Small-scale farmers in mountainous areas and in drought and desertification- affected regions of developing countries encounter constant challenges with respect to growing agricultural produce putting them at risk of not being able to get enough harvests to support their families’ livelihoods.  Lack of sufficient arable land to grow traditional agricultural produce, especially in mountainous areas and in regions experiencing drought, land degradation and desertification, compounds the perennial problem of poverty in many developing countries. Juncao technology (jun meaning fungi, cao meaning grass) that has been developed by the National Engineering Research Centre for Juncao Technology of the Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University (FAFU) of China has allowed farmers in mountainous areas and in regions experiencing drought, land degradation and desertification to grow several types of nutritious mushrooms from dried, chopped grasses, without cutting down trees and damaging the environment. Such an environmental-friendly technology can help small-scale farmers and farming communities to develop a low-cost, commercial-scale mushroom cultivation industry that can provide sustainable livelihood for thousands. In addition, the technology can also be used for producing cattle feed, methane gas and also minimize soil erosion to combat desertification. In the long run, depending on local demands and the scale of production, it may also provide opportunities for exporting the mushrooms cultivated using the technology. To date this technology, that has the potential of lifting populations out of poverty, has been successfully transferred to a number of developing countries, including Fiji, Lesotho, Papua New Guinea, Rwanda, and South Africa. The key beneficiaries of the project will be the small-scale farmers, relevant line ministries and government agencies, in particular in the ministries/agencies of agriculture, forestry and of planning and economic development; as well as other stakeholders, including women and youth living in poverty who would be equipped with the technology. Academia in the participating pilot countries will also benefit from the project enhancing their knowledge and understanding of the backend of the technology through fellowships and study tours to enable them to understand the scientific basis of the technology and also provide them with the opportunity to contribute to its continuous innovation through research and development in collaboration with the developers of the technology at the National Engineering Research Centre for Juncao Technology of the Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University (FAFU) of China. This project aims to enhance knowledge and strengthen national capacities of developing countries to improve their policies and programmes supporting sustainable agriculture through the transfer of Juncao technology in order to promote productive activities, income generation and entrepreneurship especially among socially disadvantaged groups including farmers, women, youth and to effectively contribute to the achievement of the sustainable development goals (SDGs).  The project activities focus on developing policy and program options to build capacities and promote sustainable agriculture in developing countries and build a global network for enhancing collaboration and partnerships, including contributing to reports going to the HLPF on implementation of the SDGs.

This project supports and assists selected countries in developing a comprehensive and efficient system for monitoring progress towards SFM. This is be achieved through a step- by-step approach, which includes conducting inventories of existing forest-related data, mapping data gaps, addressing these gaps and selecting appropriate indicators. Particular attention is be paid to socio-economic aspects (e.g. livelihoods, food security, poverty reduction) of forests and financial flows for SFM. The socio-economic benefits of forests are particularly important to societies in the selected developing countries, yet these are the areas where methodology is missing and data is either very weak or not existing. The project takes into account the outcomes of the Inter-Agency and Expert Group on Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Indicators (IAEG), particularly indicators on SDG15 and target 15.2, which specifically address SFM. It is expected that the monitoring framework developed within this project will serve domestic needs as well as help to report on forest related international commitments including the SDGs, the UN Forest Instrument and its Global Objectives on Forests. To a large extent the analytical work will be done by national consultants and results of their work will be presented and discussed at series of national workshops. These workshops will gather not only forest authorities but also focal points of the Rio Conventions (CBD, UNCCC, UNCCD), FAO/FRA and stakeholders from other sectors (employment, demographics, energy), which gather data relevant to and whose decisions have effect on forests and forestry. The lessons learned and experiences gained within this project will be shared at a global workshop, which could agree on a common approach to reporting among broader group of countries and possibly serve as starting point for an updated reporting mechanism to UNFF.

The objective of this project is to strengthen the statistical capacity in China and other developing countries especially in the area of basic statistics. Within this overall objective, special attention will be given to the fields such as the organization of the national statistical system, application of modern technologies in statistical work and service to statistical users. Knowledge transfer will include sharing of experiences in South-South collaboration.The proposed expected accomplishments are (1) strengthened and optimized organization of national statistical systems and improved dissemination of data to policy makers and other users, and (2) increased capacity of the national statistical systems to produce better quality and more relevant statistical data for policy makers and other users especially in the areas of economic, environment and social statistics, thus improving data quality and credibility in a comprehensive manner.  In consideration of the statistical demand from China and other developing countries, priority will be given to a wide range of subject matter areas, including: big data, use of administrative records in statistics, application of modern technologies in statistical work, spatial analytics and information, research on innovation of statistical survey methods, statistics for services sector, environmental economic accounting, energy statistics, household surveys, enterprise innovation statistics, social statistics, gross fixed capital formation accounts, evaluation of resource utilization, well-being statistics, service to statistical users, and development and use of statistics, etc. 
 The implementation strategy to achieve the above expected accomplishments include: (i) international workshops; (ii) provision of materials on practices in implementation of latest international standards; (iii) technical advisory missions; (iv) exchange of staff among statistical offices; (v) sponsorship of short-term work or study in international organizations or other institutions; and (vi) study visits for officials to international seminars and conferences. The Statistics Division is currently implementing the second phase of this project. The first phase run from 2009 to 2014.

Over the last ten years, DPAD/UN-DESA has supported a number of Member States in developing the required capacities to use modelling tools to inform development policies. As such, an important number of models and training activities have been developed to support countries in the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), and more recently to assess strategies for low-carbon growth and the implementation of the 2030 Agenda.
Governments from developing countries confront the challenge of designing coherent policies that can simultaneously accelerate growth, reduce poverty, deepen human development, preserve and improve the environment, and adapt/mitigate to climate change. To successfully achieve these objectives, countries need quantitative analytical capacities to assess comprehensive, coherent and detailed policy options. This requires assessments that integrate a large number of development objectives across the economic, social, and environmental dimensions of sustainable development.
In response to the Government requests of Mexico, Ghana and Rwanda, this project aims at building integrated assessment methodologies and capacities in each country to address the interlinkages and tradeoffs among policies, goals and the economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainable development. A climate, land-use, energy and water systems integrated assessment will be developed in each country, with capacity building activities provided to government officials, to address the challenges and particular policy scenarios discussed with official government counterparts, to inform evidence-based policy discussions.

The Ministry of Social Affairs of Kyrgyzstan requested UNDESA to provide assistance on designing and conducting a national survey on ageing formulating an evidence-based national policy on ageing in order to follow-up to the recommendations contained in the UNDESA Mission Report conducted by DSPD/DESA in Kyrgyzstan in April 2014. This project is a continuation of the initial support that UNDESA has provided to Kyrgyzstan in 2014 by advisory mission that concluded that, among other things, the country needs to analyse current social conditions using evidence - based approach and to develop sound social policies for social groups.

The objective of the project is to engage at national level with five strategic partners where biodiversity is at stake, so as to enhance their knowledge of valuation of ecosystems and their services. Building on an internationally-agreed methodology and EU-agreed methodology where relevant, and on the development of national competences, the project will initiate pilot testing in each country. The outputs are expected to influence policy-makers at national, regional and local level to take action in line with national environmental priorities, international commitments and EU priorities where relevant. In addition, the project will ensure awareness-raising for the private sector and the civil society.

The project helped to strengthen the capacity of selected developing countries in Africa and Asia to measure, monitor and report progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and Post-2015 Development Agenda. The project activities will result in conducted national dialogues and meetings among and between policy makers, data producers/statisticians and other data users on SDGs/post-2015 monitoring; assessment of the statistical capacities for SDGs/post-2015 monitoring and reporting concluded by the project countries; identification, by the project countries key stakeholders, of the priority areas of statistics to be further developed, and conduct of an assessment of capacity gaps and needs; developement of an implementation plan (or roadmap) for the development of the statistical capacity required for SDG/post-2015 monitoring and reporting, detailing priorities, possible actions, resource and funding requirements as well as the establishement of national working and coordination mechanisms to implement the plan for measuring and reporting indicators of SDGs and post-2015 goals and targets.

This project aims at building greater capacity in 17 African countries to produce, analyse and utilise population estimates and projections using state-of-the-art methods and tools in formal demography. It will also address analysis and dissemination of data through training and use of new information technology tools and platforms. Countries will participate in training activities based on their demand and their capacity to produce the necessary data for population estimates and projections. Ad hoc missions will be conducted to four countries, where the statistical capacity is less developed, in order to provide more extensive training, which will involve several staff of the National Statistical Office and/or national statistical systems (government agencies that are involved in the production and analysis of population data) and relevant line ministries.

The project seeks to strengthen the capacity of NTAs and MoFs in developing countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, and in Africa to negotiate and apply double tax treaties, drawing on the UN Model, and to formulate inputs into the policy making processes influencing the way double tax treaties are negotiated and re-negotiated to the benefit of developing countries. The main focus of the first phase of the project will be the delivery of the UN Course on Double Tax Treaties with a view to increasing awareness and understanding of the UN Model among MoF and NTA officials of broad number of developing countries in the two regions. During the second phase of the project, tax treaty negotiators will strengthen their negotiating skills and techniques enabling them to conclude treaties, which would be beneficial to both treaty partners, through participation in the UN-OECD Practical Workshop on Negotiation of Tax Treaties. Administrators of tax treaties in 4 pilot countries will be assisted, through national seminars and follow-up country missions, with a view to implementing the necessary policy changes in order to enable a more effective application of double-tax treaties and thereby to improve the investment climate in the country. The third phase of the project will focus on institutionalizing this capacity development programme in the regions with the view of passing the ownership of the relevant knowledge and tools, as well as the administration of the programme to regional experts and regional tax organizations.