SPECA activities in 2007 expanded in scope and gained in effectiveness thanks to the successful completion of the reform of the Programme. The second session of the SPECA Governing Council (Berlin, November 2007) reviewed the activities carried out by the Project Working Groups, discussed proposals on further strengthening the Programme, improving its coordination and cooperation with other programmes and organizations and approved the SPECA Work Plan for 2008-2009. This comprises 27 projects/activities with funding already secured or expected, amounting to a total of some $6 million and 21 projects with a total funding requirement of some $4 million which could be implemented in addition to the first group if supported by donors.
Comparative advantages stemming from well-coordinated support of the Programme by two regional commissions – UNECE and UNESCAP – were increasingly utilized. Two meetings of the SPECA Economic Forum were held in 2007. The first, “Focus on Asia” was organized in May in Almaty as part of the Asia-Pacific Business Forum of UNESCAP, attended by some 250 business and government representatives. The second meeting (Berlin, November 2007) was held in the form of the Conference “Central Asia and Europe: a New Economic Partnership for the 21st Century”, attended by some 200 high-level representatives of Governments, the European Union, regional organizations, international financial institutions, private companies and the research community. Both meetings discussed how strengthened regional cooperation could contribute to improved trade and investment links between Central Asia and its Asian and European partners. Participants exchanged views on how the experience of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the European Union could be adapted to the conditions of Central Asia. A regional group of researchers – supported by UNECE and UNDP – prepared a background study for the second meeting of the Economic Forum on how strengthened technical assistance by the United Nations family and its partner organizations can most effectively contribute to an improved regional business and investment climate. All six SPECA Project Working Groups (transport and border crossing, water and energy resources, trade, statistics, ICT for development, and gender and economy), held formal and/or informal meetings in 2007.
While providing support to Central Asian countries under SPECA, UNECE combined its in-house technical expertise with its ability to carry out normative, analytical, and technical cooperation functions as well as to provide a neutral umbrella for cross-sectoral, interministerial policy discussions and regular policy-business-research dialogues. In particular, during the period under review UNECE technical assistance to SPECA member countries concentrated, among others, on the following activities:
(i) strengthening the capacity to implement UNECE conventions, standards and recommendations (in such areas as environment, trade, transport and statistics);
(ii) improving national environmental governance and environmental information through the environmental performance reviews, and strengthening the capacity for transboundary water cooperation and management (environment); enhancing energy security and shifting towards a sustainable development path through improved energy efficiency;
(iii) building the environment for “Single Window” implementation, and strengthening national trade facilitation institutions, including the capacity for World Trade Organization accession negotiations (trade);
(iv) strengthening the national capacity to monitor demographic, social and economic progress towards the implementation of goals set out in the Millennium Declaration (statistics);
(v) assisting in the development of transport infrastructure and border crossing facilitation (transport);
(vi) improving ICT policymaking; and
(vii) promoting gender equality and gender-sensitive economic policies under the MDG framework (gender mainstreaming).
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