On 28 January 2013 in San José, members of Costa Rica's technical national team participating in capacity development activities presented policy notes to government officials of that country. The notes present assessments of policy issues of national relevance and are the result of the activities led by DESA/DPAD, UNDP and the Ministry of Planning and Economic Policy of Costa Rica. The notes will be released as part of a single official policy bulletin of the Government in the coming weeks.

On 15-18 January 2013 in Quito, DPAD and UNDP-Ecuador provided practical training for government experts in the use of modelling tools needed for development policy analysis and methods for assessing human development strategies aimed at achieving the Millennium Development Goals. The workshop was followed by technical meetings to identify ongoing data requirements and to address methodological issues.

The Global Economic Monitoring (GEM) Unit of the Development Policy and Analysis Division held a Brown Bag lunch discussion today to share the major findings and policy recommendations presented in the recently publishedWorld Economic Situation and Prospects 2013. The panel was led by Pingfan Hong, Chief of GEM unit, and included Economic Affairs Officers Grigor Agabekian, Clive Altshuler, Hung-yi Li, Ingo Pitterle and John Winkel. Ms.

The World Economic Situation and Prospects2013 (WESP) is being launched today in cities across the globe: Addis Ababa, Bangkok, Beirut, Geneva, Mexico City, New Delhi; and on January 22nd in Moscow. The definitive report of the United Nations on the state of the world economy, the WESP is a joint publication of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the five UN Regional Commissions.

On 15 January, 2013 in San José, DESA/DPAD representative Marco V. Sanchez-Cantillo briefed the President of Costa Rica, Her Excellency Ms. Laura Chinchilla, and the Council of Ministers of the Government of Costa Rica on the implementation of the capacity development activities and on the main findings of the UN-DESA assessment of strategies to achieve the MDGs in Costa Rica.

In the continuous effort to develop capacities of the government experts of Honduras, DPAD has provided an expertise in building a Social Accounting Matrix to the expert team from the Central Bank of Honduras as part of the project "Strengthening Macroeconomic and Social Policy Coherence through Integrated Macro-Micro Modelling".

On 28 November 2012, DPAD, MIDEPLAN and UNDP Costa Rica held working meetings and training sessions with the Government representatives of Costa Rica to discuss the progress of the capacity development activities and support the on-going work on simulation analysis.

On 10-12 December 2012 in Tegucigalpa, DPAD and UNDP-Honduras provided practical training for government experts on the use of statistical tools needed to estimate the impact of socio-economic and policy factors on Millennium Development Goals. DPAD also met with Honduran technical experts to coordinate future work.

Join the Assistant Secretary-General for Economic Development Shamshad Akhtar and DPAD Director Rob Vos as they launch the Global Economic Outlook, Chapter 1 of theWorld Economic Situation and Prospects 2013, on Tuesday, 18 December at the DHL Auditorium at 11.00 am.