The overall objective of the project is to increase the capacities of governments, youth-led civil society organizations and the broader Community Based Organization community in the formulation, implementation and evaluation of effective national youth policies and action plans that promote conflict prevention, peacebuilding and sustaining peace in the context of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Youth, Peace and Security Agenda. The substantive focus of the project lies in capacity development for analysis, review and reformulation of relevant social policies through participatory processes involving young people and other relevant stakeholders. These processes will lead to the production, roll out and dissemination of a Training Module for Promoting Sustainable Peace through National Youth Policies. They will also support partnership building and coalition development on issues regarding youth, peace and security and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in the target countries.
The 2020-2022 World Social Protection Report noted that globally, only 46.9% of the population was effectively covered by at least one social protection benefit, and in Africa and Asia and the Pacific, this is even lower, at 17.4% and 44.1%, respectively. Evidence suggests that countries with better social protection policies and programmes are better at curbing the effects of the Triple Crisis, with overall positive effects on health, education, labour market outcomes, income inequality, and social cohesion. Hence, it is imperative to build countries’ capacity to build robust, sustainable, gender-sensitive and crisis-responsive social protection policies and programmes. This project will support six selected countries in the regions of Africa and Asia and the Pacific to strengthen their social protection systems and programmes’ capacities to identify, reach out and expand to those left behind and build robust, sustainable, inclusive and crisis responsive policies and programmes by training policy makers on the use of already existing digital platforms that can provide useful guidance on monitoring SDG progress and acceleration by identifying those groups left furthest behind, understanding the factors and circumstances behind the Triple Crisis that affects them and help building the national capacities to accelerate participant countries development plans. Furthermore, the project will help developing local capacities to use the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) as an analytical tool to identify the most vulnerable people, show aspects in which they are deprived and, consequently, target resources and design policies more effectively. This work is expected to enhance capacities of target countries to develop integrated social protection policies and strategies that enhance the delivery of social protection services and increase resilience to future crises in the six selected countries in the regions of Africa and Asia and the Pacific, which would be demonstrated by the enhanced capacity of selected countries to design and implement public policies and programmes towards universal social protection, with a focus on identifying and incorporating into the policies and programmes the most affected people and people in vulnerable situations who are disproportionately impacted by the Triple Crisis
Today more than half of the world’s population has no access to social protection at all. In Lao PDR and Tajikistan exclusion is even larger with, respectively, 87.9 and 73.4 percent of the population with no income security in cases of old age, maternity, unemployment and other life cycle and socioeconomic risks. Poor governance, lack of integrated policy responses, and insufficient and unsustainable financing of social protection are key issues for a number of countries including Lao PDR and Tajikistan in their efforts to extending the coverage of social protection to all. There is a growing need for awareness raising at the global and national levels as well as for the sharing of knowledge and good practices, and the development of practical guidance for the strengthened governance and digitalization of social security systems, identified as a key accelerator enabling to leapfrog some of the bottlenecks to close the social protection coverage gap. The main objective of the project is thus to accelerate and extend universal social protection through the strengthening of the policy design, administrative governance and the digital transformation of social protection systems in Lao PDR and Tajikistan, and promote lessons learned to benefit other countries in the Global South. The project will pursue a two-fold strategy. In two focus countries, Lao PDR, and Tajikistan, technical support will be provided through the ILO country offices to strengthen governance, social security administration and services, and technical capacities of institutions and practitioners, including through the promotion of connectivity and digitalization. In parallel, the project will develop a knowledge base of good practices as well as hands-on training modules including on digital transformation of social protection planning, implementing, monitoring and evaluation. These knowledge products will be useful for all countries and disseminated widely through UNRC network, DESA and ILO websites, seminars/workshops and training sessions including as part of the course offer of the ILO International Training Centre in Turin.
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 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.
The Evidence and Data for Gender Equality (EDGE) Initiative is a new partnership that seeks to accelerate existing efforts to generate comparable gender indicators on health, education, employment, entrepreneurship and asset ownership. This initiative was launched in May 2011 by the United States at the OECD Ministerial Session on Gender and Development and builds on the work of the United Nations Inter-Agency and Expert Group on Gender Statistics. 2. In 1995, the UN Beijing Platform for Action identified 12 critical areas of concern, and urged Governments to regularly collect statistics related to each of these areas, to serve as a basis for monitoring progress and evaluating the impact of policies. Despite this and other commitments in intergovernmental processes, there remain major gaps in the availability, quality and comparability of gender statistics. The EDGE initiative aims to fill some of these gaps.3. Initially, this initiative will cover the period from July 2012 to December 2015. Activities during this first phase will include three elements: (1) the development of a platform for international data and metadata compilation covering basic health, education and employment indicators; (2) the development of standards and guidelines for measuring entrepreneurship and assets indicators; and (3) piloting data collection on entrepreneurship and assets in several countries.4. This initiative contributes to implementing UN Women’s management results framework, as outlined in UN Women’s Strategic Plan 2011-2013, specifically to institutionalize a strong culture of results-based management, reporting, knowledge management and evaluation and to enhance organizational effectiveness. It also contributes to the UN Statistics Division’s global gender statistics programme, including its components of international data compilation and development of metadata, as requested by the UN Statistical Commission. 5. Consistent with these results, and the clear imperative for evidence-based policy-making, the longer-term aim of this initiative is to gradually build a cost-effective and sustainable model to integrate gender issues into regular statistical production and to build countries’ capacity to produce gender data in all policy areas. For example, while this first phase focuses initially on the aforementioned areas, the same model could be used to collect data on important yet often neglected areas such as violence against women. 6. To achieve these goals, the proposed initiative will establish a participatory mechanism that will be guided by a steering committee, composed of members of the UN Statistical Commission mandated Inter-Agency and Expert Group on Gender Statistics, regional commissions, regional development banks and key agencies that coordinate statistical work including the World Bank and the OECD. In particular, the World Bank will play a key role in helping developing countries mainstream gender statistics into national statistical systems, including strengthening data collection necessary to inform critical gender policy issues. The OECD, on the basis of their extensive work on indicators on gender equality in education, employment and entrepreneurship, will contribute to data compilation by sharing statistics and metadata, and will contribute to the methodological work related to the development of new indicators, particularly in the area of women’s entrepreneurship. The project will also benefit from strong guidance from the UN Statistical Commission (UNSC) and the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW). To create further leverage, this initiative will also foster a culture of dynamic knowledge sharing, by promoting networking and facilitating technical collaboration between project countries. 7. The estimated cost of the programme over three years is approximately US$ 6,000,000 which will include costs related to methodological development of international standards for measuring entrepreneurship and asset ownership, with related capacity building and pilot data collection in five countries. Once these standards are developed, we anticipate that data collection in each additional country not included during the first phase will cost on average approximately US$ 150,000 to cover training, data processing, data analysis and publication and dissemination of results. 8. Given that available funds currently consist of US$ 3.66 million, the initial budget covers five pilot countries and a reduced scope for some planned activities. However, resource mobilisation efforts are underway to generate additional funds, which will enable the full EDGE programme, including 10 pilot countries, to be implemented.
The objective of the project is to strengthen the capacity of Governments, civil society organizations and sport associations/federations, including Paralympic committees and national special Olympic organizations in the target countries to jointly elaborate plans for the full and effective inclusion of persons with disabilities, with a specific focus on autism, in society through sport. At the same time, the project aims at developing the skills of sport instructors in the field of running to train young people with autism and their family members and monitor their progress in sporting activities over time.
The aim of this project is to strengthen national capacity in the three project countries to formulate, implement, monitor and evaluate effective and evidence-based national policies and programmes aimed at social and economic integration and inclusion of young people with disabilities. As set out in the Programme of Action of the Copenhagen World Summit for Social Development, the aim of social integration is to create “’a society for all’, in which every individual, each with rights and responsibilities, has an active role to play.” In the case of the present project, inclusion of youth with disabilities means that they are to be actively engaged, as both agents and beneficiaries, in the two focus areas of the project: 1) the design and implementation of national policies for social inclusion of youth with disabilities, and; 2) the design of national programmes and strategies for creating employment opportunities and including youth with disabilities in national labour markets.
Project activities will consist of a combination of analytical and operational capacity building work engaging national and international experts in conjunction with UNDESA and ECLAC/UNDP staff. The main beneficiaries/participants in the project will be policymakers, members of parliaments, and Government officials with mandates related to youth, employment and persons with disabilities. Representatives of youth organizations and disabled persons organizations will participate as both beneficiaries and resource persons for the project.
Activities will further include delivery, in project countries, of comprehensive training on formulating and monitoring participatory evidence-based youth policies and programmes aimed at achieving social inclusion and employment opportunities for youth with disabilities. This will support policymakers to work with and create the space for the participation of young people and relevant civil society organizations. It will also contribute to effective policy-making, and a greater awareness of the needs of young people with disabilities in national planning initiatives.
Upon the completion of the project, national programs for training and employment of young people with disabilities will be incorporated into the existing national development plans and programmes in the project countries.
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 project aims at enhancing the capacity of the Indigenous Peoples in selected countries in Africa and Asia to engage in constructive policy dialogues and/or participatory mechanisms with a view to develop strategies and initiatives to improve their well-being and economic and social status, including through the promotion of social integration and inclusive development. The formulation, implementation and evaluation of the project respond to the principles upheld in the UN Declaration on the Rights of indigenous Peoples and other related instruments, both international and regional. Thorough capacity building of both national and local governments and indigenous leaders, especially indigenous women and youth, the project aims to promote the participation of indigenous peoples in decision-making processes at national, regional and local levels, towards more inclusive development that is responsive to their needs and priorities. The project also intends to enhance the capacity of governments to develop policies, programmes and legislation that recognize and respect indigenous peoples' development rights and priorities and that include their full and effective participation in national socio-economic development policies. This will advance greater cooperation, national cohesion, and improve relationships between indigenous peoples and governments while also reducing tensions and misconceptions. The project will establish new consultative mechanisms, and/or strengthen existing ones where applicable, such as participatory policy dialogues, between the government representatives and representatives of indigenous peoples utilizing mediation, consensus building, constructive dialogue, participatory and inclusive development planning. The ultimate beneficiaries of the project are the indigenous peoples in the countries participating in the project.