Paris, 03 June 2015 - Aiming to contribute to the work of the United Nations in the area of capacity development in the framework of the sustainable development goals (SDGs), theUnited Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA)’s Division for Social Policy and Development has organized a workshop in Paris (3-4 June), on incorporating economic and environmental perspectives in social policy-making.
The meeting has been organised back-to-back with the meeting of the inter-governmental council ofUNESCO Management of Social Transformation (MOST) and addressed specific capacity gaps like understanding a new sustainable development paradigm that places people in the centre of development, capacity to formulate social policies in the framework of the SDGs, and capacity to begin the process of identifying specific SDGs indicators to monitor sustainable social development policies.
The overall objective of the workshop was to enhance participants’ knowledge and skills to effectively incorporate economic and environmental concerns into social policy-making and national economic and development planning.
Jose Pineda, Green Economy expert from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)’s Economics and Trade branch, discussed the main features of measuring the framework for the Green Economy Progress (GEP) index, and how this could be an opportunity for countries to both be able to monitor progress of their SDGs and to learn how they fare in terms of progress towards achieving a Green Economy.
The workshop included representatives of UNEP, the African Union, the European Union, the ILO, OECD, UNESCO, the International Energy Agency, the International Social Science Council as well as Ministers from Tanzania, Moldova and high-level representatives from Ghana, Malaysia, Mongolia, Norway, South Africa and Thailand, as well as other countries.
