Stories
“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....
UN DESA Partners with Itaipu Binacional in Paraguay and Brazil in Support of Water and Energy Sustainability Intitiatives
Today, 1.1 billion people lack access to electricity, while water stress affects more than 2 billion people. By 2030, the world will need 40 per cent more water and 50 per cent more energy. Climate change will exacerbate this stress even further. The...
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.”
Helping Government Officials in Least Developed Countries Understand what it Means to Leave the LDC Category
UN DESA developed the Gradjet tool to help government officials in least developed countries (LDCs) understand what it means to leave the LDC category and to plot a course for future action.
It is also aimed at the wider development community and anyone else interested in LDC graduation. Tailored to each country, showing what graduation means in context, the site shows what happens before, during and after leaving the category, with contacts, information and suggestions about what to do at each stage.
Register and log in to see information specific to your country, or use the drop-down menu to select another LDC.
UN DESA Begins a new Partnership to Explore Sustainable Water and Energy Solutions
Energy and water are closely interlinked and interdependent, with about 90 per cent of global power generation being water intensive, while about 8 per cent of the global energy generation is used for pumping, treating and transporting water to various consumers. Both energy and water are used in the production of crops, including those used to generate energy through bio-fuels.
Walking the Walk on SDG Implementation
Everyone is talking about implementing the 2030 Agenda, especially considering the inter-linkages between the three dimensions of sustainability and the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). But how do we do this in practice? And how do we work to understand and manage the complexity of those relationships without losing sight of the big picture: creating the changes necessary to foster prosperity for both people and planet?
UN DESA Supports Member States in Developing and Strengthening Environment Statistics and Integrated Environmental-Economic Accounting
Integrated information and high-quality statistics are not only essential elements in the promulgation of evidence-based policy and decision making, they are also key to monitoring the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Given the critical role of high-quality environmental and integrated socio-economic statistics, the United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs implemented a project titled “Supporting Member States in Developing and Strengthening Environment Statistics and Integrated Environmental-Economic Accounting for the Improved Monitoring of Sustainable Development.”
Guide on Lessons for Open Government Data Action Planning for Sustainable Development
UN DESA developed a “Guide on Lessons for Open Government Data Action Planning for Sustainable Development”. It compiles findings from the capacity development activities conducted by the Department and contains hands-on and easy-to-use information relevant to the work of government policymakers and technology experts. This Guide helps them understand what Open Government Data (OGD) is, why governments could use it as a tool for supporting transparent, accountable and participatory governance for sustainable development; and how to assess, plan, implement and evaluate successful OGD initiatives and programmes.