| DESA News Vol. 14, No. 03 | March 2010 |
Expert group meeting on indigenous children and youth in detention, custody, foster care and adoption will take place in Vancouver from 4-5 March
The Secretariat of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (SPFII) is currently working with First Nations Summit to organize this event that will be attended by Permanent Forum members, indigenous experts from the seven UNPFII socio-cultural regions, government officials and representatives from UN Agencies and Funds. Representatives of indigenous peoples’ organizations are welcome to attend.
For more information: http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/
DESA’s Statistics Division, in collaboration with the National Bureau of Statistics of China, will organize an International Workshop on Regional Products and Income Accounts from 15 to 17 March in Beijing
The workshop aims to review the current practices of various countries in regional accounts and propose best practice approaches in compilation of Gross Regional Product and Income. This workshop is part of a series of events organized under the project on strengthening statistical capacity development in China and other developing countries in Asia funded by the Chinese Government.
It will give an overview of the conceptual framework and different approaches for allocation of national economic activities to regions and address some measurement issues on the inconsistency between the national aggregates and the sum of regional data. The workshop will also offer the opportunity to exchange experiences and discuss the optimal approach in the calculation of Gross Regional Product and Income.
For more information: http://unstats.un.org/unsd/newsletter/globalstat_unsd_calendar.htm
Forum on Climate Change Mitigation, Fuel Efficiency and Sustainable Urban Transport will be held on 16-17 March in Seoul
The transport sector is emerging as the fastest growing source of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, accounting for more than 23 per cent of those emissions in 2006. Road transport accounts for three quarters of all transport GHG emissions. The continuously growing motor vehicle use also causes other emissions harmful to human health, including lead, total suspended particulates (TSP), nitrogen oxides (NOx), ground level ozone, carbon monoxide (CO) and volatile organic compounds (VOC).
This Expert Level Forum will contribute to the sustainable development of the transport sector and is meant to help curb the global growth of GHG and other emissions emanating from motor vehicles, particularly in rapidly growing metropolitan areas. The Forum is intended to support collaborative action on implementing affordable, economically viable, socially acceptable and environmentally sound transport systems.
The meeting will address key topics related to public transport systems and private motor vehicle use in urban areas, as well as highlight recent innovative initiatives and good practices in fuel efficiency promotion policies as well as climate change mitigation in the transport sector.
The Forum is co-organized by the Korea Energy Economics Institute (KEEI) and DESA, with extra-budgetary financial support provided by the Government of the Republic of Korea through the Korea Energy Management Corporation (KEMCO).
For more information: http://www.un.org/esa/dsd/susdevtopics/sdt_tran_egm0310.shtml
The United Nations Public Administration Network (UNPAN) online training center has re-opened its courses for the year 2010 in English, French, Ukrainian, Russian and Arabic and soon in Spanish
The training center delivers courses on various topics in public administration with the main objective to increase the opportunities for government officials from all over the world to access training materials on e-government. Each course is self-guided, and must be completed within 60 days of registration. A certificate of completion will be awarded at the end of the course.
The online training courses will also be translated into Spanish as a result of collaboration between Hunter College, City University of New York and DPADM. Ms. Maria Cornelio, Coordinator of Spanish Major Concentration in Translation/Interpretation of Hunter College, proposed the translation of these online courses into Spanish at a recent meeting with Ms. Haiyan Qian, Director, DPADM.
As per Ms. Cornelio’s proposal, it was agreed to arrange the translation of the UNPAN online training courses from English into Spanish without cost. The training courses in Spanish will increase the opportunities for government officials from Spanish speaking countries to access training materials on e-government.
UNPAN online training courses are available to anyone with Internet access and are provided free of charge by DESA. They are currently available in English, French, Ukrainian, Russian and Arabic.
For more information: http://www.unpan.org/onlinetraining/