“The main priority for policy makers worldwide should be to support a robust and balanced global recovery, with a focus on promoting job creation,” said Shamshad Akhtar, UN Assistant Secretary-General for Economic Development.

Global growth has been revised slightly downward from the forecasts presented in the WESP in December 2012.

Growth of world gross product (WGP) is now projected at 2.3 per cent in 2013, the same pace as in 2012, before gradually strengthening to 3.1 per cent in 2014, supported by an expected pickup in activity in the United States.

The report warns that risks are still tilted to the downside and have the potential to derail, once again, the still feeble recovery of the world economy. Short-term risks associated with the situation in the euro area, fiscal adjustments in the US and the sharp slowdown in large developing countries have diminished, but not disappeared. In addition, some new medium-term risks have emerged, including potentially adverse effects of the unconventional monetary measures in developed economies, such as Japan and the United States, on global financial stability.

The report highlights the continuing need to enhance international policy coordination to mitigate negative spillovers, reform the global financial system and ensure sufficient resource flows to developing countries.

Ongoing weaknesses in developed economies

The report shows ongoing weaknesses in developed economies, which continue to face major risks and uncertainties. In the euro area, the risk of a near-term break-up has declined considerably, but the economic situation remains dire. The real economy is held back by austerity programmes, weak bank lending and continued uncertainty, with activity projected to contract by 0.4 per cent in 2013. WESP says only a small expansion of 1.1 per cent is forecast for 2014, and this weak recovery remains uncertain given persistent banking and fiscal risks.

In the US, the avoidance of the fiscal cliff and expansion of monetary easing, along with gradual recovery in the housing sector, have somewhat improved growth prospects. Automatic government spending cuts and uncertainties associated with budget issues will weigh on aggregate demand. Economic growth is forecast to slow to 1.9 per cent in 2013, before picking up to 2.6 per cent in 2014. Political gridlock and additional fiscal tightening could result in much lower-than-projected growth.

In Japan, policymakers have taken bold expansionary measures in an attempt to resuscitate the economy from the grip of deflation, but the results of these policies remain uncertain. GDP growth is projected at 1.3 per cent in 2013 and 1.6 per cent in 2014.

Many large developing countries, including Brazil, China, India and the Russian Federation, saw a significant deceleration in GDP growth in the past two years.

“The deceleration in the BRIC countries is largely due to a combination of weak external conditions and domestic impediments,” said Ingo Pitterle, the UN’s team leader for the report.

Although the report predicts GDP growth in China to be 7.8 per cent in 2013 and 7.7 per cent in 2014, an unexpected drop in China’s growth to about 5 per cent would impact economic activity worldwide, especially in commodity-exporting developing countries.

The report also addresses aspects related to capital flows in emerging economies, as well as the labor market and jobs not being created fast enough. “The employment situation remains a key policy challenge in a large number of economies, as the world economy continues to expand below its potential,” noted Pingfan Hong, Chief of the Global Economic Monitoring Unit of DESA’s Division for Development Policy and Analysis.

As discussions on a post-2015 development agenda are accelerating, the ECOSOC Development Cooperation Forum (DCF) is supporting the process by advancing the dialogue on the future of development cooperation in the post-2015 setting. Preparations are in full swing for the fourth Forum, to be held in New York in July 2014. The DCF, a key function of ECOSOC, fosters global dialogue and policy review on international development cooperation. The Forum serves to improve the coherence and effectiveness of development cooperation, in producing policy guidance and practical recommendations.

There is broad agreement that the post-2015 development agenda must be supported by a global partnership for development that encourages cooperative action by all stakeholders and effectively supports implementation of the goals and targets. With its multi-stakeholder convening power, the DCF is now launching a dialogue in Ethiopia on the potential role, principles and strategic priorities of such a renewed global partnership for development, as well as its key features and working practices. Discussions at the High-Level Symposium will also consider what could be the role of enhanced monitoring and accountability to underpin such a partnership.

The Host-Country-Agreement represents a major step in finalizing the preparations for the symposium. Signed on 17 May 2013 by Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, Wu Hongbo, and Tekeda Alemu, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of the Federal Government of Ethiopia to the United Nations, the agreement defines the responsibilities of both partners in the symposium.

“This agreement marks a milestone on our way to the Ethiopia High-Level Symposium,” Mr. Wu said. “The outcomes of this symposium will directly contribute to the deliberations on the post-2015 UN development agenda and provide important recommendations for the 2014 ECOSOC DCF. The findings will also be relevant for the Open Working Group when discussing a global partnership for sustainable development in December 2013.”

The symposium will engage senior representatives from developing and developed countries, parliamentarians, civil society, the private sector and international organizations to discuss their experiences with the current global partnership and expectations for how it should work in the post-2015 setting. A number of pre-meetings and side events will allow stakeholders to further deepen these discussions. They will include events for civil society, least developed countries, members of parliament, members of the Steering Committee of the Global partnership for effective development cooperation and the DCF Advisory Group. A meeting of Directors-General of Southern partners in development cooperation will also be convened jointly by UN-DESA and Ethiopia on the afternoon on 7 June 2013.

“We must have a better understanding of the views and values of indigenous peoples by engaging them in decision-making and providing a platform for issues affecting their lives and livelihoods,” Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged in a message at the opening of the 12th forum delivered by Wu Hongbo, Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs

The two-week gathering will be overseen by Paul Kanyinke Sena, Chair of the UN Permanent Forum, who stressed that culture, education and health are the basic rights for all people, “They are at the core of indigenous peoples’ right to life, our right to dignity and well-being.”

In his opening address, Mr. Sena noted that the concept of health and healing for indigenous people includes not only access without discrimination to social and health services, but also includes connections with family, land and language, as well as access to traditional plans, animals and minerals.

He also stressed the importance of local languages in school and the right of indigenous people to establish and control the education of their children in a manner appropriate to their cultural methods of teaching and learning.

The day’s programme includes discussions about indigenous issues from the perspective of young people based on the findings of a report by the UN Expert Group Meeting, held in January 2013, on identities, challenges and hopes of indigenous youth.

Out of the 370 million indigenous peoples in the world, approximately 67 million are youths, according to figures cited in the report.

In addition to today’s official discussions, five side events with highlight issues of health and reproductive rights, investing in indigenous youth, education, the launch of an adolescent-friendly version of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, as well as of a study on violence against indigenous girls, adolescents and young women.

Youth is one of Mr. Ban’s priority areas, and he launched the development of a System-Wide Action Plan on youth (SWAP) to deepen the youth focus of existing UN programmes, and appointed Ahmad Alhindawi as his envoy on the topic.

Later in the week, the Forum will focus on issues related specifically to the estimated 50 million indigenous people living in Africa, who in addition to fighting claims to their indigenous lands and competition for natural resources, also face challenges to recognition of their indigenous identity.

The Forum is expected to adopt recommendations at the conclusion of the discussion, addressing the main issues, challenges and positive measures of cooperation to improve the situation of indigenous peoples in Africa, according to the Forum organizers.

“It is time to turn the rights enshrined in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples into a reality around the world, especially in the African region,” said Mr. Sena who is the first African to chair the Forum, representing the Ogiek people in Kenya.

This year, the Forum will include an in-depth dialogue with the World Bank, the African Development Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, the Asian Development Bank, and the International Finance Corporation in order to review the development and adoption of policies and mechanisms for the engagement and effective participation of indigenous peoples.

“The World Bank is sending a delegation of 30 people, the largest so far so you can see how seriously they are taking the Forum,” Mr. Sena told journalists in New York. He spoke in a press conference alongside Andrea Landry, Canadian Youth Representative; Setareki Macanawai, Chief Executive Officer of the Pacific Disability Forum in Fiji, and other representatives.

Financial resources were also part of today’s discussion. In his opening statement, Mr. Hongbo highlighted the contributions of Member States to the UN Trust Fund on Indigenous Issues which issues small grants of $10,000 to indigenous organizations working on related issued, particularly in health and education.

Applications are being assessed this month with the aim of “strengthening international cooperation for the solution of problems faced by indigenous peoples in such areas as culture, education, health, human rights, the environment, social and economic development by means of action-oriented programs and specific projects, increased technical assistance and relevant standard-setting activities,” according to its website.

In his speech, Mr. Hongbo reiterated Mr. Ban’s message of the importance of inclusion of indigenous issues and point of view in the UN agenda. “The United Nations has committed its unwavering support to a future where all indigenous peoples will enjoy peace, human rights and well-being. It has welcomed indigenous peoples as partners,” he said.

This year’s Forum will also look forward to the first World Conference on Indigenous Peoples in September of next year and decide on a potential theme. Two-hundred indigenous participants from seven regions are to be invited.

The preparations for the World Conference coincide with ongoing discussions of a post-2015 development agenda to success the current eight anti-poverty targets known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

While there is no specific reference to indigenous peoples in the MDGs, the Permanent Forum have highlighted the relevance of indigenous concepts and practices of development, such as “living well” which translates to “sumak kawsay” or “sumaq qamaña” in the Kichwa and Aymara languages from the Andes.

“This is a unique moment for the Permanent Forum, under the auspices of the Economic and Social Council, to focus on its contribution towards change. I respectfully urge that Member States work with all actors to find a common understanding,” said Vice-President of the UN General Assembly, Abulkalam Abdul Momen.

Also addressing the opening session, the President of the UN Economic, Social and Economic Council (ECOSOC), Néstor Osorio, noted the importance of indigenous knowledge and experience in ECOSOC’s annual review, which this year focuses on science, technology and innovation, and culture for sustainable development and the MDGs.

Despite centuries of genocide, language loss, discrimination and forcible removal, indigenous people remained the custodians of many of the most biologically diverse areas in the world, Mr. Osorio said. He urged the inclusion of indigenous knowledge and innovations in UN efforts “not in the form of products to be appropriated but as knowledge that leads to improved well-being for all, especially indigenous peoples themselves.”

Today’s opening ceremony in the UN General Assembly Hall began with a traditional flute song and then welcome by Todadaho Sid Hill, traditional Chief of the Onondaga Nation, part of the Six Nations or Iroquois Confederacy, which originally inhabited parts of New York. Later in his speech, Mr. Sena thanked the chief “for the welcome into their beautiful territory once again.”

Source: UN News Centre

There are over 370 million indigenous peoples living in 90 countries across the globe. Protecting and advancing their rights have been at the heart of Tonya Gonnella Frichner’s mission for almost three decades, serving as an attorney and former member of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. In DESA News, she shares past gains and hopes for the future.

With the 12th Session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues taking place on 20-31 May, and with the world conference more than a year away, DESA News got an exclusive opportunity to meet with Ms. Tonya Gonnella Frichner.

Ms. Gonnella Frichner has an impressive track record, working as an attorney since 1987 to secure the rights of indigenous peoples worldwide. She is the President and Founder of the American Indian Law Alliance and is a citizen of the Onondaga Nation, Snipe Clan. The city of Syracuse sits on their traditional territory, about 250 miles North-West of New York City.

During the past 20 years, she has sought to make the voices of indigenous peoples heard at some of the major UN Conferences. She also paved the way for the establishment of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in 2000 and the adoption of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in 2007. From 2008 until 2010, Ms. Gonnella Frichner served as a member of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous issues and she was its North-American Regional Representative.

Long history of involvement

“I began my work in 1987, after I finished law school and it was the Iroquis Confederacy, the Haudenosaunee, that brought me along and mentored me and who took me to my first meeting at the UN in Geneva,” Ms. Gonnella Frichner said. “The Haudenosaunee have been doing this work for many, many years,” she added, sharing that it was in 1923, when a Cayuga Chief was sent to Geneva for the first time to discuss the situation on his territory.

Ms. Gonnella Frichner described the importance of the nation-to-nation relationship that had been established early on by her community, as European settlers started to arrive at their shores. “That’s when our treaties were established, our diplomacy,” she said. For her community, it was a natural step seeking justice at the United Nations. “In 1977 our people understood that there was a Universal Declaration of Human Rights, but were confused as to why it did not apply to indigenous peoples,” she explained.

In 1992, she was involved in the first Earth Summit and she saw the surge in interest and participation of civil society. “Civil society should have a voice, and should be speaking with governments and should be holding them accountable on different levels,” she said, also pointing to the fact that indigenous peoples have taken a leading role in seeing civil society more involved at the UN.

Paving the way for UN Declaration

Ms. Gonnella Frichner also depicted the 14-year-long process that finally led to the creation and adoption of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in 2007. “There were difficulties along the way, especially around the right to self determination,” she said. Getting the language right and reaching consensus also for the wording around the right to free, prior and informed consent, also involved a lot of work. “The article within the declaration that I am very proud of is the one protecting our treaties, agreements and other arrangements,” she added.

The UN Declaration is a milestone for Ms. Gonnella Frichner’s own Nation and she underscored the importance of its realization. “What our people would like to see is this declaration being implemented on a local and national level,” she added.

The need for a broader and more encompassing forum later led the way to the creation of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and for three years Ms. Gonnella Frichner served as its member. “I was assigned to write a preliminary study on the Doctrine of Discovery and its affect on indigenous peoples,” she said. This Doctrine has throughout history led state actors to assert a sovereign dominant authority over indigenous peoples, ultimately resulting in the violation of their human rights. In 2012, the Permanent Forum addressed this issue as the main theme for its 11th session.

Critical matters for upcoming events and beyond

There are many important items on the agenda for the upcoming 12th Session of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues to be held on 20-31 May. The implementation of the UN Declaration, education, health and culture – these are some of the topics at hand. There will also be a discussion on the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples which will be held at UN Headquarters in September next year.

“My hope is that it will continue its excellent work,” said Ms. Gonnella Frichner, describing the Forum’s important role addressing a number of issues related to social and economic development. “If we look at health, the statistics are very, very high against us and it has been agreed to that indigenous peoples are the most marginalized in the world and the most vulnerable. Whether suffering from diabetes or tuberculosis, the list goes on and on,” she said, adding that these statistics basically are the same in developing and developed countries.

“Education, the statistics are the same. Governments need to provide situations where education as a human right, is available to indigenous peoples. Education is important but including our life ways and our languages must be attached to that as well,” she said.

Ms. Gonnella Frichner also underscored the vital role of culture and the need for it to be part of the domestic policies of governments. “When I think of culture I think of being in a room with 2,000 indigenous peoples all speaking different languages,” she said smiling. “But when we are together, in our meetings, we are speaking one language,” she added. “Our relationship to mother Earth is identical throughout indigenous communities.”

When talking about next year’s world conference, Ms. Gonnella Frichner expressed hope that the participation of indigenous peoples will be at a high-level, pointing to the strong commitment for this event shown by the past and current President of the General Assembly. Indigenous delegates will also gather for a meeting in Alta, Norway this June to look at the issues at hand and to draft a unified statement for the world conference.

Addressing poverty at core of priorities

When we discussed the development agenda beyond 2015 and some of the most important priorities, Ms. Gonnella Frichner emphasized the issue of poverty. “Poverty is the overarching theme if you will, that affects indigenous peoples when it comes to health, education, our youth, our women. It affects everything across the board.” She also underscored the need for an inclusive process, ensuring indigenous peoples participation.

“Development in indigenous communities must be applied with the Declaration in mind,” she said, explaining the importance of using it as a framework to look at development, poverty and its affect on all indigenous peoples within different regions. “It must be applied, seriously, not only on a local, national, but international level,” she said.

Involvement of future generations key

Playing a crucial part in world matters is today’s youth, which makes up for about 40 per cent of the global population, with 67 million of them representing the indigenous youth community. “We have seen indigenous youth take on a very strong role and make very strong statements,” Ms. Gonnella Frichner said, highlighting that one of their main concerns relates to climate change and global warming.

“This world is going to be left to them, they are our future leaders, so our responsibility is to mentor those future leaders, and to bring them into the discussions,” she said. “And that’s not just for indigenous youth, that’s for all youth throughout the world,” she added. “As we say from the community that I’m from, the Haudenosaunee, when our leaders sit in deliberation, when they are in counsel, their decisions are going to be made with the 7th generation in mind,” she explained.

Ms. Gonnella Frichner underscored the importance of this kind of approach. “So that we don’t stick with a quick fix, or something that will only last for 15 years. No it must be until that seventh generation has arrived. The world needs to be intact for them when they arrive and are here to take on the challenges of this world,” she concluded encouragingly.

Within DESA, the Statistics Division coordinates and implements the Global Gender Statistics Programme, aimed at developing statistical methods and standards to enhance national statistical offices’ capacities in all stages of collection, production and dissemination of gender statistics.

Gender is a socially constructed concept used to attribute differences associated with being female or male. Gender statistics are defined as statistics that adequately reflect differences and inequalities between the situation of women and men in all areas of life.

Gender statistics are useful in addressing the multi-level perspectives of power relations and capture the realities and experiences of women and men. Gender statistics include all domains of statistics as well as a variety of topics that are associated mainly with women’s well-being such as unpaid work, violence against women, or statistics on family-work balance.

The need to integrate a gender perspective into statistics is imperative to ensure the full coverage of gender issues is taken into account in national statistics, and to properly inform policy and decision makers. Data are used to develop and monitor policies and programmes oriented toward increased gender equality and empowerment of women.

Incorporating a gender perspective into statistics also entails reviewing questionnaires and surveys as well as working with focus groups in order to ensure that statistical surveys on all issues have country-specific gender-relevant content. Addressing the limitations of data collection based on concepts and methods that are not gender-sensitive is essential in further developing and maintaining the integrity of gender statistics.

Many conditions and institutional arrangements need to be in place for a country to be able to produce reliable gender statistics. Among them, a gender statistics unit (or focal points) in National Statistical Offices plays a key role in providing gender sensitization training as well as specific training to avoid gender bias in data collection.

Gender statistics units provide critical information for women’s advocates, policy-makers, and NGOs, thus facilitating communication between the producers and some of the end users of gender statistics. Additionally, they assist data users and help them understand the uses of existing statistics that may not have been considered gender statistics. Gender Statistics units are key in providing the necessary data to monitor and assess the status of women and men in a country.

“Unemployment is forcing many young people, often eager for independence, to rely on their parents longer than they would have hoped. The lack of affordable and quality childcare is complicating efforts by parents in dual-earner families to combine their work and home obligations. Inadequate pensions and care for older persons demands more attention as we succeed in our goal of extending lives,” Mr. Ban said in his message for the Day, observed annually on 15 May.

“These challenges make family support more important than ever – for the young person seeking a job while living with their parents, for the grandparent who relies on their children for shelter and care and for the many members of extended families who take on childcare responsibilities.”

Mr. Ban stressed that family members deserve support from policy-makers, public institutions and private businesses, and he called for strengthening policies that promote intergenerational solidarity.

“Evidence shows that adequate pensions and caregiver support help not only older persons but whole families,” he said. “Intergenerational programmes promoting volunteering among the young and old benefit all generations. Opportunities for people of all ages to bond revitalize whole communities.”

He added that these types of initiatives also address global development priorities as they counteract inequality and exclusion and encourage active citizenship and through community-based projects.

“On this International Day of Families, I call on Governments, civil society, families and individuals to support initiatives that bring people together across generations toward building a healthier world for all,” he said.

Source: UN News Centre

“Science, technology and innovation hold great potential as tools and enable to integrate the three dimensions of sustainable development,” said the Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, Wu Hongbo.

“They can be used to promote health, increase productivity, improve the efficiency of resource use, and reduce negative human impacts on the environment. They will be critical to tackling some of the major sustainable development challenges of this century. These include providing food security to a growing population, eradicating poverty and tackling climate change.”

Attended by policymakers, key stakeholders and UN system representatives, the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) Integration Meeting seeks to follow-up on the commitments made by world leaders at the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) in June last year.

That historic summit recognized ECOSOC’s role in achieving a balanced integration of the three dimensions of sustainable development, and adopted an outcome document, The Future We Want. Following the Conference, ECOSOC held a Ministerial meeting in September, where participants discussed how to strengthen the multilateral system for sustainable development.

Mr. Wu underlined that ensuring food security and universal access to sustainable energy are “complex challenges” that “must be addressed in an integrated way.”

“Some of the technological solutions are simple, as with clean cook stoves. However, social and economic barriers to their broader diffusion can be complex,” he said. “Innovation extends beyond developing hardware, to finding solutions, to the broad social acceptance and economic affordability of improved technologies.

In his opening remarks, Deputy-Secretary General Jan Eliasson stressed the importance of the Council in promoting balanced integration of different dimensions to sustainable development in the UN system, and called for cooperation to achieve not just sustainable development objectives but also the anti-poverty targets known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Agreed on by world leaders at a UN summit in 2000, the eight MDGs set specific targets on poverty alleviation, education, gender equality, child and maternal health, environmental stability, HIV/AIDS reduction, and the creation of a ‘Global Partnership for Development’ – all by a deadline of 2015.

“The world is counting on the UN to deliver, to be a catalytic force and to set the direction for the road ahead,” he said. “This means that we have to work with the Millennium Development Goals not yet achieved and at the same time, look beyond 2015 and the new sustainable development agenda.”

ECOSOC President Néstor Osorio said the meeting would identify potential policy changes, facilitate a multi-stakeholder dialogue, develop a clear understanding of how science, technology and innovation relates to sustainable development, and identify new policies at local, national and international levels.

Source: UN News Centre

“Achieving sustainable development: Integrating the social, economic and environmental dimensions” – this will be in focus for an ECOSOC meeting at UN Headquarters today. ECOSOC President Néstor Osorio, UN Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson and DESA’s Under-Secretary-General Wu Hongbo will be participating along with a number of representatives from UN agencies, Member States and other international organizations.

At the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) last June, world leaders acknowledged the vital importance of an inclusive, transparent, strengthened and effective multilateral system to better address the urgent global challenges of sustainable development.

In The Future We Want conference outcome document, world leaders also recognized the important role of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) in achieving a balanced integration of the three dimensions of sustainable development.

“In order to fulfill this mandate, it is paramount that the Council acts as an effective platform to discuss and define concrete measures to articulate this vision into an integrated agenda,” ECOSOC President Néstor Osorio said at a recent meeting.

ECOSOC is taking action. The Council organized a Special Ministerial Meeting on 24 September 2012 at UN Headquarters in New York. Today, the ECOSOC Integration Meeting will bring together policymakers, key stakeholders and the UN system to examine how science, technology and innovation can contribute to the integration of the economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainable development for triple-win solutions in the energy and agricultural sectors.

In particular, the meeting will explore the potential of energy and agricultural sectors in providing ‘triple win’ approaches to sustainable development. The meeting will seek to identify ways in which integrated policy actions, some of which may involve short-term trade-offs in one dimension, may result in longer-term benefits in all areas of development. It will also provide guidance on the integration of the three dimensions of sustainable development for building the future we want.

From the present perspective, international statistics help us understand the current shape of our world within areas including migration, population, life quality and natural resources. This know-how also allows organizations and governments to make better decisions in key areas such as public policy, development, health and education, directly affecting the future of the global population.

Crucial in this process is for international statistics to be updated, consolidated and standardized, providing current indicators that allow comparison among countries, ethnic groups and economic sectors .To achieve this and in order to meet international standards, it is important to provide guidelines to the producers of statistics like countries, NGOs and other organizations.

A key element in ensuring the comparability of statistics is the use of common classifications, which define the detailed building blocks of statistics and the categories that are used for their publication.

On 13-15 May, experts will gather at UN Headquarters in New York to focus on statistical classifications and international standards for statistical information, and how to better involve all relevant actors in this process.

This meeting is part of the ongoing effort to keep the international classifications up-to-date with modern economic and social developments, to ensure that statisticians produce relevant data for analysts and policy makers. Additional efforts are being made to harmonize the work done on classifications in different areas, improving the use of common concepts and resulting in higher comparability of data being produced.

Four main areas will be on the agenda for the upcoming session: Family of international classifications, role of international standard frameworks, Review of new classifications developments and Management of classifications. The Expert Group will also discuss regional efforts in supporting the implementation of international classifications, like the Working Group on International Classifications of the Statistical Conference of the Americas.

This Expert Group was established to ensure harmonization and convergence among the classifications in the International Statistical System, and to serve as coordinating body in the work on international classifications.

His statement to the 12th Session of the United Nations Committee of Experts on Public Administration (CEPA), which took place on 15 to 19 April, on the theme “The role of responsive and accountable public governance in achieving the Millennium Development Goals and the post-2015 development agenda”, highlighted the relevance of challenges facing public administration, especially in the creation of a favorable environment to foster economic growth, social cohesion and environmental protection – the three pillars of sustainable development.

He also acknowledged the work of the 24 experts of the Committee, who had gathered from more than 20 countries to participate in the session. Mr. Wu said that DESA wanted to highlight the efforts of those serving in the UN Public Service, and “looks forward to further collaboration in building pathways to reach the internationally agreed development goals”.

Opening the Committee’s session a few days earlier, ECOSOC President Néstor Osorio also underscored the importance of a citizen-centric approach and the vital role of public administration in these efforts. He emphasized the possibilities brought on by rapid technological advancements. “We are given an opportunity to listen to people and to partner in sustainable development on an unprecedented scale,” he said, mentioning initiatives promoting e-participation, e-governance and e-services.

“Governments are increasing efficiency and transparency by providing more information online, simplifying administrative procedures, and streamlining bureaucratic functions. As of today, some 25 per cent of the 193 United Nations Member States have embarked on Open Government Data initiatives,” Mr. Osorio said.

Established by the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), CEPA is responsible for supporting the work of ECOSOC concerning the promotion and development of public administration and governance among Member States, in advancing the United Nations Development Agenda. Meeting once a year, it also provides guidance to DESA’s Division of Public Administration and Development Management (DPADM), through an annual review of its work programme.