LIRNEasia’s Senior Research Manager, Gayani Hurulle, participated in the Expert Group Meeting (EGM) on ‘Eradicating Poverty, Empowering People,’ organized by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN ESCAP), which took place from 23–25 September 2025. The objective of the EGM was to identify and discuss approaches and good practices for inclusive social development policies aimed at eradicating poverty across Asia and the Pacific. Insights and recommendations from the discussions will contribute to the development of ESCAP’s flagship publication, ‘Social Outlook for Asia and the Pacific: Eradicating Poverty, Empowering People’ in 2026. The meeting brought together a diverse group of experts from academia, think tanks, research institutions, UN system entities, and national governments across the region. It provided a valuable platform for knowledge exchange, collaboration, and shaping the future policy agenda on poverty eradication. 
LIRNEasia’s Senior Research Manager, Gayani Hurulle, participated in the Expert Group Meeting (EGM) on ‘Eradicating Poverty, Empowering People,’ organized by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN ESCAP), which took place from 23–25 September 2025. The objective of the EGM was to identify and discuss approaches and good practices for inclusive social development policies aimed at eradicating poverty across Asia and the Pacific. Insights and recommendations from the discussions will contribute to the development of ESCAP’s flagship publication, ‘Social Outlook for Asia and the Pacific: Eradicating Poverty, Empowering People’ in 2026. The meeting brought together a diverse group of experts from academia, think tanks, research institutions, UN system entities, and national governments across the region. It provided a valuable platform for knowledge exchange, collaboration, and shaping the future policy agenda on poverty eradication. 
The inaugural board meeting of the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data (GPSDD, more popularly known for their twitter @data4SDGs) was held on the 22nd of September. I participated as a GPSDD board member. Significant achievements have been made by GPSDD since its inception, culminating in high level support for the need for good data to measure SDGs, with many nation states making statements at the UN General Assembly which concluded just two days before the board meeting. But countries saying the right things (i.e.
LIRNEasia was a core partner for Sri Lanka’s first national summit on “Foresight & Innovation for Sustainable Human Development” that was convened by UNDP and the Ministry of National Policies and Economic Affairs. Held in Colombo from 24-25 May 2016, the summit brought together more than 300 people from government, private sector, and civil society from all over the country. Developing foresight and fostering innovation is a priority for the government and underscored by the Prime Minster’s attendance at the event. I spoke on the first day after the opening. My talk was on the leveraging both new and traditional data if the goal is to get towards real-time responsiveness and enhanced resilience.
In a few hours I’ll be speaking at a panel on how big data is already being used for sustainable development. ESCAP has pulled together an interesting group of people together to talk about how big data can help with the daunting task of measuring progress on the 169 targets that the UN has set for itself. The slides I will be using are here. Sorry they do not tell the full story since I have been asked to keep them to a minimum.
CEO Helani Galpaya was invited as an expert participant at the UN-DESA (United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs) and ITU (International Telecommunications Union) organised Expert Group Meeting held at UN headquarters in New York, June 8 – 9th. Helani was invited to talk about issues of access and affordability, and how they contribute towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). LIRNEasia and RIA household survey data, LIRNEasia’s broadband quality of service test data, big data research was used in the presentations and interventions during the two day meeting. Slides here. Numerous UN Agencies, members of Permanent Missions to the UN from various countries (e.