In light of ESCAP’s work to strengthen the capacity of national statistical offices in collecting data on disability, the Statistics Division is co-organizing several in-country trainings prior to the pilot testing of the Washington Group/ESCAP extended question set on disability for surveys. These in-country workshops, which are part of the UN Development Account project ‘Improvement of Disability Measurement and Statistics in Support of the Biwako Millennium Framework and Regional Census Programme’, have already taken place in Maldives, Mongolia and Sri Lanka, and will be conducted in August in Cambodia (3 to 7 August), in the Philippines (10 to 14 August) and in Kazakhstan (31 August to 4 September). The development of international standards to measure disability should prove another step forward in the ongoing fight to improve the quality of life of persons with disabilities and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. For more information visit www.unescap.org/stat/disability.

On 5 August, ESCAP together with the Ministry of Housing in Indonesia, and in partnership with the National Housing Bank of India (NHB) and the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT) is organizing a one-day workshop on Pro-poor Housing Finance in Indonesia. The workshop aims to bring together housing finance experts from formal and informal institutions, government representatives, community-based organizations and research institutions to discuss critical and emerging issues in providing access to housing finance for the poor in Indonesia. The workshop is part of a regional ESCAP-initiative on pro-poor housing finance that aims to promote regional networking, bring together formal and informal lending institutions, and identify, replicate and upscale innovative approaches to provide housing finance to the poor in Asia and the Pacific.

ESCAP’s Trade and Investment Division will host the Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP) Seventeenth Short Course in Global Trade Analysis from 8 to 14 August in Bangkok. GTAP is a global network of researchers and policy makers conducting quantitative analysis of international policy issues to improve the quality of analysis of global economic issues within an economy-wide framework. The Short Course is entitled “Introduction to Applied General Equilibrium Analysis in a Multi-Region Framework” and consists of a mix of daily lectures, lab assignments, and informal discussions designed to introduce participants to the basic features of the model and data base. The Asia-Pacific Research and Training Network on Trade (ARTNeT), for which ESCAP’s Trade and Investment Division serves as Secretariat, is hosting the Short Course in partnership with the Center for Global Trade Analysis at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, USA.

The United Nations Asian and Pacific Training Centre for Information and Communication Technology for Development (APCICT) will be organizing a session on the effective use of information and communication technology (ICT) for disaster risk reduction at the International Conference on Building a Local Government Alliance for Disaster Risk Reduction. The conference, jointly organized by the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UN/ISDR) and the Incheon Metropolitan City of the Republic of Korea, will be held from 11 to 13 August 2009 in Incheon, Republic of Korea. The session will focus on ICT policy changes required for building disaster resilience, and the implementation challenges in ‘less connected’ societies. It will also examine ways in which different players can use ICTs to enhance their disaster management efforts, and to forge partnerships at different levels (local, national, regional) and among different sectors to tackle the growing disaster risks. Moreover, results of a training needs analysis, conducted in July 2009 at Using ICT for Effective Disaster Management Pacific Forum co-organized by APCICT, will be presented at this session to include a Pacific voice.

ESCAP in collaboration with the Korea Institute of Construction Technology (KICT) and the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), will organize the “Second Regional Workshop on Eco-efficient Water Infrastructure Development in Asia and the Pacific” in Inchon City, Republic of Korea from 19 to 21 August 2009. The Second Workshop will provide opportunities for policy makers and international and national experts to review progress of work and achievements in the participating countries as well as in strengthening partnership in the promotion of eco-efficient water infrastructure development. The workshop also aims to identify other priority areas of action and to mobilize supplementary resources to support ongoing efforts of the participating countries, including opportunities for South-South cooperation. The detail information and related documents presented at the First Regional Workshop and the documents and relevant forms for 2nd Regional Workshop can be downloaded from <www.unescap.org/esd/water/projects/eewi> or <www.ecowaterinfra.org>.

ESCAP in collaboration with Asian Development Bank (ADB) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is organizing an Expert Group Meeting on “Achieving the health-related Millennium Development Goals in South Asia” from 20 to 21 August 2009 in Bangkok, Thailand. Key objectives of the Meeting include: (1) Examining the progress towards the health-related MDGs in the ‘on track’ and ‘off track’ countries in South Asia, (2) Identifying the impediments to the health-related MDGs achievements, especially in relation to sanitation and environment MDGs, including the implication of current global financial crisis and (3) Producing concrete, action-oriented recommendations and measures, including financing issues. The outcome of the EGM will feed into the South-Asia Sub-regional MDG Workshop, to be held in Kathmandu in early November 2009 as part of the ESCAP-ADB-UNDP Regional Partnership on Achieving MDGs in Asia and the Pacific (Phase III).