UN-DESA • UNDP • UN-ESCAP

Inception & Training Workshop
United Nations Conference Centre, ESCAP
Bangkok, 20–22 August 2008

To initiate the application of the project "Realizing the MDGs through Socially Inclusive Macroeconomic Policies" in Asian region with a first-tier group of 5 countries (i.e., Indonesia, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan) and with other countries of the region as observers, the inception and first training workshop was organized on 20-22 August, 2008 in Bangkok. This first workshop was organized by the Development Policy and Analysis Division of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN-DESA/DPAD), the UNDP Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific (UNDP/RBAP) and the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN-ESCAP) in close collaboration with the UNDP Regional Centre in Colombo (RCC).

The main objectives of the workshop were to:

• introduce the project's objectives and methodology;
• familiarize participants with the intended outcomes of the project and their potential uses, in terms of country-study results, policymaking, and sustainability of capacity-building;
• provide country teams with an initial training in the project's methodology;
• identify prerequisites for the successful implementation of the project, particularly regarding country-team organization and data availability and compilation;
• identify needs for tailoring the methodology to country-specific conditions, and define the milestones and timeframe of the project.