February 2013: The latest issue of the newsletter of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) highlights the upcoming 51st Session of the Commission for Social Development (CSocD) and 44th Session of the UN Statistical Commission.

According to DESA News, the role of statistics in measuring sustainable development progress will be a key topic of the Statistical Commission’s meeting. It notes that the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD, or Rio+20) outcome document “calls for broader measures of progress to complement gross domestic product (GDP),” and as a result, this year’s High-level Forum will focus on “Official Statistics’ Response to the Rio+20 Mandate for Broader Measures of Progress.”

This issue of the newsletter also notes that the upcoming 22nd and 23rd meetings of the Inter-agency and Expert Group on MDG Indicators (IAEG-MDGs) will include a review of the debates on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) at the 67th session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) as well as those at Rio+20. The meetings also will address preparations for the 2013 global MDG report and the final evaluation of the MDGs in 2015. [Publication: DESA News, Vol. 17, No. 2]