Projects

All governments from developing countries confront the challenge of designing coherent policies that can simultaneously accelerate growth, reduce poverty and inequality, preserve and improve the environment, and help adapt/mitigate to climate change. To successfully achieve these objectives, countries need both i) sound institutional arrangements for policy integration; and ii) quantitative analytical capacities to assess policy options. The ultimate aim is to foster a cohesive policy…

The Technology Facilitation Mechanism (TFM) was launched as part of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development with the objective to support the SDGs. It includes three major components – an Inter-Agency Task Team (IATT) of over 30 UN-system agencies; an annual multi-stakeholder Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) Forum; and an on-line platform that is expected to serve as a gateway for information on existing science, technology and innovation (STI) initiatives, mechanisms and…

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…

The Data For Now initiative (Data4Now) aims to develop countries’ capacities to deliver the information needed by local and national policy and decision makers to achieve the 2030 Agenda and make a positive difference in people’s lives.  To this end, it supports members of the national statistical systems in participating countries to collaborate more effectively with local, national and global partners from intergovernmental organizations, academia, civil society and the private sector, in…

When good-quality administrative systems are in place and their information is regularly updated, they can reliably provide a full picture of key aspects of a country’s population or economy on a continuous basis. Data collected for administrative purposes can be a rich and cost-efficient source for the production of timely and high-quality official statistics, especially to address the urgent need for disaggregated data on SDG indicators to ensure no one is left behind in the implementation…

Despite progress in reducing both the number of undernourished persons and the prevalence of undernourishment in recent decades, people living in rural areas have been left behind, with many continuing to face grinding poverty and hunger. In particular, smallholder farmers in remote and mountainous areas, drought and desertification- affected regions and small island developing states encounter constant challenges for growing crops, putting them at risk of poverty and hunger. The socio-…

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…

The Office of Intergovernmental Support and Coordination for Sustainable Development (OISC/DESA) of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), United Nations is continuously developing its programme of capacity development related to the Voluntary National Reviews (VNRs) with a view to strengthen the capacities of countries presenting their VNR at the high-level political forum on sustainable development (HLPF) in 2022 and 2023.
The voluntary national reviews (VNRs) aim to…

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…

Micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) contribute to achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).  MSMEs help reduce levels of poverty through job creation and economic growth, they are key drivers of employment, decent jobs and entrepreneurship for women, youth and groups in vulnerable situations, and also make up the majority of the world’s food producers and ensure sustainable food production systems, they play a critical…