Description: Background The Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), together with other United Nations Development System partners, are working to strengthen the capability of countries to collect, process and disseminate data and statistics to respond to emerging economic, social and environmental data needs in times of crises and disasters through the use of innovative data sources, advanced data acquisition methods and modern technologies, while ensuring a path towards the achievement of the 2030 Agenda. In Bhutan, during 2024-25, through support from the United Nations Development Account, activities are underway to support the following outcomes: The production of land and forest accounts, in line with Bhutan’s published System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA) implementation plan. The creation of a strategic plan for producing and developing disaster-related statistics. To initiate this support a capacity building workshop on SEEA land and forest accounting, and a multi-stakeholder consultative workshop on disaster-related statistics were held in Thimphu between 8-10 October 2024, with the involvement of the National Statistics Bureau (NSB) of Bhutan and relevant stakeholders. Aim and Objectives The workshops had the following primary objectives: Provide practical support on the identification and application of available data sources for the development of land and forest accounts, in line with the Bhutan’s published SEEA implementation plan. Follow up on actions identified in the 2023 High-Level Seminar on Statistical-Geospatial Integration, with a focus on the use of geospatial data for SEEA compilation. Enhance awareness and understanding of relevant international statistical frameworks, guidelines and tools on disaster-related statistics. Identify and prioritise national data needs for disaster-related statistics through a multi-stakeholder workshop. Support the identification of priority data and capacity gaps to facilitate the development of a national plan for disaster-related statistics. A key outcome was the development of an agreed approach for taking forward the production of land and forest accounts and developing a strategic plan for disaster-related statistics for Bhutan.
