On 7 January, eight ASEAN students from Cambodia, Lao PDR and Viet Nam will join APCICT for two months as part of the Centre’s ‘Turning Today’s Youth into Tomorrow’s Leaders’ programme. The programme is designed to strengthen the ICT for development capacity of youth throughout the Asia-Pacific region. APCICT will host the students in partnership with Daejeon University, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade of the Republic of Korea, and the ASEAN University Network. The students will be provided with work experience designed to enhance awareness of the application of ICT for development (ICTD). APCICT has welcomed 31 ASEAN exchange students since 2008.

On 9 January, APCICT will launch the Academy Monitoring & Evaluation Toolkit through its online distance learning platform. The M&E Toolkit is designed to help APCICT’s partners of the “Academy of ICT Essentials for Governments Leaders Programme” (Academy) better capture the progress and impact of the programme in different national contexts. The Academy equips government officials and development practitioners with the skills and knowledge to leverage ICT for socio-economic development. The M&E Toolkit will be launched through the APCICT Virtual Academy.

In late January, APCICT will organize an Expert Group Meeting for the development of new training content. The meeting will welcome regional ICT experts to discuss and plan the development of the upcoming Academy module on Social Media and a new issue on Government Chief Information Officer training for the APCICT Knowledge Sharing Series.

SRO-ENEA and UNDP Seoul Policy Center, together with the Korea Network of the UN Global Compact, and Korea University Graduate School of International Studies (GSIS) will host a three-day series of debates and consultations on North-East Asian youth perspectives on the post-2015 global development agenda. Participants will be made up of youths with a range of diverse backgrounds from China, Japan, Mongolia and the Republic of Korea. Diverse backgrounds include graduate students, youths with disabilities, youth of ethnic minorities, youths from migrant or refugee backgrounds, rural youths, sexual minority youths and youths from single parent households. The outcome document "youth declaration" will be presented to senior governmental officials at the end of the three days and subsequently submitted to the Secretary-General's High Level Panel on Post-2015 global development agenda. http://northeast-sro.unescap.org/meeting/2012/nea_youth.html

The Statistical Institute for Asia and the Pacific (SIAP), in collaboration with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), will conduct the Third Group Training Course in Analysis, Interpretation and Use of Official Statistics (Economic Statistics), during the period 21 January to 22 March 2013 in Chiba, Japan. The course is designed for middle level statisticians/ government officials engaged in data collection, analysis, compilation and dissemination of information relating to economic statistics, including MDGs. The objective of the course is to enhance skills and knowledge of participants in statistical analysis and interpretation as well as in effective dissemination of official statistics. In total 20 participants from 14 countries, including Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Iraq, Kosovo, Lao P.D.R., Mozambique, Myanmar, Philippines, Senegal, Swaziland, Tajikistan, Tonga and Vet Nam, will receive the SIAP training in Japan.

The Asia-Pacific Regional Preparatory Meeting for the 57th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) will be held from 5 to 6 February 2013 at the United Nations Conference Centre in Bangkok. The objective of the Meeting is to provide a forum for member States participating in the 57th session of Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) to identify common concerns and ways forward in accelerating the progress on the elimination and prevention of all forms of violence against women and girls, which is the priority theme of the 57th session of CSW. Violence against women and girls is one of the most pervasive human rights violations in the world. In Asia and the Pacific, violence affects women and girls in every country, regardless of culture and context, with serious health, economic and social consequences for themselves, their families and societies. The Regional Preparatory Meeting will bring together senior-level representatives directly involved in the formulation and implementation of national policies on gender equality and empowerment of women, from the following 12 governments in Asia-Pacific: Bangladesh, China, Georgia, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, Malaysia, Mongolia, Philippines, Republic of Korea, Russian Federation and Thailand. The Regional Preparatory Meeting is being jointly organized by ESCAP and UN Women, as co-chairs of the Regional Coordination Mechanism Thematic Working Group on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment.

The Centre for Alleviation of Poverty through Sustainable Agriculture (CAPSA) will host two meetings of the Network for Knowledge Transfer on Sustainable Agricultural Technologies and Improved Market Linkages in South and South-East Asia (SATNET Asia) in February 2013. The Project Steering Committee Meeting that will take place on 11 February 2013 will bring together SATNET partners responsible for the implementation of the project work packages to review the progress of activities. On 12 February 2013, the Second Network Meeting of SATNET Asia will take place and bring together SATNET’s primary stakeholders from South and South-East Asia to discuss the progress of activities, clarify project issues, agree on next year’s activities and strengthen ties among network participants. Both meetings will take place in CAPSA office in Bogor, Indonesia.

The Centre for Alleviation of Poverty through Sustainable Agriculture (CAPSA) will hold the 9th Session of its Governing Council from 14 to15 February 2013 in Bogor, Indonesia. During the annual session the Governing Council will review the administrative and financial status of CAPSA, the implementation of CAPSA’s 2012 work programme and the 2013 work programme. The current members of Governing Council of CAPSA include Indonesia (host country), Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Fiji, Malaysia, Mongolia, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Sri Lanka and Thailand.