Statistical Yearbook, Fifty-Third Issue

This Yearbook is an annual compilation of a wide range of international economic, social and environmental statistics on over 200 countries and areas, compiled from sources including UN agencies and other international, national and specialized organizations.

The 53rd issue contains data available to DESA’s Statistics Division as of 31 October 2009 and presents them in over 70 tables on topics such as: agriculture, forestry and fishing; balance of payments; communication; development assistance; education; energy; environment; finance; gender; industrial production; international merchandise trade; international tourism; labour force; manufacturing; national accounts; population; science and technology; transport; and wages and prices. The number of years of data shown in the tables varies from one to ten, with most tables covering 1996 to 2008. Accompanying the tables are technical notes providing brief descriptions of major statistical concepts, definitions and classifications.

For more information: http://unstats.un.org/unsd/pubs/gesgrid.asp?id=426

2007 Energy Statistics Yearbook

The 2007 Energy Statistics Yearbook is the fifty-first issue in a series of annual compilations of internationally comparable statistics summarizing world energy trends. Annual data for 224 countries and areas for the period 2004 to 2007 are presented on production, trade and consumption of energy: solids, liquids, gaseous fuels and electricity. In addition, per capita consumption series are also provided for all energy products.

Graphs are included to illustrate historic trends and/or changes in composition of production and/or consumption of major energy products. Special tables of interest include international trade tables for coal, crude petroleum and natural gas by partner countries – providing information on direction of trade, selected series of statistics on renewables and wastes, refinery distillation capacity and a table on selected energy resources.

For more information: http://unstats.un.org/unsd/pubs/gesgrid.asp?id=424

Handbook on Population and Housing Census Editing, Revision 1

The Handbook provides guidance on the measurement of economic characteristics in population censuses, based on relevant experiences of countries, with a particular focus on the questions used and the requirements for processing of responses. The Handbook is intended to provide census planners with a variety of approaches to assess the questions and methods of collecting economic characteristics used in their national census, as they evaluate the performance in the past decade and plan for the 2010 round of censuses (2005–2014). Users of census results may also find the present text useful when evaluating the quality of census results.

For more information: http://unstats.un.org/unsd/pubs/gesgrid.asp?id=427

Monthly Bulletin of Statistics and MBS Online

The Monthly Bulletin of Statistics presents current economic and social statistics for more than 200 countries and territories of the world. It contains over 50 tables of monthly and/or annual and quarterly data on a variety of subjects illustrating important economic trends and developments, including population, prices, employment and earnings, energy, manufacturing, transport, construction, international merchandise trade and finance.

Vol. LXIV – No. 7, July 2010

This month, the following tables, which are featured in the MBS on a quarterly or annual basis, are presented along with the regular recurrent monthly tables: Civil aviation traffic; Total imports and exports by countries or areas; and World exports by provenance and destination.

For more information: http://unstats.un.org/unsd/mbs

Policy Note

Strengthening International Support Measures for the LDCs

This Policy Note, published by the Committee for Development Policy, is now available in electronic format and will be issued as a UN sales publication. The policy note recommends several ways in which the existing support measures for LDCs can be made more effective and, where needed, complemented by additional interventions.

For more information: http://www.un.org/esa/policy/devplan/cdppublications/2010cdpreport.pdf

Policy Brief

Policy Brief No. 31: Fiscal Stimulus is Still Needed for Global Recovery

This Policy Brief, issued by DESA’s Development Policy and Analysis Division, calls for further fiscal stimulus to strengthen the unbalanced and still weak global recovery.

For more information: http://www.un.org/esa/policy/policybriefs/policybrief31.pdf

Discussion papers

Monthly Briefing, No. 22 on the World Economic Situation and Prospects

The Briefing highlights that global output growth is decelerating, as the key drivers of the initial recovery – including fiscal stimuli and inventory restocking – are waning. Meanwhile, world trade is almost back to its 2008 pre-crisis level, thanks to a strong recovery of trade flows from and to developing countries. Further, the Brief warns that six months after the devastating earthquake in Haiti, the humanitarian and economic situation remains extremely alarming.

For more information: http://www.un.org/esa/policy/publications/dpad_wespmbn.html

Working papers

CRED: A New Model of Climate and Development

This paper describes a new model, Climate and Regional Economics of Development (CRED), which is designed to analyze the economics of climate and development choices. Its principal innovations are the treatment of global equity, calculation of the optimum interregional flows of resources, and use of McKinsey marginal abatement cost curves to project the cost of mitigation. The model shows more equitable scenarios have better climate outcomes; the challenge of climate policy is to persuade high-income countries to accept the need for both international equity and climate protection.

For more information: http://www.un.org/esa/desa/papers/2010/wp96_2010.pdf

Meeting records

Report of the Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations

The report of the Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations on its 2010 resumed session (26 May – 4 June and 18 June) is now available. The Committee had before it 253 applications for consultative status, including applications deferred from previous sessions. Of those applications, the Committee recommended 55 for consultative status, suspended its consideration of one organization, deferred 182 for further consideration at its regular session in 2011 and closed its consideration of 15 applications.

For more information: http://www.un.org/esa/coordination/ngo/

International Development Cooperation Report

The report entitled “Responsible Development Cooperation: maximizing impact in a fragmented environment” will be launched on the 22nd of September. The launch is scheduled to be part of the side-event being organized by UNDESA/OESC on “Accountability and transparency to reach the MDGs: Key mechanisms and initiatives”.

The objective of this side event is to present concrete initiatives to promote accountability and transparency in development cooperation within the context of the achievement of the MDGs. The report will place a focus on accountability and transparency and its launch at the MDGs Summit will reinforce the position of the DCF as a key forum for analysis of accountability and transparency in development cooperation.

Websites

UNPAN and DPADM Websites

DESA’s Division for Public Administration and Development Management (DPADM) has been working on the improvement of its divisional portals, UN Public Administration Network (UNPAN) and DPADM, in order to make them more user friendly and consistent with its focus. On the content side, the DPADM website is currently offering one of its products, the Standards of Excellence in Public Administration Education and Training, in five different languages.

Another change that fits both the content and cosmetic sides of the pages is related to UNPAN partners. The institutions that are frequent collaborators receive a banner in a prominent space on the UNPAN homepage, an action that has further stimulated their participation. UNPAN also now provides public administration news, which is updated on a daily basis. In both pages, announcements were standardized, giving the pages a neat and clean look, and the latest photos and videos of the division are now being promoted. Also to facilitate the navigation of the users, the division has inserted a sitemap on the bottom of both UNPAN and DPADM homepages, which lists all the pages in the website.

For more information: http://www.unpan.org/

http://www.unpan.org/DPADM/AboutUs/tabid/420/Default.aspx

GAID Website

The United Nations Global Alliance for ICT and Development (UNGAID) has launched a new design for its official website. The website is currently being launched in English only, with all language versions to follow shortly. The GAID online community has grown significantly to 1591 + members and has grown as one of the largest online community on ICT4D.

For more information: http://un-gaid.ning.com