Upcoming Events
Quality data are vital for enabling governments, international organizations, civil society, private sector and the general public to make informed decisions and to ensure the accountability of representative bodies. Effective planning, follow-up and review of the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development requires the collection, processing, analysis and dissemination of an unprecedented amount of data and statistics at local, national, regional and global levels and by multiple stakeholders.
The causes and consequences of informal employment and employment in informal sector and their impact on achieving sustainable development continues to gain attention in national development agendas. The evidence in developing and emerging economies shows that on average more than half of the employment in non-agricultural sectors are informal and this rate can reach as high as 80% in some countries. Therefore, every national policy targeting poverty, social protection, or decent work needs to recognise the role of the informal economy in national development. Yet, the lack of data and statistics on the informal economy hinders the capacity of countries to better inform decisions and development policies. This regional training course brings together statisticians and labour analysts from Asia-Pacific national statistical systems to discuss technical aspects and share experiences in the production and use of statistics on informality
This e-Learning course introduces the System of Environmental Economic Accounting -Ecosystem Accounting (SEEA EA), the agreed statistical framework for collecting such information on ecosystems and their relationship to human activity. The SEEA EA provides an integrated statistical framework for organizing biophysical information about ecosystems, measuring ecosystem services, tracking changes in ecosystem extent and condition, and linking this information to measures of economic and human activities. It supports the compilation of indicators for several global policy frameworks including the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the associated SDGs indicators as well as the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. The course is being organized by the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) and the UN Statistical Institute for Asia and the Pacific (UNSIAP), under the overall guidance of the UN Committee of Experts on Environmental Economic Accounting (UNCEEA).
(SDG 3.8.2 and related indicators)
SDG 3.8.2 indicator is focused on relatively large Out-of-Pocket (OOP) health spending which might lead to cutting spending on other basic needs such as education, food, housing and utilities. But, recognizing that for poor and vulnerable people it is the absolute level of OOP health spending that is crucial – even if it represents less than 10% of a household’s total consumption or income (budget) – indicators of impoverishing health spending are also used to track the lack of financial protection in health and demonstrate the interdependency between SDG 1 “End poverty in all its form everywhere” and SDG target 3.8 on “Universal health coverage”. Specifically, these additional indictors include the proportion of the population impoverished or further impoverished by household expenditures on health using different poverty lines. The Subregional Training on Monitoring Financial Protection in Health will explain in detail the rationale to track SDG indicator 3.8.2, why additional indicators are needed and how the monitoring framework can be expanded to support relevant policy discussions. This training will also discuss the data requirements to monitor the lack of financial protection in health.
The Global Network of Institutions for Statistical Training (GIST) is a network of international and regional statistical training institutions, working together to build sustainable statistical capacities through efficient, effective, and harmonized delivery of training. The overall objective of the GIST is to facilitate collaboration among members of the network in the delivery of trainings on statistics in a more harmonized and standardized manner as well as to improve effectiveness of these trainings through maximizing their outreach. One of the GIST task teams, task team 2 on Online gateway and e-learning community of practice is organizing two webinars to focus on approaches and recommendations for effective online trainings and certification of courses. The webinars will provide an opportunity for practitioners to discuss these two issues
CPIs measure changes over time in the general level of prices of goods and services that households acquire (use or pay for) for the purpose of consumption. In many countries, they were originally introduced to provide a measure of the changes in the living costs faced by workers, so that wage increases could be related to changing levels of prices. However, over the years, CPIs have widened their scope and now are widely used as a macroeconomic indicator of inflation, as a tool by governments and central banks for monetary policy and for monitoring price stability, and as deflators in the national accounts. With the globalization of trade and production and the liberalization of the markets, national governments, central banks, and international organizations place great importance on the quality and accuracy of national CPIs, and their international comparability.
News
Disasters continue to have an ever-increasing impact on life, well-being and sustainable development. Given these impacts, there is a high demand at the local, national and international levels for high quality, integrated statistics to inform all phases of the disaster risk management cycle. Furthermore, disaster related statistics are not only relevant to those working to prepare and respond to disasters but also to the public at large, research institutions and policy analysts at the local and national levels. In response to the increased demands for disaster related statistics, the disaster management and official statistics communities in Asia-Pacific have developed the Disaster-related Statistics Framework (DRSF).
Historically business statistics have focused very much in measuring the economic performance and competitiveness of businesses. However, businesses play a very important role toward sustainability and wellbeing. Task team on well-being and sustainability under the UN Committee of Experts on Business and Trade Statistics (UN CEBTS) identified a set of 17 reference indicators related to the measurement of the business sector’s impact on well-being and sustainability. These indicators were based on the review of the indicators of the Sustainable Development Goal indicators of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the core indicators for entity reporting on contribution towards implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals in order to provide a bridge between the information available at business level with business statistics and ultimately with relevant SDG indicators. This webinar series will focus on the set of indicators related to wellbeing and sustainability and is organized to (1) provide an overview of the importance of measuring impact of businesses on wellbeing and sustainability; (2) review data sources including, for example non-financial reporting; and (3) share country experiences on challenges and opportunities in the compilation of these indicators.
Environment is one of the three pillars of the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Compiling the environment related indicators is key to informing policies and measuring progress towards achieving the SDGs. This course focuses on the 25 SDG indicators that are under the custodianship of UNEP. In the 10 modules of the course, participants will learn about the importance of monitoring the environmental dimension of development, the linkages of indicators with existing statistical frameworks, and how to use environment statistics in decision making. They will also learn about indicators informing specific topics including sustainable consumption and production, waste and oceans. Target participants are officials in national statistical offices, line ministries (especially ministries of environment) and other institutions who are working on the SDGs and environment related issues. The course can also be useful to a wider audience who is interested in learning more about environmental SDG indicators.
This course in Thai language aims to build national capacities for the compilation of disaster related statistics for enhancing disaster management and promote the risk-informed sustainable development in Thailand. The course also aims to facilitate national monitoring and reporting on the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. It introduces concepts relevant to compiling disaster related statistics. The course consists of online modules and online discussion forums. The online modules provide an overview of several topics including measuring disaster risk, measuring economic losses and disaster-risk reduction expenditures. Online discussion forums will provide a venue allow participants to interact with each other and ask questions. For further details on the course, please refer to the attached guidelines for participants.