UN DESA’s Office for ECOSOC Support and Coordination (OESC) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), in close cooperation with other UN system partners are organizing an e-discussion on the theme of “Addressing ongoing and emerging challenges for meeting the Millennium Development Goals in 2015 and for sustaining development gains in the future” to be held from 3 February to 16 March.

The purpose of the e-discussion is to engage experts, practitioners and policy-makers from various regions and stakeholder groups in a global dialogue on specific aspects of the theme of the ECOSOC Annual Ministerial Review (AMR) through the mechanism of an electronic discussion. Since 2008, UN DESA has held, in collaboration with UNDP, e-discussions on the respective AMR themes.

With the 2014 theme for the AMR being “Addressing ongoing and emerging challenges for meeting the Millennium Development Goals in 2015 and for sustaining development gains in the future,” the e-discussion on the same theme will provide ECOSOC with constructive inputs and policy recommendations for strengthening efforts towards achieving the internationally agreed development goals, particularly the MDGs by 2015, and for sustaining and continuing development gains in the context of the post-2015 development agenda.

The e-discussion provides a unique opportunity for the broader development community to formulate critical policy messages and an action agenda for the AMR. Contributions made by e-discussion participants will be channeled into various parts of the AMR, particularly the Report of the Secretary-General on the AMR theme, but also through the regional preparatory meetings and the National Voluntary Presentations.

To participate in the e-discussion: E-discussion: Addressing challenges for meeting the MDGs and sustaining development gains.

As UN delegates discuss Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), an exhibit celebrating the multi-faceted connections of forests and people is being opened. Co-organized by the United Nations Forum on Forests Secretariat and the Gabarron Foundation, the exhibition is on view from 5-28 February at the Carriage House of Arts in New York City.

The exhibit features 21 evocative images, finalists from the first UN International Forest Photograph Awards. An opening reception will take place on Wednesday, 5 February from 6:30 pm to 8:00 pm. To attend, please RSVP to forests@un.org and RSVP@gabarron.org by 3 February 2014.

Forests are at the heart of sustainable development and the photographs highlight the many faces of forests – from a portrait of tree planting by Kenyan local communities to scenic vistas in Turkey and Indonesia, and from urban escapes in Ukraine to stunning indigenous beauty in Colombia.

In total, 426 entries from 39 countries competed to win the first-ever International Forest Photograph Award. Young students vied with professional nature photographers to showcase personal and often extraordinary perspectives of their local forests. An international jury of lauded photographers and industry experts announced the top 21 photographs in recognition of the first International Day of Forests on 21 March 2013.

The 6 winning photographs are by Atakan Baykal of Turkey, Eka Fendiaspara of Indonesia, Riccardo Gangale of Italy, Olga Lavrushko of Ukraine, Prasetyo Nurramdhan of Indonesia, and Pablo Pro of Spain. The jury further awarded 9 Honourable Mentions and 6 Special Acknowledgments.

All 21 images can be viewed on the UN Forum on Forests website

For more information regarding the exhibit: The Gabarron Foundation

The 25th Meeting of Inter-agency and Expert Group on MDG Indicators (IAEG-MDGs) will be organised by UN DESA’s Statistics Division on 26-27 February in New York. 

The Meeting will discuss how to prepare the 2014 global MDG monitoring report and related outputs. During the Meeting, the outcome of the informal meeting of the Open Working Group on measuring progress and its implication to the IAEG-MDGs will also be reviewed.

The meeting will be preceded by a half day meeting by the Task Team on Lessons learnt from MDG monitoring and a half day meeting by the sub-group on Use of Administrative Data for Monitoring Development Goals and Targets on 25 February 2014.

For more information:

Events Calendar of UN DESA’s Statistics Division