Organizer(s): ESCAP Global Health Advocacy Incubator Vital Strategies
Description: Civil Society Forum for the Ministerial Conference on CRVS in Asia and the Pacific will be held from 4 to 6 March 2025, at the United Nations Conference Centre (UNCC), Bangkok, Thailand. Target participants: Participants to the Civil Society Forum will comprise: (a) Civil society or non-governmental organizations leadership from relevant organizations from Asian and Pacific countries who have registered their interest in the event here. (b) Representatives of civil society and non-governmental organizations that have active programmes on birth registration/CRVS in the following GHAI-covered countries: Bangladesh, India, Indonesia and Philippines. (c) Representatives of the organizing partners of the Ministerial Conference and other development & partners. Objectives Review the current engagement of CSOs in the CRVS system strengthening and policy process; Support CSOs in using CRVS data to develop evidence-based messages for policy and budget advocacy campaigns to strengthen CRVS systems; Share tools and best practices for CSO engagement in strengthening CRVS systems; Co-create a civil society statement for the Ministerial Conference. Expected Outcomes: The following outputs are expected at the end of the Forum: CSOs from Asia identified and engaged to improve the CRVS systems and working on gender issues, LGBTQ+ rights, statelessness, minorities, disabilities, and children's rights; A civil society statement for the Ministerial Conference on CRVS in Asia and the Pacific in June 2025; Evidence-based messages developed for CSO led policy and budget advocacy campaigns to strengthen CRVS systems
Description: The launch of the Asia and the Pacific SDG Progress Report 2025: Engaging communities to close the evidence gap was held on Tuesday, 18 February 2025, from 11:00 to 12:00 hours (Bangkok time, UTC+7), at the Foreign Correspondent’s Club of Thailand (FCCT), Bangkok and online via Zoom. Presentation | Open remarks Attendance summary Press release: New UN report lauds community-driven innovations in closing SDG data gaps in Asia and the Pacific Download the full report | Highlights The SDG progress report 2025 presents the latest data and insights on progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the Asia-Pacific region. While celebrating regional achievements, it also highlights persistent challenges—such as climate change, natural disasters, and critical data gaps—that risk leaving marginalized communities behind. By showcasing innovative community-level partnerships, the report explores how local efforts can help bridge the evidence gap, ensuring that progress toward the SDGs is inclusive and leaves no one behind. Highlights video .embed-container { position: relative; padding-bottom: 50%; height: 0; overflow: hidden; max-width: 100%; } .embed-container iframe, .embed-container object, .embed-container embed { position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; } Video recording of the Report Launch .embed-container { position: relative; padding-bottom: 50%; height: 0; overflow: hidden; max-width: 100%; } .embed-container iframe, .embed-container object, .embed-container embed { position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; }
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Original webpage was deleted, archived version from the Internet Archive (not a UN service): Link
Description: The session comprised two segments: the high-level segment, on 11 December, and the senior officials segment, on 12 and 13 December. During the high-level segment, representatives of member States discussed the progress made in implementing the Declaration on Navigating Policy with Data to Leave No One Behind, which had been endorsed by the Commission in its resolution 75/9. They also reflected on priority actions that require resources, initiative, engagement or other investment by Governments, as well as participation by the whole of society, to put the region fully on track to achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The senior officials segment included dialogues on building agile statistical systems that are fit for the future as an emerging priority issue for the region and discussed the progress made in implementing the decisions taken by the Committee at its eighth session. The ninth session of the Committee on Statistics was held in conjunction with the twentieth session of the Governing Council of the Statistical Institute for Asia and the Pacific. Both events were part of the Asia-Pacific Statistics Week 2024, held, under the theme “The power of data”, in Bangkok from 9 to 13 December. Various expert group meetings and side events, including the Institute’s nineteenth management seminar for heads of national statistical offices, were held to complement and enrich the discussions at the Committee and Governing Council sessions. Report: 中文 | English | Français | Русский(ESCAP/CST(9)/6) Webcast links: Committee on Statistics, 9th session 11 December 2024 09:00-12:00 (WebTV | Youtube: Floor | CHN | ENG | FRA | RUS) 14:15-17:15 (WebTV | Youtube: Floor | CHN | ENG | FRA | RUS) 12 December 2024 09:00-12:00 (WebTV | Youtube: Floor | CHN | ENG | FRA | RUS) 13 December 2024 14:15-17:15 (WebTV | Youtube: Floor | CHN | ENG | FRA | RUS) , CST9 Vox Pop Interview , .embed-container { position: relative; padding-bottom: 50%; height: 0; overflow: hidden; max-width: 100%; } .embed-container iframe, .embed-container object, .embed-container embed { position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; } Ms. Rajasurang (Prim) Wongkrasaemongkol, Youth Advocate and an AI Engineer on "Engaging external stakeholders in Thailand" .embed-container { position: relative; padding-bottom: 50%; height: 0; overflow: hidden; max-width: 100%; } .embed-container iframe, .embed-container object, .embed-container embed { position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; } Ms. Rajasurang (Prim) Wongkrasaemongkol, Youth Advocate and an AI Engineer on "Speed up progress in strengthening statistical systems in Thailand" .embed-container { position: relative; padding-bottom: 50%; height: 0; overflow: hidden; max-width: 100%; } .embed-container iframe, .embed-container object, .embed-container embed { position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; } H.E. Mr. Ali Haidar Ahmed, Minister of Housing, Land and Urban Development, Maldives on "Accurate and timely production of vital statistics in Maldives""
Description: The United Nations Network of Economic Statisticians recently conducted a sprint to explore the development of a housing statistics framework to assist in monitoring, understanding, and addressing the multifaceted issues associated with housing across various regions and socio-economic contexts. This session will summarise the housing sprint and take a deep dive into Statistics Canada’s framework for housing data. The session will address some examples of challenges encountered by NSOs in producing data on housing and showcase innovative approaches to overcome some of these challenges by using administrative data, web scraping, satellite imaging, AI and other techniques. , Stats Café Home: Upcoming events Concluded events
Description: Background National Statistics Offices and National SDG focal points often struggle with outdated or limited SDG data due to challenges in collecting, validating, and harmonizing data from various national entities. This limits the countries’ ability to disseminate timely statistics, coordinate the production of SDG data, and report on its progress towards the 2030 targets. ESCAP has received requests to develop a user-friendly platform to centralize SDG data management at the national level. The platform would connect to a dissemination tool, such as the Open SDG, thus facilitating the end-to-end dataflow to dissemination. ESCAP is organizing this expert dialogue with selected users of open-source SDG data dissemination tools to better understand their needs and identify the key features of a possible solution. Concept note and tentative programme Objectives The event aims to: Understand national requirements and challenges related to the process of centralizing, validating, and disseminating SDG data; In consultation among countries, establish a general dataflow that covers the usual scenarios for data collection; and Identify use cases of a potential platform based on participants’ inputs
Description: The ESCAP-ASEAN Workshop on Tracking Progress Against the SDGs Tracker aims to convene technical experts from the ASEAN Secretariat and national statistical agencies and institutions of ASEAN Member States involved in the compilation, reporting, and monitoring of activities related to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The primary objective is to equip WGSDGI members with the skills to effectively utilize statistical indicators and quality data for tracking SDG implementation progress. Participants will have the opportunity to understand how SDG progress is being tracked, identify their countries’ strengths and gaps in SDG tracking, and explore ESCAP’s methodology and the SDG Tracker tool. This workshop will demonstrate how these tools can support and streamline SDG assessments at the national level. Target participants ASEAN Secretariat and members of the ASEAN Working Group on SDG Indicators (WGSDGI) from the national statistical agencies and institutions involved in the compilation, reporting, and monitoring of activities related to the SDGs.
Description: The webinar will be held on 20th August 2024, 11:00-12:00hr Bangkok Time (UTC+7). ESCAP Statistics Division continues to support member states in strengthening their statistical capacity to produce relevant data to monitor the 2030 agenda. Different countries are at various stages of progress in implementing SDGs and face different challenges while adapting all the time. The most critical aspect of monitoring SDG progress is data. Data is produced by different agencies in a country. As part of implementing SDGs as a global development agenda, countries have adopted different approaches to suit their specific national contexts. Others have created national action plans as a way of implementing SDGs and overall national SDG progress across various goals and targets. This webinar will showcase the process of creating a national action plan for implementing and monitoring SDGs by the National Development Planning Agency of Indonesia (Bappenas). The webinar will give insights on how key users of statistics apply data in national development planning in practice. , Stats Café Home: Upcoming events Concluded events
Description: The launch of the Asia and the Pacific SDG Progress Report 2024 was held on Thursday, 15 February 2024, from 11:00 to 12:00 hours (Bangkok time, UTC+7), at the Foreign Correspondent’s Club of Thailand (FCCT), Bangkok and Online via Zoom. Presentation Opening remarks Attendance summary Blog: Urgent action needed so no one in Asia and the Pacific is left behind UN NEWS: Asia-Pacific off track on path to SDGs, UN data shows (ENG | CHN) Full Report: (English | Japanese) | Highlights Highlights video .embed-container { position: relative; padding-bottom: 50%; height: 0; overflow: hidden; max-width: 100%; } .embed-container iframe, .embed-container object, .embed-container embed { position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; } Key speakers Lin Yang, Deputy Executive Secretary for Programme, Office of the Executive Secretary, ESCAP Rachael Beaven, Director, Statistics Division, ESCAP Moderator: Mitch Hsieh, Chief of Communications and Knowledge Management, ESCAP Key messages As of 2024, how has the Asia-Pacific region progressed for each of the 17 SDGs? How does sex, age, and income influence the chances of being left behind? Are there examples of evidence-based actions taken to achieve the SDGs?
Description: Background United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) as the Secretariat for UN-GGIM and the core partner of the Data for Now initiative, together with ESCAP and Statistics Norway, is convening an international high-level seminar that aims to foster this collaboration by bringing together representatives from National Statistical Offices (NSOs), National Geospatial Information Agencies (NGIAs) and other relevant national institutions to learn from globally recognized good practices, increasing awareness of the global frameworks and resources, and discuss current practices and potential ways forward at national level. The seminar also provides an opportunity for countries to utilize a Self Assessment Tool, developed by the United Nations Expert Group on the Integration of Statistical and Geospatial Information, that aims to assist countries to self-assess their geo-statistical capacity (or maturity). By understanding their level of capacity, countries can take concise actions to improve their capacity according to their own ambitions, needs for statistics and at their own pace. Participating countries will be asked to apply the Self Assessment Tool in advance of the high-level event and to share the findings so that international experts can provide input and guidance during the discussions at the seminar. The roadmap and action plan that each country will be encouraged to develop during the seminar can then be used for individual follow up in countries, where feasible also with support from UNSD and other partners. Aim and Objectives The workshop’s primary aim is to equip Member States with the necessary skills to ensure continuous production and disaggregation geospatially enabled statistical data. Specific objectives include: Present the Global Statistical Geospatial Framework (GSGF) and the SDGs Geospatial Roadmap and highlight how it can be implemented; Facilitate discussions on countries’ geo-statistical capacity (maturity) and help identify specific actions that can improve implementation, ideally developing national draft roadmaps, which in turn also can guide needs for further capacity development; In this context, present methodologies for continuously calculating geospatially enabled statistical data, inclusive of relevant SDGs indicators; Highlight the importance of collaboration across the National statistical and geospatial ecosystem; Identify needs for partners to better be able to provide support to countries through follow-up activities Programme Programme for download Report Seminar Report , Contacts Programmatic and Substantive: Ms. Vibeke Nielsen, Inter-Regional Advisor, UNSD - vibeke.nielsen@un.org Ms. Faryal Ahmed, Statistician, UNSD – faryal.ahmed@un.org Mr. Mark Iliffe, Geographer, UNSD – mark.iliffe@un.org Mr. Richard Tonkin, Statistician, ESCAP – richard.tonkin@un.org Administrative: Mr. Jaspreet Doung, Statistics Assistant, UNSD - doung@un.org (UNSD & Statistics Norway-funded participants) Ms. Anne Kerdlapphon, Statistics Assistant, ESCAP – anne.kerdlapphon@un.org (ESCAP funded participants & questions relating to Thai visas and venue)
Description: Concept Note Innovations remain an integral part of good practices in the production of economic statistics that are timely and meet the needs of users. Overtime, traditional systems of data collection such as surveys have involved to respond to new business practices such as online trading. As a result, some countries have had to change modalities of data collection for measures of aggregates such as inflation. These measures have included tendencies to scrap the internet for prices to produce consumer price indices. Other countries have not yet adopted such innovations. Similarly, for producing macroeconomic and microeconomic statistics such as gross domestic product (GDP), retail statistics, employment amongst others, countries have embraced different data collection techniques. Besides mere data collection, new industries such as e-commerce have emerged, often facilitated by more efficient payment systems and changes in consumer purchasing habits. While this has improved the timeliness of data produced, it is important that statistical standards are maintained in line with fundamental principles of official statistics. This Stats Café was organized by the Statistics Division of ESCAP and aimed to showcase country level practices and experiences regarding on-line price collection for consumer price indices, purchasing power parities (PPP’s) within the context of the international comparison programme (ICP) and the measurement of e-commerce. By participating in this Stats Café, attendees were expected to: Learn about how some countries are applying new innovations with respect to price data collection for price indices and their associated challenges; Acquaint themselves with some of the approaches and methods for measuring e-commerce. Agenda Moderator: Mr Alick Mjuma Nyasulu, Statistician, Statistics Division, ESCAP Opening remarks: Ms Rikke Munk Hansen, Chief, Economic and Environmental Statistics Section, Statistics Division, ESCAP Measuring E-commerce using market place site, Mr Viktor Suwiyanto, Junior Expert Computer Administrator, BPS Statistics Indonesia Online price collection for the Consumer Price Index (CPI) and experiences on the 2021 International Comparison Programme , Ms Ruth Lee, Senior Manager, Consumer Price Indices, Department of Statistics, Singapore Online Price Collection for Consumer Price Indices, Ms Chindy Saktias Pratiwi, Statistician, Directorate of Price Statistics, BPS Statistics Indonesia & Ms Irien Kamaratih Kamaratih Arsiani, Statistician at Integration of Statistical Processing and Dissemination - BPS Statistics Indonesia Question and Answer/Discussion , Moderator: Mr Alick Mjuma Nyasulu, Statistician, ESCAP Statistics Division Closing remarks: Mr Alick Mjuma Nyasulu, Statistician, ESCAP Statistics Division , Stats Café Home: Upcoming events Concluded events
Description: Full Report Expert meeting on data governance (master slideshow) Programme Concept note Purpose The Expert meeting was organized to advance the decisions by the ESCAP Committee on Statistics pertaining to data governance and the enhanced use of new technology and data for official statistics. Participants The Head of the national statistics office of Fiji, India, Mongolia, Singapore, Thailand, and Uzbekistan (members of the Bureau of the ESCAP Committee on Statistics). The Head or Deputy Head of the national statistics office of selected other countries in Asia and the Pacific, representing a balanced mix of subregions and types and evolvement of data governance models. Resource persons from international entities such as UN-ECE, UNSD, SPC, ADB, ASEAN, PARIS21 and the World Bank Group will be invited to participate at their own cost. Objectives Review a draft compendium of data governance practices in Asia-Pacific; make recommendations for its finalization or further development. Review a draft information brief on data governance as it pertains to the use of big data for official statistics; make recommendations for its finalization or further development Increase the knowledge of senior statisticians in Asia-Pacific on data governance models pursued by different countries in the region and how such models may facilitate the use of new technology and data for official statistics. Support senior statisticians in Asia and the Pacific in identifying opportunities and possible pathways towards developing the roles and responsibilities of the national statistical office in support of national data stewardship, governance of data and the enhanced use of new technology and data for official statistics. Upskill and empower senior statisticians in Asia and the Pacific to engage with other parts of the National Statistical System to take forward data governance and data stewardship discussions.
Description: The TWG was held its 23rd virtual meeting on Wednesday, 26 July 2023, 14:00 – 15:30 hours, Bangkok time (GMT+7). The objectives of the meeting are: To discuss the rationale as well as data and methodological considerations for DRSF tables (1) tables D2: Disruption of basic services from a disaster by hazard types/geographic region, and F: Summary of material impacts to agriculture by hazards types. To share initial results of the review of DRSF tables D2 and F by Maldives. To provide opportunities for TWG participants to reflect on and discuss the experiences from their national statistical systems. To get volunteers for the next DRSF table review on table G Summary tables of direct environmental impacts. , Home: TWG Confluence Previous TWG Meetings
Description: Context The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is the blueprint for member States to progress towards inclusivity and sustainability. At the midpoint of the 2030 Agenda, countries are urged to better assess the progress towards achieving the sustainable development goals (SDGs). Monitoring SDG implementation at the national level is challenging. Data availability and coordination across the entire statistical system, technical capacity, and access to IT infrastructure are key barriers for member States to measure their progress towards achieving the SDGs. In this regard, under the China-ESCAP Cooperation Programme (CECP), the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) and the government of China initiated a project to strengthen the capacity of national governments to follow up and review implementation of the 2030 Agenda. Specifically, the National SDG Tracker tool was introduced to help countries measure current and expected SDG progress achievement by 2030. Results of this assessment are also expected to complement the countries’ Voluntary National Review (VNR) narratives. The regional workshop was an opportunity for countries who implemented the National SDG Tracker to share their results and experiences on applying the SDG progress assessment methodology, emphasizing South-South cooperation, and exchange lessons learned from the use of SDG data. View / Download photos from the Workshop Concept note Objective and expected outcomes The regional workshop gathered statisticians, national planning experts, SDG coordinators and relevant stakeholders to: promote evidence-based assessment of SDG implementation in countries of the Asia-Pacific region; enable other countries of the region to use National SDG Tracker tool to measure current and expected SDG achievement; assess and understand the underlying challenges of monitoring SDG progress. These were expected to strengthen capacity for follow up and review of the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The regional workshop took place in person at Amari Watergate Hotel, Bangkok, Thailand on 17-20 July 2023. It was conducted in English only. , National SDG Tracker Homepage Regional Workshop (July 2023) Countries: Indonesia (May 2024) Sri Lanka (May 2024)
Description: The TWG was held its 22nd virtual meeting on Wednesday, 31 May 2023, 14:00 – 15:30 hours, Bangkok time (GMT+7). The objectives of the meeting were: To discuss the rationale as well as data and methodological considerations for DRSF tables (1) tables D1b: Summary table of direct material impacts by hazards types and geographic regions, and E1b: Summary table of direct material impacts by hazards types and geographic regions. To share initial results of the review of DRSF tables D1b and E1b by Bangladesh and Malaysia. To provide opportunities for TWG participants to reflect on and discuss the experiences from their national statistical systems. To get volunteers for the next DRSF table review on table F Summary of material impacts to Agriculture by hazards types. , Home: TWG Confluence Previous TWG Meetings
Description: The TWG held its 21st virtual meeting on Wednesday, 29 March 2023, 13:30 – 15:00 hours, Bangkok time (GMT+7). The objectives of the meeting were: To discuss the rationale as well as data and methodological considerations for DRSF tables (1) tables C2: Summary table of human impacts by hazard type and geographic regions and (2) C3: Summary table of affected population by demographic and social categories. To share initial results of the review of DRSF tables C2 and C3 by Sri Lanka and on Türkiye. To provide opportunities for TWG participants to reflect on and discuss the experiences from their national statistical systems. To get volunteers for the next DRSF table review on tables D: Summary tables of direct material impacts in physical terms. , Home: TWG Confluence Previous TWG Meetings
Description: In 2020, UNODC, ESCAP, UNCTAD, UNODC ROSEAP, inaugurated a new Development Account project called “Statistics and data for measuring illicit financial flows in the Asia-Pacific region”. The project aimed at consolidating existing and testing new methodological guidelines for the measurement of Indicator 16.4.1 “Total value of inward and outward illicit financial flows (IFFs)”, as well as to build and strengthen statistical capacity by providing technical assistance and guidance to pilot countries for the measurement of such indicator. An UNCTAD/UNODC Conceptual Framework for the Statistical Measurement of Illicit Financial Flows was published in October 2020, and in June 2021, UNCTAD published Methodological Guidelines to Measure Tax and Commercial IFFs for pilot testing, while UNODC is measuring crime related IFFs. Pilot testing has been ongoing in 2021-2022 of the UNCTAD Guidelines in two countries, namely, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, and crime related IFFs were tested in Viet Nam, Bangladesh, Maldives, Nepal by UNODC. A hybrid final workshop of the project is being organized to discuss the implementation of activities IFFs in the six Asian countries. The meeting objectives are: * Report on improved statistical capacity to measure illicit financial flows; * Report the estimates of the illicit financial flows; * Share experiences and best practices among the pilot countries within the region; * Facilitate continuation of measurement by national statistical offices and national agencies; * Disseminate testing guidelines (both crime-related and tax and commercial) which were updated as a result of this pilot testing round; * Discuss future work, interregional cooperation, and policy implications for measuring illicit financial flows
Description: The 78th session of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) will be held in a hybrid modality from 23 to 27 May 2022 at the United Nations Conference Centre in Bangkok and online. Guided by the theme “A common agenda to advance sustainable development in Asia and the Pacific”, the annual session will be an opportunity to discuss and shape the future of regional cooperation centred around a new form of multilateralism and regional cooperation. ESCAP will be commemorating the seventy-fifth anniversary of its establishment in 2022, and the seventy-eighth session will mark the culmination of the commemorations. As the Commission approaches this landmark milestone, it is poised to engage in dialogue on the future of regional cooperation to advance the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and deliver on its promise of leaving no one behind. As countries stand at a crossroads where building back better is within reach, the Commission will also offer a space to identify and discuss the mechanisms and means to build the resilience of people and nations in Asia and the Pacific in the aftermath of COVID-19.