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.

In June 2017 a workshop will be held in Dhaka, Bangladesh, on the theme of evidence-based and data-informed ICT/e-government policies in support of the SDGs.

Over the past seven decades, Asia and the Pacific has undergone a seismic shift. The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) marks its 70th anniversary this year.

At the 73rd Commission Session of ESCAP countries expressed support for the resolution titled “Implementation of the Asia-Pacific Information Superhighway initiative through regional cooperation”.

On 17 May in New York, USA, the President of the UN General Assembly convened an SDG Action Event on Innovation and Connectivity, which was streamed live.