Update on 3rd OECD World Forum: Are you going?

3rd OECD World Forum on “Statistics, Knowledge and Policy”
Charting Progress, Building Visions, Improving Life
Busan, Korea - 27th to 30th of October 2009

• Is life getting better? Are our societies really making progress?
• What does progress mean for our societies?
• What are the new paradigms to measure progress?
• How can better policies within these new paradigms foster the progress of societies?

The 3rd OECD World Forum on Statistics, Knowledge and Policy will address these crucial questions that today, in the current economic crisis, have become more important than ever. The Forum will attract some 1500 high level participants, and more than 200 authoritative speakers with a mixture of politicians, policy makers, heads of international organisations, opinion leaders, Nobel laureates, statisticians, academics, journalists and representatives of civil society from all over the world.

The Forum, through 47 sessions (click here for the Preliminary Agenda (PDF)), will offer political leaders, leading thinkers and a wide range of key stakeholders the opportunity to:

Challenge some of the contemporary notions of societal progress;
Discuss new visions of progress, identify concrete post-crisis efforts for fostering the effective improvement of people’s lives and appropriate ways to measure it;
Better understand the potential role that evidence-based debate amongst citizens could play in policy making and fostering societal change for the better;
Promote the establishment of regional and national fora to support this process.

Invited and confirmed speakers include: Alicia Bárcena Ibarra (United Nations Executive Secretary of ECLAC), Angel Gurría (Secretary General, OECD), Noeleen Heyzer (Executive Secretary of UNESCAP), Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf (President of Liberia), Donald Kaberuka (President of the African Development Bank), Geoff Mulgan (Director, Young Foundation), Sergey Stepashin (Chairman of the Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation), Joseph Stiglitz (Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences).

Invitation
If you have not received an official invitation and you would like to attend the 3rd OECD World Forum, please write to us at preregisterKorea2009[AT]oecd.org attaching information on the reason for your interest and giving details of your professional qualifications, as well as web links to some of your work, where appropriate.

International Exhibition
The Exhibition at the OECD 3rd World Forum will focus on issues related to "Charting Progress, Building Visions, Improving Life".

The scope will include new technologies for visualizing statistics, initiatives to measure and foster quality of life at local and national levels, eco-friendly green technology and with a particular focus on promoting green growth and social cohesion.

The Exhibition will be free of charge and we hope to have places for about 50 exhibitors, with 250 booths. Read more

The 3rd OECD World Forum is organised by the OECD and the Government of Korea (Korean National Statistical Office, KNSO) in co-operation with the United Nations, the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, the European Commission and the World Bank, and in association with the International Statistical Institute and Paris21.

Visit the Forum website: http://www.oecdworldforum2009.org/