With the adoption of the 2030 Agenda, member States have requested that ESCAP make readily available a wide range of knowledge and capacity development opportunities and resources related to the Sustainable Development Agenda. To fulfill that capacity building mission, ESCAP maintains a number of online sustainable development knowledge platforms in collaboration with its partners and contributors. These knowledge platforms serve as online hubs for various partnerships in support of SDG implementation, host e-learning courses, and offer repositories of knowledge products on topics relevant to sustainable development. They include, but are not limited to, documentation of best practices and government and stakeholder innovations; progress and thematic reports; and support to partnerships through the resource facility and SDG helpdesk.
ESCAP established the Sustainable Development Goals Help Desk (SDG Help Desk) to assist member States in the Asia-Pacific region to develop effective strategies, methodologies, tools and institutional mechanisms for implementation of the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs. It is serves as the primary modality for providing ESCAP support to member States in specific priority areas such as integration of the three dimensions of sustainable development, stakeholder engagement, and effective follow-up and review among others.
As a one-stop online platform, the SDG Help Desk yields access to tools, knowledge products, data portals, expertise, good practices, and chances for peer-learning and regional South-South cooperation through thematic areas, covering topics related to sustainable development that both incorporate and extend beyond the SDGs.
Support is being offered through:
- Knowledge Hub: thematic areas; e-learning courses; e-library (publications and articles); learning videos
- Capacity Building: capacity development support through training of trainers’ seminars to foster the integration of the three dimensions of sustainable development and the SDGs into national planning;
- Community of Practice: on-line forums for networking and peer-learning among a global grouping of experts on sustainable development;
- Technical Assistance: advisory services for national policy makers;
- Statistical Data Support: data portals; and
- Partnerships: access to events, knowledge products, best practices, policy toolboxes and training tools, methodologies, pools of experts, beyond the wider UN family.
The Urban SDG Knowledge Platform is intended to support local action for the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, including through up-take and replication of successful initiatives and good practices, by providing a repository of policies, initiatives and good practices at the city level by municipal governments and other stakeholders, facilitating north-south, south-south, and triangular cooperation by linking cities that have developed specific policies, initiatives and good practices with other cities interested in replicating them. This would also facilitating regional follow-up and review implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development by providing a platform for the meetings of local governments to share progress and lessons learned.