What does empowerment mean to you? The Division for Social Policy and Development of DESA (DSPD/DESA) has launched an online survey from 8 August to 5 September and wants to hear from you

Take the survey now and make sure that your recommendations are heard by the Commission for Social Development (CSocD).

Empowerment is not new to the United Nations. But what does empowerment mean? There is a growing consensus that it involves two things: active participation and the institutional structure that makes this happen. But when we say active participation, we mean something very specific. People who are not free to participate in their economies and do not receive equal benefits nor control their own destinies. What we mean by empowerment is participation of people in decision-making, about their futures, their current conditions and the environment in which they live.

Because of its importance, the Commission for Social Development (CSocD) has selected promoting empowerment of people in achieving poverty eradication, social integration and full employment and decent work for all as its priority theme for 2013-2014.

To promote and support this theme, DSPD/DESA has launched an online survey until 5 September 2012 for you to make recommendations to the work of the 51st session of the Commission for Social Development (CSocD).

TAKE PART IN THE SURVEY NOW!
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/empowering-people

More details on the survey, an upcoming expert group meeting and related online events on empowerment are also highlighted in the DESA News story Empowering people to advance development

For more information: http://bit.ly/EmpoweringPeople

A high-level expert group meeting on “Promoting people’s empowerment in achieving poverty eradication, social integration and full employment and decent work for all” will be arranged in New York on 10-12 September

Organized by DESA’s Division for Social Policy and Development (DSPD), the meeting is part of the preparations for the 51st session of the Commission for Social Development, scheduled to take place in New York in February 2013.

The meeting is convened in the context of draft Resolution 1 in the Report of the Commission for Social Development in which the Economic and Social Council decided that the priority theme for the 2013-2014 review and policy cycle should be “Promoting empowerment of people in achieving poverty eradication, social integration and full employment and decent work for all”.

The outcomes of the meeting will provide important inputs to the work of the Commission, in particular contributing to the formulation of policies that have been shown to have a major impact on efforts to promote people’s empowerment.

More details on this meeting and related online events are also highlighted in the DESA News story Empowering people to advance development

For more information: http://bit.ly/EmpoweringPeople

On 26 July, DESA’s Division for Public Administration and Development Management (DPADM) hosted an in-house seminar on Open Government Data (OGD)

Andrew Nicklin and Girish Chhugani from New York City’s Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications in charge of the NYC Open Data portal, presented how open datasets are used in the city and the benefits of open data competitions for residents. They also gave an indication of some future projects about open data in the city. 

NYC Open Data Portal collects public data generated by New York City agencies and makes it available for public use. Most recently, at the 2012 UN Public Service Awards, Open data was cited as having contributed to NYC311, the City of New York’s customer service, which was awarded the first place in Category 2: “Improving the Delivery of Public Services”.

For more information:
DESA’s Division for Public Administration and Development Management (DPADM)

The 2012 UN Public Service Awards

The Annual Conference of the International Association of Schools and Institutes of Administration (IASIA) took place in Bangkok, Thailand on 16-21 July

As part of an agreed program and outputs of its work, DESA and IASIA joined the International Task Force on “Strengthening public administration at local level for the achievement of the development agendas” and agreed to carry out regional research on the status of public administration in local governments.

The report on the research will initially be presented and discussed during the Commonwealth Local Governments Forum in Kampala, Uganda, in 2013 and thereafter in June 2013, at the IASIA conference in Bahrain. In Bahrain, the task force will further discuss and consolidate the report, also including input from the Kampala meeting.

This was agreed after the task force met during the annual conference of the IASIA in Bangkok.

For more information:
DESA’s Division for Public Administration and Development Management