Prime Minister of Thailand to preside over Art for All camp opening ceremony
Over 400 children and youth from across Thailand, including many with disabilities, art teachers and volunteers, will converge in the United Nations Conference Centre tomorrow Friday, 23 July for the opening ceremony of the annual Art for All Camp. [22 July 2010]

Nobel Laureate Urges Making Peace Part of the Development Agenda
Peace must be part of the development agenda, according to Nobel laureate Amartya Sen, not only because it is valuable in itself, but also because of its critical role in promoting human development. "Peace helps indirectly to enhance development through making governments more stable and functional, and through facilitating industrialization, the expansion of trade, and the sustained advancement of education and health services. While peace is certainly its own reward, it offers, in addition, other rewards as well." Professor Sen spoke on "Peace, Violence and Development in Modern Societies" in a lecture delivered at ESCAP in Bangkok yesterday. [21 July 2010]

UN ICT Hub Continues Support of e-Government in the Pacific through Latest Round of Training
Participants of an e-government workshop are attending a two-day training session today on information and communication technology (ICT) for development at a regional United Nations capacity building institute in the Republic of Korea. [12 July 2010]

ESCAP Member Countries Progress to Roadmap for Environment and Development in Asia and the Pacific
Government officials from 23 countries in Asia and the Pacific ended two days of discussions here today, agreeing on three draft regional environment and sustainable development initiatives for endorsement by the Sixth Ministerial Conference on Environment and Development in Asia and the Pacific (MCED-6) to be held from 27 September to 2 October 2010 in Astana, Kazakhstan. [9 July 2010]

Countries call for urgent action to improve civil registration and vital statistics
A regional gathering of experts in civil registration and vital statistics of 17 ESCAP member states organized by ESCAP and WHO in collaboration with ADB and UNDP has ended with a loud call from countries for urgent action to increase coverage and completeness of registration and improve quality of data from the registration of vital events. [29 June 2010]