The United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA), through its Division for Public Institutions and Digital Government (DPIDG) and its Project Office on Governance (UNPOG), in collaboration with the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN ESCAP), is organising a capacity development webinar to launch the Training Toolkit on Capacities for Digital Government Transformation (the “Toolkit”), which is part of the Curriculum on Governance for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) (the “Curriculum”). The Offices of UN Resident Coordinators in the Asia-Pacific region will be invited to provide advice in contextualising the training material to the national level context.

The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated the interlinkages between digitalization and development. The pandemic catalysed the deployment of innovative digital solutions and digital cooperation for coping with everyday activities and new socio-economic development opportunities. At the same time, the digital divides that the pandemic exacerbated have widened and threatened development inequalities across countries.

ESCAP secretariat is convening the sixth session of the AP-IS Steering Committee on 29 August 2022.

The Working Group on Innovation and Technology for Sustainable Development (WG on ITSD) is a subsidiary body under the UN Special Programme for the Economies of Central Asia (SPECA), comprising senior policymakers, researchers, decision-makers, and implementers from the SPECA countries responsible for developing guidance and finding practical solutions to problems identified by the countries. The WG provides a platform for sharing experiences and discussing issues within the SPECA framework. 

ESCAP, in cooperation with ECE efforts and strategy, seeks to: