In 2010, the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe created a new initiative: national Innovation Performance Reviews. Based on the good practices on innovation and competitiveness policies developed through UNECE’s inter-governmental process, these reviews
·    Assess national innovation policies and performance against international good practice
·    Offer recommendations on how to improve policies for better performance based on the assessment
·    Offer capacity-building and advice on policy implementation
Belarus pioneered this initiative. The very first Innovation Performance Review was carried out in Belarus in 2010. Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Armenia and Tajikistan have since followed. Five years and five countries later, the time has come to see what we have learned and where to go from here. The conference will bring together national policy makers and experts from the above countries and other countries of Eastern Europe and Central Asia willing to undertake similar exercises, as well as the international experts who contributed to the above reviews as authors or peer reviewers to:
·    Take stock of the 5 reviews carried out so far and to discuss and compare policy lessons, and challenges and opportunities in policy implementation
·    Discuss the methodology of the reviews and identify improvements where necessary
·    Prepare the ground for second-round reviews assessing progress made since the initial reviews.

For details of conference proceedings and presentations, please click here.