building capacity in the countries to compile selected accounts on a regular basis, while contributing to the development of SEEA compliant global databases; fostering inter-institutional relationships to promote collaboration and data-sharing in producing the accounts; and promoting the effective communication and use of the accounts in supporting evidence-based policy and the SDGs. The project will support up to six developing countries from four different sub-regions—Northern Africa, Eastern Africa, Eastern Asia and Southern Asia—to ensure geographic diversity and multiplication effects in the various regions. Of these six countries, the project will build on initial assistance provided to two countries in Eastern Africa, Kenya and Uganda, during the 9th tranche of the Development Account. Finally, the project will include South-South collaboration fellowships, to allow project countries to visit and learn from each other. 

This project’s objective is to enhance the capacity of governments in the Asia-Pacific and Latin America and Caribbean regions to develop evidence-based, intergenerational policies for inclusive and sustainable economic growth in the context of population ageing. The Secretary-General’s report on Our Common Agenda highlighted the importance of strengthening capacities to understand and assess the future, building long-term intergenerational thinking into important policies and decision-making.  This project directly responds to this call by using disaggregated National Accounts data to address the twin goals of inclusion and sustainability in the context of population ageing.  National Inclusion Accounts (NIAs) disaggregate national economic statistics by age and socioeconomic status. NIAs help identify and describe how economic resources are shared between population groups. This type of accounting is needed for long-term forecasts of the costs and funding sources for social protection, education, and health care programmes to ensure their fiscal sustainability and distributional equity. This project will support eight developing countries in Latin America and the Caribbean and Asia and the Pacific to strengthen capacity to produce National Inclusion Accounts, analyze the impacts of population ageing on inclusive and sustainable development, and formulate public policies and plans to achieve these goals.

The overall objective of the project is to strengthen national capacity in collecting and compiling comprehensive and internationally comparable migration data that meet international standards, and to enhance understanding of the uses and limitations of migration data for policy purposes and for the monitoring of the migration related goals and targets in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
More specifically, in collaboration with partner organisations, the project aims to improve data availability through technical capacity building of countries in producing basic migration statistics, statistics on human trafficking and socioeconomic statistics disaggregated by migratory status for the SDG monitoring. This objective will be achieved through (a) preparing technical guidelines on producing data for migration-relevant SDG indicators; (b) providing trainings to countries so that national statisticians become familiar with international standards on migration statistics and statistics produced are harmonized within the country and comparable at international level; (c) building an online data portal for migration statistics which would enhance the data availability at the international level.

To support the establishment of essential building blocks for development of the Blue Economy in SIDS thereby assisting selected SIDS with bridging capacity gaps in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda, with a particular focus on SDG 14

The project aims to help five Least Developed Countries (LDCs) (four in Asia, one in the Pacific) increase their chances of achieving structural economic and social progress toward and beyond graduation from LDC status. This, for the two implementing organizations, involves: (i) provision of country-specific analytical material on the implications of LDC graduation; vulnerability and resilience-building; and smooth transition strategies; (ii) relevant advisory services to policy makers; and (iii) action to help project recipients and LDCs in general understand and use the export-related new requirements issued by trading partners.
The economies of graduating LDCs, while demonstrating forms of structural economic progress, often remain little diversified and dependent on a small number of products or commodities for export. The transformation these countries aim to achieve or pursue implies a range of structural economic changes, notably from lower to higher levels of productivity and value addition. Most graduating countries with an agenda for such progress will need post-LDC support measures, possibly new forms of special treatment after LDC status.
The context of reclassification from LDC status is an opportunity, for these countries, to step up their plea for alternative support measures after graduation, with a view to maintaining their momentum of progress. In short, making the most of LDC benefits while these are still available, then achieving a smooth transition to post-LDC status with some alternative support measures is a broad agenda of these States, an agenda they expect UNDESA and UNCTAD to help them bring to fruition. The project offers the two organizations and the five recipients a practical framework for achieving this goal.
Key stakeholders under the project are government officials in the ministries associated with LDC graduation and its implications: Foreign Affairs, Planning, Finance, Trade and Commerce. The project will enhance the capacities of selected officials within these ministries to: (i) better understand the implications of graduation from LDC status; (ii) incorporate policies aimed at mitigating vulnerability and building resilience into planning documents; (iii) formulate and enact smooth transition strategies; and (iv) keep up with changing international trade requirements.

The project focuses on improving and strengthening the national geospatial information management capacities of developing countries in two beneficiary regions, namely, Africa and Asia and the Pacific, towards implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and evidence-based policy and decision-making. The 2030 Agenda recognizes that timely and accessible geospatial information and statistics, and their combined analyses, are a prerequisite for good policy-making and supporting and tracking development progress. However, there is still a lack of awareness, understanding and uptake of the vital and integrative role of geospatial information within national circumstances, particularly in developing countries. The project supports identified countries in the beneficiary regions to develop and strengthen their national technical capacities and mechanisms through the provision of frameworks and guides that recognize national circumstances through regional or sub-regional activities for: (a) the application of geospatial information to augment national statistical systems and inform the global indicator framework; (b) improving the integration of statistical and geospatial information through implementing the principles of the Global Statistical Geospatial Framework; and (c) improving data sharing and dissemination through appropriate consideration of legal and policy frameworks and guidelines. The project contributes towards improving the timeliness, availability and accessibility of geospatial information at all levels by national geospatial information authorities, thus improving and strengthening national geospatial information management and systems.

The project aims to help six least developed countries (LDCs), two in Africa, two in Asia and two in the Pacific, that are either: i) assessed as eligible for graduation the first time and those close to meeting the graduation threshold; or ii) graduating and graduated from LDC status - to adjust their preparation for graduation in the wake of Covid-19 and to build greater resilience for a smooth transition in a post-Covid environment. The project offers dedicated capacity development support in the form of policy and technical advice and on-the-job coaching directly linked to the six service offering lines (SOLs) of the LDC Sustainable Graduation Support Facility (SGSF) delivered through the project’s seven outputs. Each country may co-design the specific support provided under each output to reflect each country’s priorities, context and in sync with their national and sectoral planning, budgeting, monitoring and reporting timelines and processes. The project is expected to contribute to strengthened national capacity of recipient countries: to access and apply information on new product requirements in export markets with a view to increasing exports and the use of ISMs; and to integrate resilience-building and smooth transition strategies into national and sectoral plans and policies. 
 

The need to support countries formulating policies and strategies for MSME resilience has been recognized by the General Assembly resolution A/RES/74/270 . In the Secretary-General’s report ‘Shared responsibility, global solidarity: Responding to the socio-economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic’ , supporting MSMEs is outlined as a focus area to tackle socio-economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Supporting MSMEs and informal workers is also included as one of the five pillars in the UN Framework for the Immediate Socioeconomic Response to the COVID-19 crisis . In this context, this project aims to formulate enabling policy environments and strengthen capacities of policymakers and MSME entrepreneurs to enhance MSME resilience to external shocks and risks, including the COVID-19 pandemic, in Cambodia, Ethiopia, the Philippines and Zimbabwe. The project will improve the capacity of policymakers to plan and implement coherent policy mechanisms promoting MSME resilience. It will also strengthen MSME entrepreneurial capacities for resilience and competitiveness for the inclusive and sustainable recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. To upscale impact and sustainability, the project will forge extensive partnerships within and across target countries. It will pursue synergies with regional MSME supporting strategies such as the African Union SMEs Strategy and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation’s Small and Medium Enterprises Working Group Strategic Plan for 2021-2024, in addition to pursuing coherent interventions with MSME supporting programmes of government departments, UN Country Teams and development partners in target countries.