On 4 November 2022, ESCAP staff gathered for its second ‘Innovation Awards’ to celebrate the innovations that inspired and helped boost the impact of their work in the form of products, services, processes and procedures, policy or work practices implemented in the past years.

CSAM’s virtual field demonstration and workshop conducted in Laixi, China as part of the initiative ‘Regional Pilot Project on Mechanization Solutions for Integrated Management of Straw Residue in Asia and the Pacific’ was voted the most innovative practice in ‘stakeholder engagement’, one of the five categories of the ESCAP Innovation Awards. The event was the first livestreaming using drone-mounted cameras at ESCAP, which allowed for the active engagement and close participation of both on-site and online participants, who could comfortably watch close-ups and 360 degrees views of the machinery operations.

CSAM was also awarded with the ‘best business pitch’ for the heartfelt presentation of Ms Yuee Feng, Programme Coordinator, who has devoted her work to the initiative on integrated management of straw residue since its inception, and who recalled the team work and complex preparations for the livestreaming, in particular the drafting of a “storyboard” to coordinate the aerial views and close-ups with the machinery demonstration arranged in the field by local agricultural cooperatives.