By Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana, Kanni Wignaraja, Bambang Susantono As lockdowns ease in countries across Asia and the Pacific in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, one thing is clear—a return to business as usual is unimaginable in a region that was already off track to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The virtual High-Level Political […]
Healthy oceans: keeping Asia and the Pacific afloat
Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana, United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of ESCAP Memories of idyllic beaches and sonorous waves may seem far away while we remain at home. Yet, we need not look far to appreciate the enduring history of the ocean in Asia and the Pacific. For generations, the region has thrived on our seas. […]
Asia-Pacific response to COVID-19 and climate emergency must build a resilient and sustainable future
Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana, United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of ESCAP The unprecedented public health emergency triggered by the COVID -19 pandemic and its multi-faceted impact on people’s lives around the world is taking a heavy toll on Asia and the Pacific. Countries in our region are striving to mitigate the massive socioeconomic impact of […]
Реагирование стран Азиатско-Тихоокеанского региона на COVID-19 и климатические чрезвычайные ситуации должно построить устойчивое будущее
Армида Салсия Алисджахбана, заместитель Генерального Секретаря Организации Объединенных Наций и исполнительный секретарь ЭСКАТО Беспрецедентная чрезвычайная ситуация в области общественного здравоохранения, вызванная пандемией COVID -19, и ее многогранное влияние на жизнь людей во всем мире оказывают тяжелое воздействие на Азиатско-Тихоокеанский регион. Страны нашего региона стремятся смягчить масштабные социально-экономические последствия пандемии, которая, как ожидается, также повлияет на […]
Accelerating SDG Progress in Asia – Pacific
Kaveh Zahedi and Van Nguyen “The 2030 Agenda is coming to life”, declared the Secretary General at the opening of the first SDG Summit, a quadrennial event for the follow up and review of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. As leaders from Asia – Pacific took the floor, theyhighlightedcountry progress of SDG implementation and […]
Catalysing change for gender equality
Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana and Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka Great strides have been taken to empower women and girls in the Asia-Pacific region since the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing adopted an ambitious global agenda to achieve gender equality twenty-five years ago.Gender parity has been achieved in primary education.Maternal mortality has been halved. Today, the region’s […]
Equality beyond reach for many women and girls in Asia-Pacific
UN Ministerial Conference opens with urgent call for change to make gender equality a reality Bangkok – Over 500 Ministers, senior policymakers, UN officials, civil society, youth and private sector representatives from across Asia and the Pacific region today gathered in Bangkok to chart out priority actions to support accelerated progress on gender equality and […]
Learning from a half-century of economic development in Asia
Deepak Nayyar In 1968 renowned economist Gunnar Mydral publishedAsian Drama: An Inquiry into the Poverty of Nations, a highly pessimistic work on Asia’s development prospects. The fifty years since witnessed a remarkable economic transformation with Asia emerging as a global economic powerhouse. Like so many, it was hard for Mydral to imagine Asia undergoing such […]
Disaster risk resilience: key to protecting vulnerable communities
Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana The past five years have been the hottest on record in Asia and the Pacific. Unprecedented heat waves have swept across our region, cascading into slow onset disasters such as drought. Yet heat is only part of the picture. Tropical cyclones have struck new, unprepared parts of our region and devastatingly frequent […]
Growing disaster risks exceeding Asia-Pacific’s capacity to respond
New UN report warns of a new climate reality where economic losses are set to quadruple Bangkok (ESCAP news) – The relentless sequence of natural disasters in Asia and the Pacific the past two years was beyond what the region had previously experienced or was able to predict – and this is a sign of […]