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Ending poverty is at the heart of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. And as with all the goals and targets, decision-makers depend on accurate statistics on poverty to know how we are doing, how far we still have to go, whether policies are working, and how countries and groups compare…
Every 3 seconds someone develops dementia. The number of people with dementia worldwide is around 50 million, and due to population ageing it is expected to triple by 2050. Although dementia – which is not part of the normal ageing process – affects mainly older people, it also has a significant…
Sustainably managing raw materials, especially the critical raw materials needed for batteries, is of strategic importance for the European Union. As the energy system moves more strongly to embrace intermittent energy sources and to deploy e-mobility and “smart everything”, the role of chemical…
By enhancing transparency and accountability, Pollutant Release and Transfer Registers (PRTRs) can play a central role in promoting peaceful and inclusive societies and good governance (Sustainable Development Goal 16) across the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. PRTRs can also make an…
Countries in Eastern and South-East Europe need to develop viable solutions and goals for forest landscape restoration, as well as learn how to tap into the necessary financing. These topics were discussed during the workshop “Forest Landscape Restoration and the Bonn Challenge in Eastern and…
The world is urbanizing fast. Already today, half the population is living in cities. By 2050, that proportion is projected to rise to over two thirds. Cities are economic powerhouses, accounting for 80 percent of world GDP. They also have large ecological footprints, accounting for 60-80 percent…
The exchange of data and information on water resources in shared basins – which are home to over 40 per cent of the world’s population – is crucial for effective cooperation between countries in this critical area for sustainable development.Over 70 countries from Latin America, the Pan-…
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development has the principle of ‘leaving no-one behind’ at its core. Efforts to improve social, economic and environmental conditions should focus first on those most in need. This calls, of course, for data and statistics to be disaggregated along many…
Romania has requested UNECE to review its environmental performance for a third time. To provide the groundwork for the review, a team of UNECE and international experts will participate in a mission to the country from 3 to 11 December 2019.UNECE Environmental Performance Reviews (EPRs) offer a…
By aligning with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) spearheaded by the government of China has the potential to enhance connectivity as a catalyst for trade and development from Asia to Europe, stretching down to Africa. To make the most of…
The extractive industries in oil, gas, and coal mining are traditionally male-dominated sectors. As observed in the report Promoting Gender Diversity and Inclusion in the Oil, Gas and Mining Extractive Industries that was developed this year by the Advocates for Human Rights at the request of…
Transboundary water resources constitute nearly 80% of Africa’s freshwater resources. In this context, increased regional cooperation and joint planning, development and management of water investments and infrastructure are essential to meet targets for agricultural and industrial development,…
With a view to possible accession of Uganda to the Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes (Water Convention), a national meeting was organized on 15 November in collaboration with the Ugandan Ministry of Water and Environment to increase…
Buildings are a major emitter of CO2 and a major energy consumer. Radical changes to the design and construction of buildings, to retrofitting of existing building stock, and to the way energy is supplied and used in buildings are critically important if UNECE member States wish to meet their…
UNECE’s Recommendations for Measuring Intra-household Power and Decision-making, soon to be opened for consultation among all the member countries of the UNECE-led Conference of European Statisticians, are already impacting the way statistics on gender equality are produced in Colombia.At a…
Quality infrastructure, while often taken for granted, is the foundation of our modern life. It is a complex system of norms, regulations, and institutions that are designed to ensure that when we buy something – as businesses or consumers – we get exactly what we expect. Without it, we would…
In Paraguay, road accidents are the leading cause of death in adolescents and young people aged 15 to 29 – a situation that has got worse over the last five years, according to WHO. The country also leads the list of deaths due to road accidents of motorcycle drivers and their companions in…
Cameroon shares most of its water resources - such as Lake Chad, the Congo, Sanaga and Niger rivers - with other states. Cooperation on these shared waters is therefore essential to ensure economic development and preserve regional stability.As a result, Cameroon is also a heavily involved in…
Uzbekistan is making significant efforts on key environmental issues, including tackling the consequences of the Aral Sea disaster and reforming policies on municipal waste management, biodiversity conservation and green economy. However, the country must step up measures to improve water…
The economies of Central Asia rely heavily on activities that produce, process or use large quantities of hazardous substances. The mining waste generated by activities such as the extraction and processing of minerals and metals including mercury and uranium cannot be released into the…
The nations of Central Asia – Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan – together with Afghanistan and Azerbaijan, are undergoing significant transformations as they advance in their implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. However, these countries…
The potential of ‘Big Data’ to enable faster, cheaper production of official statistics has for years been a hot topic among statistical offices.UNECE has been at the forefront in guiding countries through the many challenges—data quality, processing techniques, analytical capacity, access and…
In the garment and footwear industry, worth 2.4 trillion USD, brands are increasingly confronted with the rise of the “conscious consumer”, who questions the environmental footprint of clothes and the social conditions in garment factories and calls for greater transparency and sustainability.…
Four thousand kilometers away from the UNECE headquarters in Geneva used to lie the Aral Sea. It was the fourth biggest lake in the world, in fact the lake was bigger than Switzerland. But if we travelled there today, we would only find a desert as the lake has dried out. The Caucasus and…
You want to order online but hate the non-recyclable packaging material used in e-commerce in addition to cardboard? You are a restaurant owner and want to cut down on the dozens of Styrofoam boxes that your fish is delivered in every day? You are thinking of building a house but worry about the…