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Business process analysis : study of cereal exports from Kazakhstan to Azerbaijan
Get PDFThe objective of this study report on the Business Process Analysis (BPA) for wheat exports by Kazakhstan to Azerbaijan is to identify bottlenecks and develop recommendations for trade facilitation, using the BPA methodology. The BPA methodology was developed as part of a joint technical assistance project of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) and the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) with the support of the United Nations Network of Experts for Paperless Trade and Transport in Asia and the Pacific (UNNExT). It has been used successfully by a number of ESCAP member States. BPA helps in identifying, recording and analysing existing “as-is” international trade business processes as well as generating recommendations for their prospective optimization.
The initial BPA study on cereal exports by Kazakhstan to Azerbaijan was carried out in 2014. The present study analyses the existing situation and identifies changes after five years in 2019 in international trade, using the example of wheat export.
As was previously the case, this study is based on:
An analysis of current legislation and regulations for obtaining permits and supporting documents for customs processing and wheat transportation from Kazakhstan to Azerbaijan;
An analysis of data and information from various dependable sources; and,
Interviews with supply chain participants, exporters, importers, shipping companies and government bodies.
The report covers the following topics:
Kazakhstan cereal export market overview;
An analysis of regulations for the registration of cereal exports by Kazakhstan and cereal imports by Azerbaijan; and,
An analysis of business processes, including a comparison of changes during the period of five years and bottleneck identification.
Based on the results of the study, the report presents recommendations for further simplifying and harmonizing cereal exports by Kazakhstan to Azerbaijan.</p
Beginners’ manual on digital marketing and e-commerce
No full textThe world economy has grown steadily over the last decade, and globally the gender gap in the workforce is narrowing. However, this progress saw a setback by an estimated two years due to the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Many people believe successful businesses require a full-time commitment from entrepreneurs, and that part-time businesses — or those operated from home — will not be successful. The e-commerce business provides an opportunity to women entrepreneurs to start and expand their businesses while working from home along with flexible timing that enables them to create their own schedules, including managing a competing household and childcare responsibilities while participating economically. The e-commerce industry has brought the world to their doorsteps with the consumers and sellers being just one click away on the computer. The flexibility and technological ease of the internet now allows women entrepreneurs to conduct businesses entirely online. In layman’s terms, e-commerce is engaging with trade and commercial activities online through electronic devices. Therefore, all transactions conducted through a website, via email orders, or another form of electronic communication fall within the realm of e-commerce. In South Asia, there is no dearth of skills among women to manage small or medium enterprises, but rather a gap or vacuum in the technological know-how to conduct an online business. With a small boost in capacity and the efficient use of information and communication technology, women can reach new heights of entrepreneurship. A multitude of online platforms offer women entrepreneurs virtual marketplaces where they can easily market their products. This training manual aims to introduce the basic concepts of digital marketing and e-commerce so that women entrepreneurs are equipped to carry out their online businesses and achieve their business goals. This manual is a step-by-step guide on how to start an online business to provide practical, hands-on training for women entrepreneurs, and can be used in future by any entrepreneur. The manual introduces existing e-commerce platforms and demonstrates how to set up an online business. For this purpose, a live demo portal has been developed, on which it is even possible to generate orders based on enquiries. The manual includes critical components for online startups, including how to register businesses and products and link businesses to bank accounts.</p
Accelerating COVID-19 vaccination roll-out in the Asia-Pacific region : a checklist to facilitate imports of vaccines during a pandemic
Get PDFThe COVID-19 pandemic is continuing to disrupt people’s lives and livelihoods and economies around the world, resulting in devastating health and economic consequences. It is now widely accepted that achieving and maintaining a somewhat pre-COVID level of freedom of movement depends largely on how quickly the eligible population can be vaccinated across the globe. Health experts also believe that only mass vaccination would reduce the probability of mutation of the coronavirus and the emergence of a new variant and hence could help put an end to the pandemic. To that end, WHO has stressed that at least 70 per cent of all countries’ populations be vaccinated by the start of July 2022 and that countries integrate COVID-19 vaccinations into routine health services.
The goal of "leaving no one behind, from a COVID-19 vaccination perspective, pushed forward global demand for COVID-19 vaccinations; however, the production of the vaccines is limited to a handful of countries. As of mid-January 2022, more than 9.65 billion vaccine doses had been administered globally. In high-income countries, 67.6 per cent of the population was vaccinated with at least one dose of a vaccine at that point; in comparison, only 11.36 per cent of people living in low-income countries had access to Vaccines. This disparity means that jobs and livelihoods in low-income countries are disproportionately affected by COVID-19. The United Nations Secretary-General has called for a global COVID-19 vaccination plan to "end the pandemic" by addressing inequities in vaccine distribution in line with recommendations made by WHO.
This vaccine import facilitation checklist is a living document to be updated as good practices continue to emerge. It may be used by governments to optimize their vaccine import processes, as well as to trigger constructive dialogues and foster more synchronized actions on the ground, both during the COVID-19 pandemic as well in preparation for future emergencies.</p
Pathways to adaptation and resilience in South and South-West Asia : subregional report
No full textResilience in a Riskier World: Managing Systemic Risks from Biological and Other Natural Hazards, the Asia Pacific Disaster Report 2021 captured a comprehensive picture of the complexity of disaster risk landscape (‘riskscape’) from natural and biological hazards in the Asia-Pacific region. The full-length publication is available at Asia-Pacific Disaster Report 2021. Following the release of the APDR at the seventh session of the ESCAP inter-governmental Committee on Disaster Risk Reduction in August 2021, the report was customized for each of the five ESCAP subregions, namely East and North-East Asia, North and Central Asia, South-East Asia, South and South-West Asia and the Pacific. The current report highlights the key takeaways for South and South-West Asia.</p
2022 : Leaving no one behind : the Philippines country brief
No full textLeaving No One Behind (LNOB) tool helps discover how different circumstances interact to create unequal access to basic opportunities in Asia and the Pacific. The LNOB country brief for the Philippines provides insights into which groups are further ahead and further behind in various SDG indicators and where the biggest gaps are found in terms of access to opportunities or prevalence of barriers between the furthest behind and the furthest ahead groups in the Philippines. </p
Sustainable finance recovery : innovating finance for the implementation of the 2030 agenda for sustainable development
Get PDFThe United Nation’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development asserts the need to address the barriers that hinder the diversion of finance towards sustainable development, leverage opportunities to increase investments in the SDG, and align policies and financial systems with the 2030 Agenda.</p
Digital and sustainable trade facilitation in United Nations Special Programme for the Economies of Central Asia (SPECA) 2021
No full textThe report presents results of the 2021 United Nations Global Survey on Digital and Sustainable Trade Facilitation for six participants in United Nations Special Programme for the Economies of Central Asia (SPECA), namely Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, reviewing the progress of trade facilitation reforms and provides a detailed analysis based on 58 trade facilitation measures covering both binding and non-binding WTO TFA measures, as well as measures beyond the scope of WTO TFA.
The analysis presented in this report, based on the latest data available, confirms that digital trade facilitation measures can result in significant benefits to the countries in the subregion. Full Implementation of binding and non-binding WTO TFA measures could decrease trade costs by more than 11%. On the other hand, digital trade facilitation measures enabling the seamless electronic exchange of trade data and documents across borders will help significantly reduce trade costs by more than 20% for SPECA in a full implementation scenario.
Moving forward, trade facilitation implementation may be seen as a step-by-step process, based on the groups of measures included in the survey i.e., enhancing the institutional arrangement; establishing transparency; implementing efficient trade formalities; development of paperless trade systems, followed by enabling trade data and documents within these systems, including national Single Windows, to be safely and securely used and reused by authorized stakeholders along the international supply chain. Especially in the case of paperless and cross-border paperless trade, countries need to work together to develop and implement the legal and technical protocols needed for the seamless exchange of regulatory and commercial data and documents within and between countries.
The report was jointly prepared by ESCAP and ECE.</p
Technical cooperation highlights 2020-2021
No full textAs the regional arm of the United Nations, the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) promotes cooperation among countries in pursuit of solutions to sustainable development challenges across the Asia-Pacific region. ESCAP’s support to its member States is multifaceted, and includes action-oriented knowledge, technical assistance, and capacity-building services that support national development objectives, regional agreements and the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
In 2020, ESCAP repositioned its support to countries as they responded to the socio-economic crisis presented by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Socio-Economic Response to COVID-19: ESCAP Framework, outlines this strategy. The Framework consists of three streams of work united by the over-arching and cross-cutting principle of building back better. In addition, ESCAP’s Framework promotes forging regional and subregional solutions across the three broad areas, and in line with the priorities of the Regional Roadmap for the 2030 Agenda, especially the means of implementation.
The Technical Cooperation Highlights 2020-2021 tells the story of how ESCAP, drawing on over seventy years of regional cooperation and partnerships, has supported its member States over the past two years work towards the dual and interrelated objectives of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals while also recovering sustainably from the impacts of the global pandemic.</p