The DESA Statistics Division (UNSD) together with the Arab Institute for Training and Research in Statistics (AITRS) and the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (UN ESCWA) is organizing a Training Workshop on Environment and Energy Statistics for Arab Countries from 8 to 12 September in Amman, Jordan.
This workshop, which is envisaged as first in a series of workshops on environment and energy statistics, will review the basic concepts, methods and international recommendations on environment and energy statistics as well as the main interrelationships between the two areas. It will also provide a forum for sharing country experiences and will identify priority areas for the region for the subsequent training workshops.
For more information: http://unstats.un.org/unsd/energy/meetings/Jordan2013.htm
A regional workshop on Data Dissemination and Communication will take place in Amman, Jordan, from 9 to 12 September. The Workshop will review emerging trends, innovative approaches and technological tools employed in the dissemination of data.
The Workshop is part of a global series of workshops on data dissemination and communication, organized as part of a United Nations Development Account project. The purpose of the overall project is to provide a forum for sharing national practices and experiences in the dissemination of statistical data and metadata. The Workshop is expected to provide a basis for assessing existing national dissemination strategies as well as technologies used by National Statistical Offices. It will also aid in taking stock of national capacities and challenges for meeting the increasing requirements of users. Furthermore, the Workshop is expected to help identifying good practices and lessons learned in the dissemination and communication of data. The ideas generated by the discussion and the recommendations made by participants during all workshops will contribute towards the drafting of a technical report and/or the creation of a knowledge base on the UNSD website, dedicated to the topic of effective dissemination of data.
For more information: http://unstats.un.org/unsd/Dissemination/workshops/Jordan/default.html
The UN Office for Sustainable Development (UNOSD) organized its first Summer School on Sustainability Transition Policies and Practices, from 22 July to 2 August at the Yonsei University International campus, Republic of Korea.
The Summer School was designed on the backdrop of 25 years of impressive global efforts for transitions towards sustainable development. Such efforts have included the building of sustainable development (SD) knowledge and capacity for policy-makers in governments.
Yet, transitions are still happening much too slowly to address overstretched planetary boundaries and multifaceted social crises. Beyond the technical knowledge and skills of economic, social and environmental sustainability, there remains a debilitating gap in understanding how technical knowledge gets, or not, deployed and scaled-up into national strategies, and implemented through concrete policies.
Studying and overcoming the reasons for policy inertia has therefore become a pressing agenda of its own. The UNOSD Summer School therefore endeavoured to confront this gap by providing the evidence and skills for a more effective and accelerated implementation of sustainability policies through best practices.
Sustainability experts from the Stockholm Environment Institute, the University of Utah, the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), the United Nations University, the Korean Environment Institute, the Korea Research Institute for Human Settlements, as well as from UN-DESA and UNOSD taught the course.
For more information please visit the UNOSD website or its Summer School pages.
