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What’s
Ahead @ ESCAP |
| www.unescap.org |
February
2007 |
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Executive
Secretary to give keynote address at Asian crisis +10 conference
UNESCAP
Executive Secretary Kim Hak-Su will give a luncheon keynote
address at an international conference on ‘Ten Years
After the Asian Financial Crisis: Vulnerabilities of East Asia’
to be held in Bangkok from 26-27 February. Jointly organized
by the Center for International Commerce and Finance of Seoul National
University, the Institute of Development Studies of the University
of Sussex, and the Thailand Development Research Institute, the conference
aims to provide a better understanding of the dynamics of financial
crises and evaluate the remaining and new sources of vulnerability.
In a recent socio-economic policy brief, The
Calm Before the Storm? Managing the Risks of an Asia-Pacific Financial
Downturn, UNESCAP advised countries in
the region to reduce their exposure to the impact of a sudden or unexpected
market downturn, and urged a mood of protection and preparation rather
than the celebratory atmosphere of today’s prosperity. |
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 Housing
the urban poor focus of study visit and workshop in Bangkok and Karachi
As
part of a regional UNESCAP project on housing
the urban poor, participants from Nepal, Mongolia and Cambodia
will travel to Bangkok, Thailand (7-11 February) and Karachi, Pakistan
(12-15 February) to learn of innovative approaches to low-income housing
in these two cities. The study-visit-cum workshop, organized by UNESCAP’s
Poverty Reduction Section and the Asian Coalition for Housing
Rights, aims to increase the capacity of policy makers and operational
officials to initiate more effective housing programmes for the urban
poor. The effort is part of an ongoing UNESCAP initiative to increase
the capacity of local governments to address issues of slums and squatter
settlements in countries where urbanization and growth of such settlements
is a relatively new phenomenon. Cambodia, Mongolia, Nepal, Timor Leste
are participating in the project. |
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Republic of Korea businesses to learn about the ‘carbon market,’
reduce GHG emissions
Some 30 management decision makers from companies with significant
potential to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and local municipal
authorities in the Republic of Korea will join representatives of
government agencies and research institutions in Seoul on 23 February
to discuss the carbon market and private sector participation. Co-organized
by UNESCAP’s
Environment and Sustainable Development Division and the Korea
Business Council for Sustainable Development, the workshop aims to
provide practical information on the future of the carbon market and
potential business strategies for developing CDM projects. The Clean
Development Mechanism (CDM) is designed to make it easier
and cheaper for industrialised countries to meet the greenhouse gas
emission reduction targets agreed to under the Kyoto
Protocol. |
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UNESCAP
assists Members to develop bond markets
From
14-15 February in Bangkok UNESCAP’s
Poverty and Development Division will bring together policy
makers from the region’s central banks, Ministries of Finance
and Treasury Departments, as well as representatives of public and
private institutions, to learn effective ways to develop bond markets,
and hear the experiences of UNESCAP members with advanced financial
sectors. The workshop is part of a project on ‘Capacity Building
for Development of Bond Markets in ESCAP Member States,’ which
has its genesis in a policy debate on Monterrey
Consensus on Financing for Development that took place during
the 61st session of the Commission in 2005. During the debate Members
requested UNESCAP to provide technical assistance for development
of bond markets as a resource mobilization strategy. According
to UNESCAP, the establishment of a sound financial system, especially
a well developed bond market which could mobilize resources efficiently
and provide low cost capital, is a pre-requisite for sustained economic
development. |
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 Experts
to promote greater socio-economic participation of persons with disabilities
An
‘Expert
Group Meeting on the Promotion of Social and Economic Participation
of Persons with Disabilities towards the Biwako Plus Five’
is scheduled for 27-28 February at the UN
Conference Centre in Bangkok. At the meeting, experts will
review the achievements made in implementing the Biwako
Millennium Framework, assess global and regional developments
that have taken place over the past five years, and identify key issues.
The meeting is taking place in preparation of a mid-point review of
the Asian
and Pacific Decade of Disabled Persons, 2003-2012 to be held
in September, at which time Biwako Plus Five will be adopted. A regional
policy guideline for the Decade, Biwako promotes the paradigm shift
from a charity-based approach to a rights-based approach on disability.
It contains seven priority areas for action, 21 time-bound targets
to be achieved and 17 strategies to be utilized by 2012. UNESCAP’s
Emerging Social Issues Division is organizing the meeting. |
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 MDG
Media Awards extend deadline for submissions to 15 April
The
deadline for the submission of entries to the 1st
Asia-Pacific MDG Media Awards, which honour outstanding reporting/writing
on the UN Millennium Development
Goals (MDGs) in print, radio and TV has been extended to 15 April.
The deadline was extended due to requests from media networks to give
practitioners and producers more time to submit their entries. The
competition, a project of UNESCAP, UNDP
and the Asian Development Bank, is
open to all print, radio and TV producers/journalists from public
service broadcasting organizations, private networks and free-lance
producers covering the region. The Awards carry a prize of US$7,000
for first prize winners in each category, and a US$2,000 prize for
runners up. The Awards aim to generate better awareness and understanding
of the MDGs, and motivate journalists from the region to cover stories
on how MDGs are being pursued in the region. |
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Special
Observances and Meetings |
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| The views expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the official views or policies of the United Nations. The information contained herein may be freely reproduced. What’s Ahead @ ESCAP is published monthly by the United Nations Information Services Bangkok. Tel: +(66-2) 288-1861-66 • Fax: +(66-2) 288-1052 • E-mail: unisbkk.unescap@un.org | |||