I. Background
Inequalities are widening across Asia and the Pacific, not only in terms of income and wealth, but also for opportunities and services, such as education, health and employment despite their guarantee by international legal and normative frameworks on human rights. Children, women, youth, older persons, persons with disabilities, migrants, and minority groups are often disproportionately affected. They also are disproportionately vulnerable to climate change, economic shocks, and health crises. In the face of new and emerging risks, countries in Asia and the Pacific need to accelerate policy action to tackle poverty and inequality through evidence-based and inclusive policies. This is crucial for delivering on the Leave No One Behind (LNOB) pledge of the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development.
To accelerate policy action and achieve positive impact, countries should use data and rigorous methodologies to design inclusive and evidence-based policies. As a first step, they must identify populations in vulnerable situations across specific sectors and locations. This requires disaggregated data analysis to identify who is excluded or discriminated against and capture intersecting vulnerabilities along age, gender, disability, and location among others. While an increasing number of countries are generating LNOB evidence and including them in their Voluntary National Reviews (VNR) to track progress in SDGs, gaps remain. There is still a lack of systematic and comprehensive assessment of the nature and scale of groups left furthest behind in specific areas and of using this evidence to inform sectoral policies or national development plans.
There is need for country-specific, policy relevant and innovative research based on nationally representative data to broaden the evidence base on the furthest behind groups. ESCAP’s LNOB Platform and methodologies have produced systematic LNOB evidence on 19 SDG indicators across 34 countries in Asia and the Pacific using Demographic and Health Surveys, Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys and others. While many countries found the Platform useful and 20 countries used its findings in their VNRs, this evidence has not yet been fully used in sectoral policies or national development plans.
Against this background, ESCAP developed a technical assistance project entitled “Innovative and digital technologies for inclusive policymaking that leaves no one behind in Asia and the Pacific” to respond to the need for more detailed and policy-specific in-depth analysis in five target countries, including Sri Lanka. The project, to be implemented in 2026-2029 period, aims to strengthen capacity among target countries to inform their national policies with LNOB evidence thereby contributing to inclusive and evidence-based national policies and plans from design phase to monitoring and evaluation phase. Accordingly, the project will build capacity among policymakers and technical specialists to actively use scientific methodologies and digital tools that analyze and disaggregate nationally appropriate data and present evidence online or offline in a customizable and visually accessible manner.
The first activity of this project in Sri Lanka is to organize an inception meeting to kick off its implementation. The meeting will raise awareness about the LNOB methodology and identify relevant plans or policies, especially in the social development sector, that could be directly informed by the LNOB evidence. The meeting will also seek feedback from middle to high level policymakers in the government as well as development practitioners to inform the subsequent national activities including analytical and technical capacity building work to meet national priorities and generate relevant and actionable results and policy recommendations. The inception meeting will connect a broad set of stakeholders within the Government, including data producers and users. This way appropriate data sources will be identified against the pressing policy questions about the furthest behind groups.
II. Meeting Objectives
The inception meeting aims to introduce the ESCAP LNOB initiative and will explore how the project can support national efforts to strengthen inclusive and evidence-based policymaking. The meeting will provide an opportunity for government stakeholders to identify priority policy areas and ensure that project activities and outputs are linked to ongoing or upcoming national policy priorities, especially in the social development sector. At the end of the meetings, participants are expected to:
understand how the ESCAP LNOB approach can support the identification of population groups at risk of being left behind and inform more targeted and inclusive policies and programmes;
identify policy areas and reform processes where project activities can contribute to improved policy design, implementation, and monitoring, especially in the social development sector;
identify opportunities to strengthen the use of disaggregated data and evidence in policy decision-making to advance equitable and inclusive development outcomes.
III. Target Audience
The inception meeting will convene 30 participants representing a diverse group of policymakers and technical specialists across various Government entities. The meeting is organized in collaboration with the Ministry of Rural Development, Social Security and Community Empowerment. Other line ministries in charge of social development policies such as health and education as well as Department of Census and Statistics are among the key stakeholders to join the meeting. Members of United Nations Country Team and the Resident Coordinator’s Office are also welcome to join.
IV. Organization and Participation
The inception meeting will be organized in person at Galle Face Hotel in Colombo on 23 October 2026. The meeting will be conducted in English with simultaneous interpretation, if needed.