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Integrated straw management in Bangladesh
Get PDFThe burning of crop residue contributes to the creation of severe air pollution in the Indo-Gangetic plain area of South Asia. It affects people's health, impacts agricultural production and food security by deteriorating soil health and contributes to climate change with the emission of greenhouse gases. Crop straw yield has kept growing and maintained a high level with increases in agriculture production in South Asia. The lack of suitable agricultural technology and machinery to sustainably utilize the straw or promote its recycled usage has led to their burning and caused a high level of air pollution, including through transboundary sources.
This paper provides an overview of the status of crop straw management in Bangladesh. Rice, wheat and maize are the main sources of straw in Bangladesh and estimations on the amount of straw produced from these crops are provided with the use of the crop harvest index. The study delineates the existing practices for managing and using straw, highlights alternative straw management practices that can be considered and the challenges that exist to promote their adoption in Bangladesh. Different policies and support provided by the government to promote agricultural mechanization and straw management are reviewed. The various gaps and challenges that exist for the integrated management of straw are analyzed and recommendations are made for actions that can be taken to address these issues.
JEL Codes(s): O13, Q16, Q53, Q55</p
Regulatory sandbox framework for central bank digital currency in the Maldives
Get PDFThis Policy Brief aims to discuss the benefits and risks associated with implementing a regulatory sandbox on Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) in the Maldives. It also outlines the operationalization issues that the Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA) needs to consider, including the assessment of regulatory sandbox applications, the establishment of an internal MMA organizational structure, and the responsibilities and potential implementation challenges that may arise.
A regulatory sandbox is established by a regulator to facilitate small-scale testing of innovative products and services under special conditions. These conditions often include exemptions from specific regulatory requirements, while the regulator closely supervises the testing process. Sandboxes function as regulatory laboratories that enable regulatory authorities to observe and evaluate the outcomes of small-scale tests, allowing them to make data-and evidence-informed decisions when developing relevant legislation.
This Policy Brief further provides recommendations to the MMA and other government authorities on promoting CBDCs and other financial technology (FinTech) services/products. These recommendations emphasize the importance of establishing a regulatory sandbox and reviewing domestic legislations and regulations, among other measures. The recommendations promote the development of CBDCs and FinTech innovations in the Maldives while ensuring effective regulation and oversight to safeguard the financial sector and protect consumers.
For any questions related to this publication, please contact via email: [email protected]</p
Asia-Pacific tech monitor. Vol. 40, No. 1, Jan-Mar 2023
No full textSpecial Theme: Technologies for decarbonizing transport systemsAligning with the 79th session of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), to be held from 15th to 19th May 2023 on the theme of ‘Accelerating climate action in Asia and the Pacific for sustainable development’, this Tech Monitor issue discusses select emerging technologies, challenges, opportunities, strategies and good practices, to enable transition to low carbon technologies for transport systems in the Asia-Pacific region. It includes an article discussing the shift to electric cars in road transport, focusing on the impact of Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) adoption on the fuel and the vehicle cycles. The issue also features a case study on the policy landscape supporting the electric two-wheelers transition across three emerging electric vehicle (EV) markets in Asia – India, Indonesia, and Viet Nam</p
Asia-Pacific trade and investment trends brief 2022/2023 : Philippines
No full textThis brief covers recent trends and developments in trade and investment. It has been produced as an accompaniment to the Asia-Pacific Trade and Investment Trends 2022/2023.</p
Strengthening the national statistical capacity to implement data integration approaches : pilot project in Nepal 2022-23
No full textImplementing data integration approaches for official statistics, which entails combining disparate data sources such as censuses, sample surveys, administrative records, and big data, is gaining more attention globally. This is because direct data collection is expensive and is becoming an increasingly unsustainable business model for meeting the growing demands for new, quality and granular data, given declining budgets and decreasing response rates, together with increasing technical potential, availability of new data sources and feasibility of applying more complex approaches. However, challenges often need to be overcome to realise the potential of data integration, which requires a wide range of technical and institutional capacities.
To enhance the regional capacity and in response to the specific challenges faced by each country in implementing data integration, in June 2022, ESCAP partnered with Nepal in a project to implement a tailored approach to improve their capacity to integrate data and produce better data for measuring Sustainable Development Goal indicators. This project aimed to collaborate closely with the National Statistics Office of Nepal on a practical exercise to pilot integrating data from multiple sources, including census, surveys and administrative data. The project included developing the capacity and providing the technical assistance and IT toolbox to implement the full process of a data integration exercise.
This is the comprehensive report of the project, which covers all phases. The report can be beneficial to other countries aspiring to develop similar data integration projects.Table of Contents
Preface
Abbreviations and Acronyms
1. Introduction
Overview of Project
Choice of Nepal as the project partner
2. Context for Project
Mapping exercise of available data sources and national priorities
Inception workshop
Defining the pilot data integration exercise
3. Obtaining access to microdata and addressing concerns on confidentiality and privacy
Partnership arrangements
Mission to Nepal
4. Data sources
a. Nepal Living Standards Survey 2010/11
b. National Population and Housing Census 2011
c. Poor Households Identification Survey 2013
d. Beneficiaries of Social Security Allowance 2022
5. Data pre-processing
Exploring the data sources of pilot exercise
Data issues identified and resolved
6. Record linkage
Challenges and Opportunities
7. Integrated Statistics
Record linkage accuracy and validity
Statistics generated from integrated data
8. IT toolbox
9. Training workshop
Description of the training workshop
The outcome of the training workshop
10. Conclusion
Results and Limitations
Recommendations
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Multilateral and regional cooperation on digital trade rules and agreements in Asia-Pacific
No full textRules on digital trade are rapidly taking shape as countries in Asia-Pacific and beyond strive to secure the benefits associated with e-commerce and the digitalization of trade in goods and services. At the multilateral level, the WTO holds promise to reach a plurilateral agreement on core e-commerce issues by the end of 2023. Although far-reaching outcome seems unlikely, e-commerce rules agreed in the WTO will potentially serve as baseline commitments on cooperation in digital trade. At the regional level, different approaches have emerged, and many preferential trade agreements (PTAs) already include increasingly comprehensive and advanced digital trade provisions (DTPs) and the number of Digital Economy Agreements (DEAs) is growing. Asia-Pacific economies are unevenly engaged in cooperation in digital trade rulemaking – East and South-East Asia economies have welcomed DTPs in their agreements and are taking the lead in developing DEAs, while Central Asia and South Asia economies are lagging especially in intra-regional cooperation within the subregions. The proliferation of DTPs reflects the expanding and deepening cooperation, it may, however, undermine the benefits of digital trade if the rules are not harmonized. The landscape is getting clearer as there is an emerging coherence in the coverage of DTPs across agreements. Nevertheless, further reducing regulatory heterogeneity will be important in enabling the effective participation of smaller firms and less developed countries in cross-border digital trade. </p
SDG 11 : Sustainable cities and communities
No full textAs the Asia-Pacific region grows increasingly urbanized, the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 11 is a comprehensive and action-oriented blueprint for advancing sustainable cities and communities. It proposes to readdress how we plan, finance, develop, govern and manage cities and human settlements in line with the New Urban Agenda. In essence, SDG 11 acts as a strategic lever to achieve the SDGs by emphasizing and guiding local action. These actions are more important than ever as the region recovers from the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic while struggling to adapt to multiple interlinked crises.The lack of spatial, granular qualitative, and quantitative urban data affects the creation of evidence-based policies and programmes designed to respond to urban dynamics and related challenges. The lack of data also undermines efforts towards meeting the 'leave no one' behind promise. As countries and cities move towards increased decentralization and localized decision-making, the need for strengthening local data systems, such as urban observatories that support the tracking of local progress to citizens and national authorities, has grown.The key areas of progress include improvements in air quality and the proportion of those living in slums, along with the growing adoption of national and local disaster risk reduction (DRR) strategies. However, this progress is contrasted by significant regressions in persons missing or affected by disasters, economic loss, and damage to infrastructure and services. Road safety measures also remain suboptimal in the Asia-Pacific region.</p
Regional Report on Mainstreaming Leave No One Behind (LNOB) in National Urban Policies and Programme in South Asia
Get PDFThe Regional Report of Mainstreaming Leave No One Behind (LNOB) in National Urban Policies and Programmes in South Asia was prepared with the completion of a project that was implemented in partnership with the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), and United Nations Office of Information and Communications Technology (UNOICT). An important aspect of this collaborative effort was to strengthen capacities of national and local governments, prioritize LNOB and focus on addressing disabilities in urban policy and planning frameworks in the four South Asian member States: Bangladesh, India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. The project primarily focused on strengthening national governments and local urban institutions to incorporate LNOB (inclusion, disability and safety) into national urban policies, facilitating evidence-based localization of national policies and implementation of SDG 6 and SDG 11, and helping to guide the development and adoption of their approaches. Approximately 750 million people live with disabilities in the Asia-Pacific region.
The report discusses how the target countries, under the present LNOB project, have taken an inclusive approach towards policy planning to ensure more resilient and disability-inclusive development. It further sets out the context and narrative to outline the need for disability-specific disaggregated data for development and policy formulation, implementation, evaluation, and highlights the significance of evidence-based policy formulation to empower national and local governments to mainstream LNOB as a key principle in implementing the New Urban Agenda. Consequently, a narrative has been set out in the report, through the illustration of good practices, to outline how inclusive policies and disaggregated data are extremely important to safeguard the rights of persons with disabilities and protect them against discrimination on the grounds of disability.</p