Our Divisions: Economic Analysis and Policy Division
UN Photo/Logan Abassi
The Division leads UN DESA’s capacity-development and policy-advisory activities on economy-wide issues and on methodologies to integrate the economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainable development. Activities focus on training and advising policy makers in developing countries to enhance their analytical capacities in designing coherent and integrated macroeconomic, social and environmental policies; and enabling Least Developed Countries (LDCs) to make the most adequate use of benefits derived from their LDC status. The use of analytical and modelling tools, tailored to country needs, facilitates the implementation of capacity development activities.
Economic Analysis and Policy Division
Translating the 2030 Agenda into national plans – a combined effort
The challenge of integrating the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into national policy frameworks is leading to renewed interest in national development planning. Indeed, the 2030 Agenda calls for each Government to “decide how these...
Together, we will help the world rise stronger
As the COVID-19 pandemic carves its dark entry into the history of humankind, causing serious illness and death, and upending daily life as we know it, UN DESA is supporting the world to contain the calamity and emerge from it more resilient and united.“UN DESA stands...
How integrated simulation models can help assess effective policies for the SDGs
The 2030 Agenda states that the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are integrated and indivisible, and should balance the economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainable development. Integrated approaches, strengthening coordination and coherence among...
New tool smooths path out of least developed country category
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=0hFOIVZD0dM As many as 14 of the world’s 47 least developed countries (LDCs) may leave this category in the coming years thanks to their rapid economic and human development. While certainly a cause for celebration,...
“No spectators, all participants” – UN DESA event series on Youth, Peace and Security
With almost 200 million people aged between 15 and 24, Africa has the youngest population in the world. And it keeps growing rapidly. Over the next 13 years, from 2017 to 2030, the youth population in sub-Saharan Africa is expected to grow to almost 300 million youth....
Training on the Climate, Land-use, Energy and Water systems of Bolivia
UN DESA and UNDP conducted a training workshop on the Climate, Land, Energy and Water Systems (CLEWs) integrated analysis in La Paz, Bolivia from 16 to 20 April 2018. The Global CLEWS model provides useful insights about the relationships among water, energy, climate, and land and material use at the global scale. It was developed to inform Rio+20 discussions and will soon be upgraded to provide useful insights about the interlinkages among climate, land, materials, energy and water underlying the relationships among many of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Progressing towards the Sustainable Development Goals requires looking at synergies and trade-offs among different goals. Modelling is a great way to analyze and compare different scenarios.
Leaving the LDC category: Booming Bangladesh prepares to graduate
Propelled by better health and education, lower vulnerability and an economic boom, Bangladesh, the largest least developed country (LDC) in terms of population and economic size, looks likely to leave the LDC category by 2024. For the first time, the country met the three criteria for graduation at the Committee for Development Policy (CDP) triennial review in March 2018. “Bangladesh has seen broad-based gains in health, education, infant mortality and life expectancy,” said Daniel Gay, Inter-Regional Adviser on LDCs in UN DESA’s Development Policy and Analysis Division. “These have in turn driven economic growth, and latterly reduced economic vulnerability, so it’s a real success story.”
Graduation and then…? How do countries “graduate”?
Least Developed Countries (LDCs) are low-income countries confronted with severe structural impediments to sustainable development. They are highly vulnerable to economic and environmental shocks and have low levels of human assets. There are currently 47 countries classified as LDCs, an exercise undertaken by UN DESA’s Committee for Development Policy (CDP).
CDP is a subsidiary advisory body of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). It advises the Council and the United Nations General Assembly on which countries should be included to or graduated from the list of LDCs. To date, five countries have graduated from the list: Botswana, Cabo Verde, Samoa, the Maldives and Equatorial Guinea.
High Level Meeting: Modelling Tools for Sustainable Development Policies
On 29-30 June, a High Level Meeting on ‘Modelling Tools for Sustainable Development Policies' was held in the premises of the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) in Trieste, Italy, to discuss the role of integrated modelling in informing policy...
Strengthening modelling capacity for development policy analysis
UN DESA has during the past ten years, through several projects, transferred economy-wide and energy modeling tools and the required capacity to use them for policy analysis to 22 countries in Latin America, the Middle East and North Africa, Asia and Africa. These...