3 December 2013: On the occasion of the release of the ‘Statistical Yearbook for Asia and the Pacific 2013,’ the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) has called for the post-2015 development agenda to include capacity building in statistics to aid development planning.

UNESCAP Executive Secretary Noeleen Heyzer emphasized the role of high-quality data and information to enable effective decision making about development priorities, calling for substantial investments in capacity building to make the data revolution a reality.

The Yearbook provides an overview of development in the 58 UNESCAP Member States and five sub-regions. Eight themes are covered: demographic trends, health, education and knowledge, poverty and insecurity, women’s empowerment, environment, economy and connectivity. The 2013 Yearbook introduces two topics not covered in previous editions: food security and crime. The Yearbook was launched with an online statistical database, country fact sheets, and visualizations of time-series data and projections.

The Yearbook reports that 90% of the one billion people who have escaped extreme poverty since 1990 are from the Asia-Pacific region, and highlights many other development gains. In 2012, Asia and the Pacific overtook Europe to become the world’s largest trading region in merchandise. In a press release, UNESCAP notes continuing challenges of uneven distribution of economic gains, gender inequality, youth unemployment and environmental impacts, including global warming and increased disaster risks. [UNESCAP Press Release] [Publication: Statistical Yearbook for Asia and the Pacific 2013]