On Wednesday 20 July, the Development Strategy and Policy Analysis Unit organized a side event under the auspices of the High Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development 2016. Under the theme “Climate Change Resilience: An Opportunity for Reducing Inequalities and Ensuring that No One is Left Behind”, the event presented the main messages of the World Economic and Social Survey 2016 (forthcoming) to a well-attended audience composed of representatives from members of NGOs and UN colleagues.

Hamid Rashid and Pingfan Hong took a scoping mission to Beijing on 20-24 June, as part of the DESA capacity development project funded by RPTC on “macroeconomic implications of the Belt and Road Initiative”, in cooperation with the State Information Centre of China. The Executive Secretary of ESCAP also sent Hamza Malik to join the mission.

On 14 June, the Development Policy and Analysis Division (DPAD) organized a panel discussion on the state of the world economy and its implications for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Mr. Pingfan Hong, Director, DPAD moderated the discussion, which included Mr. Axel Bertuch-Samuels, Special Representative of the International Monetary Fund to the United Nations, Mr. Thangavel Palanivel, Senior Strategic Advisor & Chief Economist, UNDP Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific; and Mr. Hamid Rashid, Chief, Global Economic Monitoring (GEM) Unit, DPAD.

DPAD in close collaboration with the Ministry of Planning, other government institutions in Costa Rica, and the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), completed a third training workshop on energy systems modelling, in San José, on 6-10 June 2016. As a result of the cumulative training, a number of government experts now possess the skills to use the Long-Range Energy Alternatives Planning (LEAP) system for policy analysis.

UN/DESA conducted a training workshop in La Paz, Bolivia from 17-20 May to support the elaboration of policy notes through the use of an economy-wide model. A total of 12 government experts, mostly from UDAPE, the Analysis Unit of the Ministry of Development Planning, attended the workshop. The policy notes will report the results of assessing the socio-economic impacts of investments of the National Development Plan (PDES), planned electricity exports, and declining oil prices.

Prof. Nora Lustig, Samuel Z. Stone Professor of Latin American Economics and Director of the Commitment to Equity Institute (CEQI) at Tulane University, conducted a Development Policy Seminar on Taxes, Transfers, Inequality and Poverty in the Developing World today in New York. Her presentation focused on the redistributive impact of fiscal policy in some twenty developing countries. According to Lustig, while fiscal policy practically always reduces inequality, this is not the case with poverty.

Newly-published Technology and Innovation for Sustainable Development provides a variety of insights about the behavioral and policy changes that would need to accompany the technical transformation needed for sustainable development. The book underlines the challenge of improving and adapting existent technology to the specific local needs of countries. It discusses the experience of countries and the policy options confronted by Governments to expedite the adoption of green technology and to facilitate rapid diffusion and knowledge sharing.

In response to a request from the Office of the President of the Kyrgyz Republic, DPAD staffmembers Marco V. Sánchez and Eduardo Zepeda conducted a scoping mission in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan on 27-28 April 2016. They met with a number of Government officials and experts to describe UN/DESA’s approach in strengthening national capacities to use modelling tools for sustainable development policies.

On 12 April, Marco V. Sanchez-Cantillo, Senior Economic Affairs Officer in DPAD, participated as presenter in the webinar series "Beyond SDG Indicators", organized by the Integrated Assessment Society (TIAS) and the International Institute for Sustainable Development. His presentation focused on explaining how DPAD is strengthening national capacities to use modelling tools for sustainable development policies.