The Financing for Sustainable Development Office (FSDO), UNDESA, and the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) organized a joint capacity development workshop for developing countries in the Asia-Pacific region on “Strengthening Policies, Processes, and Data Systems for Effective Development Cooperation” in Bangkok, Thailand on 30 November - 1 December 2022.
The workshop provided hands-on training and guidance on the collection and effective use of accurate, relevant, comprehensive, and timely data for more effective development cooperation. It addressed a range of capacity development needs identified by more than 30 developing countries participating in recent IATI workshops in Kigali and Abuja, and through more than 50 developing countries’ participating in the 2022 Development Cooperation Forum (DCF) Survey exercise. Topics covered during the workshop included: (i) strengthening information management systems; (ii) improving the quality of data; and (iii) data use for monitoring and evaluation, including country results frameworks. The workshop also focused on practical, hands-on training on how IATI data could be used to overcome these challenges, and to fill critical information gaps at the national level.
The event emphasized peer learning at the regional level by allowing national experts to exchange practical knowledge and experience on how their own efforts – and lessons learned – in enhancing data and information systems and capacities could be contextualized, adapted, and applied.