ESCAP and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) will convene the Forty-third Annual Session of the Typhoon Committee in Jeju Island, Republic of Korea, from 17 to 22 January. The Committee will be hosted by the Korea Meteorological Administration. The oldest intergovernmental body addressing typhoon-related disaster risk reduction issues in the region, the Typhoon Committee works under ESCAP and WMO coordination to promote regional collaboration in advanced early warning systems and other disaster risk reduction approaches to reduce damage from typhoons. The Annual Session will review progress in the Committee’s work programme and determine activities to be undertaken in 2011 and beyond. Session participants include governmental delegates from meteorological, hydrological, and disaster reduction institutes from 14 member countries as well as experts from academic and international organizations.

In cooperation with the UN-Water Secretariat, ESCAP will host the 14th Meeting of UN-Water Senior Programme Managers (SPMs) from 18 to 20 January at the United Nations Conference Centre in Bangkok. The UN-Water SPMs represent UN-Water members and constitute the highest UN-Water decision-making body to provide overall governance and strategic direction to UN-Water. The 14th SPMs Meeting is to agree upon the UN-Water Work Programme and Indicative Budget for the forthcoming two years. The current UN-Water work programme includes establishment of an ESCAP-headed Task Force on Regional-Level Coordination to strengthen the regional component of UN-Water. The Energy Security and Water Resources Section of the Environment and Development Division represents ESCAP in UN-Water. The 14th SPMs Meeting will be preceded by a meeting of the UN-Water Joint Steering Group (JSG) in the afternoon of 17 January to prepare the SPMs to support efficient implementation of the UN-Water Work Programme and oversee budget allocations. In preparation for the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD) in 2012 (Rio+20), the SPMs will hold a Special Meeting on 20 January as part of the 14th UN-Water Meeting for UN-Water Members, Partners and Stakeholders to discuss possible synergy of efforts.

A Workshop-cum-Expert Group Meeting (EGM) on Institutional Strengthening of National Women’s Machineries in South and South-West Asia will be organized jointly by ESCAP and the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-Women) South Asia Sub-Regional Office at the United Nations Conference Centre, Bangkok from 18 to 21 January. Resource persons from ADB, UNDP, ENERGIA and Partners for Prevention will offer valuable technical expertise to the Expert Group Meeting. Senior officials from national women’s machineries from eight South and South-West Asian countries are expected to attend the Meeting which aims to enhance institutional capacities to address strategic issues, and effectively advocate and negotiate gender mainstreaming across all areas of national policy, budgets and programmes. The Workshop will harness the considerable experience of the senior officials to identify priorities for follow-up action at national and sub-regional levels in South and South-West Asia. For more information, please visit www.unescap.org/sdd.

With the number of older persons in the region expected to triple by 2050 from 415 million to 1.25 billion, ESCAP is organizing a Regional Meeting to Identify Good Practices, Policy Gaps and Priority Areas for Action in Ensuring Quality Health and long-term Care Services for Elderly Persons in the Asia-Pacific region. The Regional Forum on Elderly Care Services in Asia and the Pacific will take place from 21 to 22 January at the Purple Palace Hotel in Nanjing, China. The local host for the Forum is Zhongshan College. Experts on population ageing and elderly care services from governments, research institutions and civil society organizations, as well as relevant international organizations, will attend the Forum. Participants will share experiences and good practices in relation to the provision of elderly care services and support, with particular attention to the situation of older women. The outcome of the Forum will feed into the Asia-Pacific regional review process of the implementation the Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing (MIPAA). For more information, please visit www.unescap.org/sdd.

ESCAP will organize an Expert Group Meeting on Progress Made by the Landlocked Developing Countries (LLDCs) in implementing the Almaty Programme of Action. The key objective of the Meeting, to be held on 25 January at the UN Conference Centre, Bangkok, Thailand is to review progress in implementation of the Almaty Programme of Action and provide inputs for the High-level Asia Policy Dialogue on LLDCs to be held in April in Mongolia. A total of 15 participants, including six experts from LLDCs (Bhutan, Cambodia, Kazakhstan, Lao PDR, Mongolia and Nepal) are expected to attend the meeting. The 2003 Almaty Programme of Action aims to address the special needs of the LLDCs through (i) establishing a new global framework for developing efficient transit transport systems in landlocked and transit developing countries taking into account the interests of both landlocked and transit developing countries; and (ii) promoting trade for development.