An expert group meeting on “Harnessing the Cooperative Advantage to Build a Better World” will be organized in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on 4-6 September

Also including a capacity-building workshop, this event will provide a forum for examining the distinct ways in which the cooperative model promotes individual and collective self-help, contributes to socio-economic development, and strengthens communities around the world.

It will bring together cooperatives, researchers, NGOs, Government representatives, donors and international organizations,and allow participants to share experiences and develop strategies for engaging with, and advancing, the cooperative movement. Led by DESA’s Division for Social Policy and Development (DSPD), the event is one of the official United Nations activities for the International Year of Cooperatives.

For more information:

International Year of Cooperatives 2012

A workshop on population projections for French speaking African countries will be arranged in Rabat, Morocco, on 10-14 September

DESA’s Statistics Division is organizing the workshop in collaboration with the Direction de la Statistique, Haut Commissariat au Plan du Maroc. It is held in the context of the 2010 World Programme on Population and Housing Censuses with the objectives to strengthen the technical capacity of the participating countries to generate population projections at different geographical levels and sectors. In so doing, the workshop also aims to draw participants’ attention to the necessary preparatory work before undertaking the population projections.

These includes detecting and correcting errors in the base data, making assumptions about future trends in demographic parameters, and the choice of method to use to project the population, how far into the future to project the population, and for what level of geography it is feasible to generate the projections. 

The workshop will also provide the forum to discuss national practices and to exchange experiences and lessons learned among the participating countries. The attendees will also learn about available software packages for generating population projections. 

For more information:
2010 World Population and Housing Census Programme

A workshop on “Leadership Capacity-Development for Improved Delivery of Public Services in Africa using Information and Communication Technologies” was held in Addis-Ababa, Ethiopia, on 23-25 July

The workshop was organized by the e-Government Branch and Public Administration Capacity Branch of DESA’s Division for Public Administration and Development Management (DPADM).

At the African Ministerial Workshop on 24 July, Namibia’s Deputy Prime Minister expressed interest in collaborating with DPADM/ DESA, through the United Nations Project Office on Governance (UNPOG) on e-government related issues. Additionally, the Seychelles, which ranked first in e-government development in the African region, requested UNPOG’s technical advice and support from the Korean Government in exploring relevant public and private institutions as well as applicable technologies.

These were the results of presentations made on “Enhanced Public Service Delivery Using ICT” and “Leadership in E-Government Development” by DPADM’s affiliate, UNPOG, as part of the workshop.

For more information:

DESA’s Division for Public Administration and Development Management (DPADM)