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Seasonal outlook to socio-economic impact based forcasting : proposed methodology and key results - building on the seasonal forecasts of South Asia Climate Outlook Forums 2020
Get PDFImpact-based forecasting signals an evolution from “what the weather will be” to “what the weather will do” and thus bridges the gaps between national weather services and the end users such as disaster risk management and development sector communities. It is a user-friendly way of communicating the climate risk information to support risk-informed and strategic decision-making for enhanced preparedness and in-season policy interventions. Recognizing its value for risk reduction, resilience building and prevention, the member States requested ESCAP to strengthen impact based forecasting capacities in the region.
This working paper introduces a methodological concept that translates the pre-monsoon seasonal outlook to multi-sector impact-based forecasting. Building on the seasonal forecasts for precipitation available from South Asia Climate Outlook Forums (SASCOFs) and risk profiles of the region from the Asia-Pacific Disaster Report 2019, it provides customized risk scenarios and impact-based forecasting for disaster risk management and for addressing climate risks in key development sectors such as agriculture, energy, health and water management. It sets an example of operationalizing the WMO global framework of climate services; identifies and narrows down the areas of potential impacts that may emanate from the climate events on the people, economy, and their livelihood for strategic policy interventions and enhanced preparedness. It also highlights the scope for improvement in impact-based forecasting with additional and more precise information on hazards, risk profiles and socio-economic exposure and vulnerability
Carbon pricing options - to tax or trade?
Get PDFAs argued in Economic and Social Survey 2020, carbon pricing is an integral part of climate action. However, while there is growing momentum, it remains a relatively new concept especially in developing countries. This policy brief compares carbon taxes and emission trading system, the two most common forms of explicit carbon pricing. It also highlights the key elements to consider in establishing them
Social Outlook for Asia and the Pacific : The Protection We Want
Get PDFCountries in Asia and the Pacific need to extend social protection coverage for all. Doing so would help them build back better after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Social protection: a cornerstone of sustainable development
Social protection is first and foremost a human right
Anchored in human rights instruments, social protection schemes provide cash or in-kind support for people facing contingencies associated with having children, getting sick, acquiring a disability, losing a job or a breadwinner, or growing older (Figure 1). Social protection also provides support against shocks, such as natural disasters, economic crises and pandemics.
Social protection is society’s primary line of defence
The COVID-19 pandemic has seen many countries strengthening existing schemes and introducing ad hoc social protection measures. Yet well-resourced social protection systems built over time are far better equipped to respond to the unexpected.
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Policy responses to COVID-19 : repurposing national highways for good: intelligent transport systems (ITS) merging road and data traffic
Get PDFCOVID-19 pandemic has shaken the world to its core. Asia-Pacific leaders are simultaneously struggling to save lives and livelihoods. Working from home, online pedagogy and telemedicine are the new normal. This has exposed the region’s urban-rural digital fault line and fragility of its digital networks.
Optical fiber cable (OFC) is the critical element in universal access to broadband. But its deployment is prohibitive due to massive costs (80%) attributed to civil works and payments for rights-of-way. Such investment also takes a much longer time (15 years) to recover. It has led mobile operators to plug their 4G mobile towers with OFC in the urban areas for faster recovery of investments. As a result, the urban-rural gap of broadband has grown, as evidenced during the ongoing pandemic.
A reduction of this urban-rural broadband gap is imperative, as education, business and medical care are increasingly going online. But Asia-Pacific governments are not in a position to undertake the massive budgetary commitment of civil construction for the ubiquitous OFC deployment.
Concurrent with the construction of national roads and highways, the laying of duct for OFC under “Dig Once” policy offloads this burden. It offers significant time and cost savings from the installation of ducts during the road construction. This infrastructure gets shared by the mobile network operators (MNOs) and Internet service providers (ISPs), which greatly reduces the costs of delivering meaningful broadband to rural citizens. It has shown promising results in Africa, Asia and in some states in the United States of America.
Asia-Pacific leaders can take the “Dig Once” policy to a higher sphere by incorporating the OFC segment for intelligent transport systems (ITS). Road authorities can deploy OFC under “Dig Once” policy much ahead of installing the ITS and start earning revenue from leasing the surplus capacity to the MNOs and ISPs. Examples of such repurposing of OFC prevail in the railway and power sectors.
Roads and highways will be merely an addition to the existing portfolio of such repurposed national infrastructure. It throws a lifeline for universal access to broadband as well as guarantees network readiness for accelerated deployment of ITS. ITS enhance road safety, which saves many hundred thousand lives from road accidents as well.
Therefore, leapfrogging to economic progress through universal digitization with simultaneous improvement of road safety are embedded in the OFC network of ITS under the “Dig Once” policy. All this groundbreaking policy formulation requires inclusive engagements among the Asia-Pacific governments and multiple development partners. The region’s road transport sector is poised to take the ICT sector farther than where the railway and power sectors have been taken. The result will be unprecedented.</p
Economic and social survey of Asia and the Pacific 2020 : towards sustainable economies
Get PDFDecades of high economic growth in the Asia-Pacific region have transformed its socioeconomic landscape – lifting a billion people out of extreme poverty in the past two decades and raising living standards of even greater numbers. However, such growth has been accompanied by growing inequality of income and opportunity and is beginning to breach planetary limits, thus endangering the well-being of future generations. Yet, the Asia-Pacific region is not on track to achieve any of the 17 Goals by 2030 if we continue on our business-as-usual pathway. The largest regression is in Goal 12: Ensuring sustainable consumption and production patterns. This situation calls for a rethink of the economic growth-centric development model.
The 2020 Survey proposes a transition towards cleaner production and less material-intensive lifestyles supported by enabling policies. It further calls for all stakeholders, notably Governments, businesses and consumers, to urgently align their own goals actions with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. It identifies the constraints that different stakeholders face and provides a holistic policy package to power through the challenges.
Watch a recording of the Virtual Launch :
MPFD Policy Briefs
No. 104: Moving businesses towards decarbonization
No. 105: Setting sustainability standards for the financial system in Asia-Pacific
No. 106: Nudges as a tool for promoting sustainable consumer behavior in Asia-Pacific
No. 107: Raising the level of ambition on carbon pricing in Asia and Pacific
No. 108: Carbon pricing options - to tax or trade?
No. 109: Businesses move forward with carbon pricing
No. 110: Move from GDP to comprehensive indicator frameworks in Asia and the Pacific</a
Applying urban nexus approach for achievement of sustainable development goals (SDGs)
Get PDFCurrently (2018), more than half of the world's population lives in cities. The Asia-Pacific region alone is home to 54 per cent of the world's urban population and projections suggest an increase of its urban population by 1.4 billion by 2050 (UNESCAP, 2019)1. By 2050, 68 per cent of people in the region will live in urban areas.
Cities have emerged as centers of growing resource demand, and meeting this demand will become increasingly difficult given that the world will face a 40 per cent shortfall of water (WWAP 2015)2, a 50per cent increase in food demand (UN 2014)3, and a 40 per cent increase in electricity consumption (IEA 2017) by 20404. The growing demand on resources for cities is driven by rapid population growth, resource-intensive lifestyles associated with increasing income level, uncontrolled conversion of land from rural to urban, and social and cultural factors. The increased demand of cities on resources has led to their continuous overexploitation and environmental harm.
In many countries, resource use and development by urban areas is still managed by sectoral departments (water, energy, agriculture, food) in an uncoordinated manner. Interactions between urban sectors are not properly recognized and managed, resulting in inefficiencies, failure to optimize cost savings and lost opportunities to capture and utilise potential synergies across sectors. Minimizing trade-offs and maximizing synergies across these sectors would contribute significantly to addressing priorities for communities, as well as local, regional and global resource challenges.
Cities will play a vital role in most of the underlying policies and investments for resource-efficient growth and sustainable development. Therefore, proper engagement and actions by cities are crucial for achieving sustainable development in both urban and rural areas. It has been estimated that per cent of SDG targets will be at risk without proper engagement of and coordination with local (including city) and regional governments
Inequality of opportunity : who are those left behind in Nepal?
Get PDFThe Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted the need to uncover those most vulnerable, who are left behind in key opportunities and services. This revised paper explores available data from Nepal to identify those groups that have been left furthest behind in a range of indicators, many of which are directly linked to Covid-19. Using innovative methodologies and analytical tools, the paper reveals gaps between those who have access to basic opportunities and services, and those who don't