BRIEFING BY EACH PARTICIPATING ORGANIZATION ON ITS PRIORITIES AND MAJOR ACTIVITIES: 

PROGRAMME PRIORITIES OF UNESCAP

UNESCAP Background Paper

8th Consultative Meeting of 

Executive Heads of Sub-Regional Organizations

 

1.     The overall purpose of the programme is to promote economic and social development in Asia and the Pacific, with a particular focus on reducing disparities through addressing three thematic areas, namely, poverty reduction, managing globalization and addressing emerging social issues.

 

2.     The Asian and Pacific region is unique in many contrasting ways.  The extremes of geography range from small island States to landlocked countries, and extremes of inhabitation, from globally connected mega-cities to remote villages that are accessible only by foot.  The region has some of the world’s most dynamic economies, as well as some of the most stagnant.  With over 3.8 billion people, Asia and the Pacific is also the most populous region in the world, containing both the largest and smallest countries.  It has societies that enjoy affluence and abundance, while many struggle with deprivation, ignorance and disease.

 

3.     Poverty is the region’s greatest development challenge.   Sixty-seven per cent of the world’s poor are in Asia and the Pacific.  Twenty-one per cent of the region’s population of 3.8 billion people live on less than one dollar a day, while 50 per cent live on less than two dollars a day.  Nearly 570 million people do not have access to safe water and over 1.8 billion people lack adequate sanitation.  Each year, one million children die of water-borne diseases.  Uneven economic growth, social development and income distribution further perpetuate the vicious cycle of poverty in the region.  However, poverty is not only about lack of income and access to basic services.  It is also about the failure to respond to the voice of the poor.  Existing national and local institutions in many countries do not allow the poor to participate meaningfully in decision-making that shapes their lives.

 

4.     Globalization has led to a surge in international trade, investment, tourism and economic growth, accompanied by the introduction of a rule-based international trading system and rapid technological and operational changes in transport and communications.  Many countries have benefited from these developments, but others remain marginalized and the digital divide is widening.  More than half of the members and associate members of ESCAP are not members of the World Trade Organization.  Transport and communications networks are not adequately connected to the global network owing to underdeveloped infrastructure and logistics systems, inefficient border crossing and inadequate transit facilitation.  This increases costs and reduces competitiveness.  Another global trend affecting the region is environmental degradation, including water and air pollution, the loss of environmental resources and sea-level rise, as well as the increasing impact of natural disasters.  The severity of these problems has received global attention, but many developing countries in the region are constrained in advancing their interests and concerns in the global negotiations on the environment and sustainable development.

 

5.     New social issues have emerged in recent years.  Foremost is HIV/AIDS, for which only a small window of opportunity exists to save the region from a catastrophe of unprecedented proportions.  The region, with its huge population base, has one of the fastest-growing epidemics in the world, fuelled by commercial sex and injecting drug use.  Equally daunting is the increased trafficking in human beings, particularly children and women.  The growing inequalities and increasing population mobility within and across countries have made many social groups more vulnerable than ever before.  Some population groups cannot fully participate in the development process owing to discrimination related to gender, age, disability and geographical location.

 

6.     Gender inequality continues to be at the root of many economic and social disparities in the region. New approaches are required, in addition to gender mainstreaming, which explicitly recognize women’s right to equality and introduce concrete steps to realize this.  Such approaches must highlight men’s role in this task.

 

7.     The least developed, landlocked and island developing countries and territories and countries with economies in transition face specific problems which require special attention in order to mainstream them into global and regional processes of economic integration and accelerate their overall socio-economic advancement.

 

8.     ESCAP is the most comprehensive intergovernmental body covering the countries of the Asian and Pacific region.  With its convening function, it is in a strong position to promote regional approaches, consensus and cooperation. As a regional organization covering a range of key development sectors, ESCAP is well placed to address interdependent and multidimensional problems from a multisectoral and intercountry perspective.  Furthermore, by addressing development issues on a regional basis, ESCAP can achieve significant economies of scale.

 

9.     ESCAP pursues its goal of reducing disparities in accordance with global and regional  directives and mandates by focusing on three key thematic areas: poverty reduction, managing globalization and tackling emerging social issues.  The implementation strategy, within the framework of these three themes, is to enhance national capacity to plan and implement effective policies and programmes, to improve national decision-making on regional and global issues and to incorporate emerging economic and social issues into policies and programmes.

 

10.   The modalities for action include advocacy and awareness-raising, policy analysis, capacity-building, including human resources development and institutional development, and sharing of good practices for wider replication.  Efforts are made to balance normative and operational work to ensure effective delivery of the expected accomplishments at both the policy and programme levels.

 

11.   ESCAP continues to build on its existing partnerships with sub-regional and regional organizations, civil society and the private sector to strengthen its work to reduce disparities.

 

12.   The programme objectives are addressed through seven interdependent and complementary subprogrammes under the above three key thematic areas aligned with internationally agreed development goals, including those contained in the United Nations Millennium Declaration.  The Commission, at its fifty-eighth session, endorsed this significant change and refocusing of ESCAP’s work. In each of the following seven subprogrammes, efforts have been made to consolidate areas of work to ensure greater programme coherence and impact.

 

Poverty reduction:

Subprogramme 1: Poverty and development.

Subprogramme 2: Statistics.  

           

Managing globalization:

Subprogramme 3: Trade and investment.

Subprogramme 4: Transport and tourism.

Subprogramme 5: Environment and sustainable development.

Subprogramme 6: Information, communication and space technology.  

                 

Addressing emerging social issues:

Subprogramme 7: Social development, including emerging social issues.

 

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