ESCAP Repository (United Nations ESCAP)
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ESCAP Environmental Performance Report 2021
Get PDFThe 2021 edition of the Greening the Blue Report, detailing the UN System's environmental footprint and efforts to reduce it
A three-decade journey towards inclusion : assessing the state of disability-inclusive development in Asia and the Pacific
Get PDFThe Asia-Pacific region is home to more than 700 million persons with disabilities who face significant barriers to full and  participation in society. To advance disability rights and disability-inclusive development, members of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) initiated three consecutive Asian and Pacific Decades of Persons with Disabilities, starting in 1993. The first two Decades contributed to the shift of viewing persons with disabilities as rights holders and also spurred regional momentum, which laid the initial foundation for the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
Building on the achievements of the previous two Decades, ESCAP member States proclaimed the Asian and Pacific Decade of Persons with Disabilities, 2013−2022 and adopted the Incheon Strategy to “Make the Right Real” for Persons with Disabilities in Asia and the Pacific in 2012 with 10 disability-specific development goals. The Beijing Declaration, adopted in 2017, including the Action Plan to Accelerate the Implementation of the Incheon Strategy, specifies a set of policy actions to be taken by Governments, civil society stakeholders and ESCAP under each goal of the Incheon Strategy.
At the end of the third Decade, ESCAP conducted a final review of its implementation to assess the current state of disability-inclusive development in Asia and the Pacific and renew the regional commitment to “make the right real” for persons with disabilities. The Jakarta Declaration on the Asian and Pacific Decade of Persons with Disabilities, 2023−2032 was adopted at the high-level intergovernmental meeting on the final review of the third Decade held in Jakarta and online in October 2022. This Declaration provides further guidance for the region in meeting the pledge of leaving no one behind through disability-inclusive development.
Against this background, the objective of this publication is to take stock of the progress made and remaining challenges with regard to disability-inclusive development in Asia and the Pacific. The latest data and practices undertaken by governments, civil society organizations and international organizations have been collated to inform innovative policymaking and programming on disability-related issues
The Aral Sea, central Asian countries and climate change in the 21st century
Get PDFESCAP’s analytical work on managing in-land water disasters in the Aral Sea is organized in two parts. While Part I titled ‘Aral Sea, Central Asian Countries and Climate Change in the 21st Century’ deals with water management perspectives, it unfolds the processes that led to complete depletion of water resources, i.e. water use exceeding available resources. It also highlights that by 2030-2050, the countries of the region will also reach the limits of irrigated land expansion because of its limited availability. Despite the depletion of water and irrigation resources in the region, in their national strategies and programs, each country plans for further growth of water use for irrigation and hydropower in the future. Therefore, a coordinated regional water policy is needed to balance the water resources use and improve the ecological situation in the subregion.Part II of the analytical work - ‘managing in-land water disasters in the Aral Sea: sub-regional pathways for adaptation and resilience’ capitalizes on state-of-the-art climate modelling, data science, geo-spatial tools, digital elevation models and analytics to present the risk in the region. Considering a transboundary hazard – the Aral Sea represents shared vulnerabilities and risks. It’s crucial for the adaptation and resilience priorities of transboundary Aral Sea hazard to be risk informed, especially on the sub-regional specificities. Multi-hazard risk assessment and early warning systems are highly useful in mitigating all types of cropland exposure to multi-hazard, particularly drought, and flood. Early warning monitoring is necessary to plan and reduce the impact of multi-hazard on agriculture, which is directly linked to food security, and the impact on the people. Analysis results show that adaptation measures like strengthening multi-hazard risk assessment and early warning systems as well as improving dryland agriculture crop production have the highest priority score in all 5 Central Asian countries in the various climate change scenarios.Recognizing the context of the United Nations Special Programme for the Aral Sea basin, ESCAP’s comprehensive study using a multi-sectoral and multi-disciplinary disaster risk reduction approach aims to devise a regional mechanism involving all concerned countries of the Aral Sea.Recommendations of the expert meetingOn 14th March 2022, ESCAP organized a regional meeting of experts on the Aral Sea to discuss the key findings of this study. Considering ESCAP’s mandate and comparative advantage, the experts recommended organizing a policy dialogue on managing the risk of in-land water disasters in the Aral Sea on the side-lines of sixth North and Central Asian Multi-Stakeholder Forum on Implementation of Sustainable Development Goals. The objective would be to further shape and refine the proposed subregional cooperation framework with a suggested action plan. Accordingly, ESCAP plans to organize a policy dialogue at the upcoming forum in 2022. The proposed framework will help factor transboundary risks of the Aral Sea in national Adaptation Plans, Disaster Risk Reduction strategies, and Voluntary National Reviews
Evaluation of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific: Subprogramme 4 environment and development
No full textThe Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) assessed the relevance, effectiveness,coherence, and sustainability of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP)Subprogramme 4: Environment and Development (EDD) for the 2018-2021 period.The evaluation objective was to determine, as systematically and objectively as possible, the relevance, effectiveness, coherence, and sustainability of ESCAP subprogramme 4: Environment and Development. The evaluation focus on subprogramme 4 was based on a programme-level risk assessment and scoping exercise described in the evaluation inception paper.Summary .............................................................................................................................................3
Introduction and Objective.........................................................................................................4
Background .................................................................................................................................4
Scope and Methodology .............................................................................................................6
Evaluation Results.......................................................................................................................7
EDD work was highly relevant, and its activities generally aligned with its mandates; however,
the Division’s significant role in support of APFSD resulted in it being spread too thin on mandated
substantive issues...............................................................................................................................7
EDD effectiveness was mixed with most prominent results achieved on the 2030 Agenda and
sustainable urban development.......................................................................................................10
Internal collaboration on the 2030 Agenda and regional-level partnerships with UNEP and
UN-Habitat were generally effective; however, cross-divisional substantive synergies and countrylevel coherence with other UN entities were still a work in progress..............................................21
There were some examples of sustainability of EDD work related to the 2030 Agenda and
sustainable urban development, but the general business model was not considered conducive to
creating lasting country level changes..............................................................................................24
The cross-cutting issues of gender, human rights and disability considerations were more
prominent in the 2030 Agenda work but needed improvement in other areas..............................25
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................26
Recommendations....................................................................................................................27
Annex I: ESCAP management response on the draft report.............................................................30</p
Policy approaches to enable business innovation for inclusive and sustainable development
No full textThis report is an initiative of a partnership between the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) and Agencia Presidencial de Cooperación International de Colombia (APC Colombia) to promote business innovation for the SDG through South-South cooperation. As such, this report contains a summary of some of the most innovative laws, policies and strategies that Governments in Asia and the Pacific and Latin America have introduced in recent years. In doing so, this report highlights policy options that Governments have at their disposal. The longer-term aim into establish a set of guiding principles that policymakers can use to incentivize the establishment and growth of impact enterprises, and to scale them up to play a central role in building the impact economy.</p
Summary assessment on the Committee on Social Development, Seventh Session, 6-8 September 2022
No full textThe seventh session of the Committee on Social Development took place on 6-8 September 2022 as a hybrid meeting. An online questionnaire assessing the relevance, effectiveness and quality of the meeting was conducted. 1 The main purpose of the assessment is to support the secretariat’s ongoing efforts to improve its servicing of the session. The Committee session discussed four areas of social development, namely: (1) strategies for building a healthy, protected and productive workforce in Asia and the Pacific; (2) strategies for strengthening regional cooperation on social protection in Asia and the Pacific; (3) follow up to the outcomes of the Asia-Pacific Intergovernmental Meeting on the Fourth Review and Appraisal of the Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing; and (4) review of implementation of Incheon Strategy to “Make the Right Real” for Persons with Disabilities in Asia and the Pacific.</p
Slow advancements in sustainable energy : taking stock of SDG 7 progress in Asia and the Pacific
Get PDFAsia-Pacific countries face a multitude of challenges in achieving their national and global sustainable energy goals. This policy brief provides a review on SDG 7 progress in the region, covering access to electricity, clean cooking, renewable energy, and energy efficiency. Higher ambitions, greater commitments, and more actions are needed to achieve SDG 7 by 2030. This brief offers a number of policy recommendations and looks to increased regional cooperation as crucial to the way forward
Leveraging science, technology and innovation for low carbon and resilient cities
Get PDFDeveloping low carbon and resilient cities serves as an important pathway for realizing national and local mitigation targets while assuring long-term economic growth and improving the quality of life. These commitments are critical to address the threat of climate change and promote sustainable development. To achieve carbon neutrality and build resilient cities, business as usual will not work and innovative solutions are required to bring necessary changes in an efficient, cost-effective, and timely manner.
This report analyzes the experiences of cities in and beyond North-East Asia in designing low carbon and resilient urban plans through STI in selected sectors, thereby supporting countries to utilize STI for the development of inclusive, sustainable, and resilient societies. This compendium report also presents several case studies to showcase some of the successful implementations in urban environments and aims to provide planners with ideas for projects which might be applicable to their cities or towns ranging from ICT, land use, clean energy, sustainable mobility, waste management and energy efficiency. Meanwhile, also stimulating more projects based on local expertise and sharing through forums or reports such as this, leading to enhanced mutual learning in the region.
This compendium report was prepared as part of the project “Leveraging Science, Technology and Innovation for Low Carbon and Resilient Cities” by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) East and North-East Asia (ENEA) Office in collaboration with the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI) - Local Governments for Sustainability of East Asia Office and the innovative Green Development Program (iGDP).</p
