ESCAP’s Information and Communications Technology and Disaster Risk Reduction Division in cooperation with the Government of Jiangsu Province, China, is organizing a Regional Workshop for Knowledge-hubs in Asia-Pacific, from 8 to 10 September in Nanjing, China. The Workshop is an activity of the ongoing United Nations Development Account Project entitled “Knowledge networks through ICT access points for disadvantaged communities.” The Workshop will assess how knowledge-hubs/tele-centre networks in the Asia-Pacific region can: (i) benefit from information and knowledge sharing and networking; (ii) contribute to e-government, e-business, e-agriculture and other e-applications in relatively under-developed areas; (iii) share good practices and institutional experiences; and (iv) contribute to the understanding of how resources can be mobilized and made sustainable. The workshop will be attended by representatives of the Asia-Pacific Tele-centre Network, government officials responsible for the promotion of tele-centres/knowledge-hubs from around 18 Asian countries, the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat as well as representatives of the international/regional organizations and private sector engaged in the promotion of knowledge-hubs/networks.

As part of the WTO/ESCAP Technical Assistance Programme, a Regional Seminar on Trade in Agriculture and Agriculture Negotiations will be held in collaboration with the Centre for WTO Studies and the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT) in New Delhi, India, from 9 to 11 September. The Seminar will review the most recent proposals in the negotiations on agriculture in the Doha Round and explore the issues related to these negotiations. The Seminar will be attended by about 30 participants from across the region.

As a component of the Joint Programme of the UN Country Team in China on the China Climate Change Partnership Framework (CCPF), the United Nations Asian and Pacific Centre for Agricultural Engineering and Machinery, a subsidiary body of ESCAP, and the Institute of Environment and Sustainable Development in Agriculture of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences are jointly organizing an Expert Group Meeting on 11 September in Beijing. The purpose of the meeting is to review the feasibility studies and methodology guidelines on the application of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) Facility for conservation agriculture and biogas. The meeting will lay the basis for a future international seminar to be held in 2010 that will address technological challenges of CDM application in the agricultural sector and design a strategy to promote its application in countries across the Asia-Pacific region. Target participants will include national and international scholars, relevant CCPF UN agencies and national institutions, and some local and international companies.

Following the recommendations of ESCAP’s Committee on Statistics, ESCAP’s Statistics Division and the World Health Organization are jointly organizing a meeting on the Improvement of Vital Statistics and Vital Registration in Asia and the Pacific, from 15 to 16 September in Bangkok. The meeting will bring together national and international experts in the fields of health, civil registration and official statistics to identify specific country needs for support and share information on existing and planned initiatives. The forum’s main objective is to develop collectively a regional programme for the improvement of vital statistics and vital registration in the Asian and Pacific region. For more information go to: www.unescap.org/stat.

To mark the 15th anniversary of the adoption of the landmark Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), in Cairo, ESCAP and the United Nations Fund for Population (UNFPA) are jointly organizing the Asia-Pacific High-level Forum on ICPD at 15, from 16 to 17 September at the United Nations Conference Centre in Bangkok. The Forum aims to assist countries in the region identify major impediments to the achievements of the ICPD goals and agree on ways to accelerate progress. The High-level Forum is expected to bring together ministers, senior officials and civil society representatives from countries of Asia and the Pacific region. Key topics to be discussed include Ensuring Access to Reproductive Health Services, Renewing Commitment to Family Planning; Creating an Enabling Environment for Gender Equality; and Ageing Populations: Implications for Development. Two of the key leaders of the global movement to expand the coverage and quality of reproductive health care will be keynote speakers at the High-level Forum. They are Dr. Nafis Sadik of Pakistan, who is the former Executive Director of the UNFPA and currently the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for HIV/AIDS in Asia-Pacific, and Dr. Haryono Suyono of Indonesia, who was the chief of his country’s family planning programme for many years and also served as Coordinating Minister for People’s Welfare and Poverty Alleviation.

ESCAP, in collaboration with the Ministry of Mineral Resources and Energy of Mongolia and the Korea Energy Economics Institute (KEEI), will be holding the Fifth Session of the Senior Officials Committee (SOC-5) on Energy Cooperation in North-East Asia in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, from 17 to 18 September. The SOC is the decision-making body of the Intergovernmental Collaborative Mechanism on Energy Cooperation in North-East Asia. The meeting will review the Mechanism’s activities in 2009, including the discussion of the Joint Study on Energy Production Potential and Development Plans in North-East Asian Countries (Major energy supply facilities), the report of the second Government-Business Dialogue (GBD) and the development of a five-year strategy to implement the Collaborative Mechanism. The meeting will also review several management issues including the establishment of a Working Group on Coal and the appraisal of plans for 2010. Government officials and experts from China, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Japan, Mongolia, Republic of Korea and Russian Federation will attend the meeting. The GBD-2, to be held on 15 and 16 September back-to-back with the SOC-5, aims at enhancing collaboration between the government and the business sectors for expansion of energy development and trade within the subregion and identifying regional cooperation measures to facilitate trade and joint-development of energy resources. The theme of this year’s GBD is “Practical Implementation of Development and Trade Cooperation in Coal and Electricity in North-East Asia.” It will be attended by CEOs, business executives, and government officials from the coal, electricity and energy sectors of six countries.