In an effort to support the activities of the countries in the region, as well as to provide increased opportunities for networking, information sharing and capacity building in the area of sustainable consumption and production, a regional Help Desk on Sustainable Consumption and Production in Asia and the Pacific to be hosted by the China Standard Certification Centre (CSC) has jointly been launched by UNEP and UNESCAP in May 2006 following requests from the member states.

The CSC is a non-profit, independent third-party certification body, which provides consulting services for policy making and is acting as an information center for consumers. The Center was established in 1998 by the National Development and Reform Commission of China with the objective to serve as the primary certification centre for Energy Conservation Products.

The CSC is internationally recognized organization for energy efficiency and environmental protection and has worked on various projects with UNDP, UNDESA, IEA, IFC, US EPA, AGO, etc. IN 2004 CSC has won US EPA Climate Protection Award. CSC is involved in the process of international harmonization on energy efficiency standards and labels. CSC also provided assistance to NDRC for the development of evaluation indicators and methods for the establishment of resource-saving society. Additionally, CSC is developing an information sharing system for product quality and performance comparison.

CSC has extensive experience in organizing various national and international meetings and events related to sustainable consumption and production. Among these are annual exhibitions for energy-efficient and water conservation and environmental-friendly products, TV and Radio shows, promotion activities with enterprises, including CSC website in English (www.cecp.org.cn).

The overall scope of the activities of the Regional SCP Help Desk is to assist governments in Asia and the Pacific to device and implement programmes and policies on SCP. In the long run the regional help desk is expected to cover following areas of work:

	Collect and disseminate information on SCP with specific focus on policy tools, including conducing regional surveys.
	Facilitate network of experts and institutions in the region that are specialized in SCP related issues.
	Organize training for policy makers and professionals.
	Conduct studies to support decision making by governments and regional, international organizations.
	Assist UNEP and ESCAP to develop projects and fund raise for the development of help desk.

Being the first initiative of such kind in the region, and giving the financial resource constraint, the help desk will be developed gradually and a three-phase development plan is proposed.

Phase I (year 1) will mark the initial stage of establishing the Help Desk and test run the service with energy as pilot issue area, and further developing work programme, and fund raising;

During Phase II (year 2) the Help Desk will expand the information services to broader network of national level partners and formulating network (a number of partners should be identified as focal points on specific issues, such as water, infrastructure development, consumer awareness and education, etc.). The Help desk will also design and conduct studies on other identified issue areas.

At its Phase III (year 3-5) the Help desk will focus on managing the network of institutions and experts, coordinating studies and organizing training in addition to providing information services.