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Targeting transformative disaster risk resilience in East and North East Asia : Asia-Pacific Disaster Report 2024 for ESCAP subregions
No full textThe "Asia-Pacific Disaster Report 2024" focuses on transformative disaster resilience in East and North-East Asia. It highlights the rising frequency and severity of climate-related disasters in the subregion due to climate change, affecting millions, causing significant economic losses, and threatening biodiversity. The report identifies critical climate hotspots in China, Japan, Mongolia, Democratic Peoples' Republic of Korea, and Republic of Korea, with increased risks of floods, droughts, heatwaves, and biodiversity loss. It also emphasizes the need for enhanced climate adaptation strategies, disaster risk reduction, and early warning systems (EWS) to protect vulnerable communities. Through transformative adaptation, including investments in resilient infrastructure, technology-driven EWS, and cross-border cooperation, the report calls for regional collaboration to improve disaster preparedness, support sustainable development, and mitigate economic impacts. </p
Report on sustainable urban transport index : Almaty, Kazakhstan
No full textPublic transport plays a dominant role in the share of movements of people in Almaty city. Together with active mobility, it accounts for about 59 per cent of all trips. This robust public transport system not only facilitates the city’s economy growth but also meets the population’s need for affordable transport. Different modes of public transport are well integrated, and the digital fare payment system is very popular.
This report discusses the exiting urban public transport system in Almaty City, Kazakhstan and assess the sustainability of the urban public transport system in the city using the ESCAP Sustainable Urban Transport Index (SUTI) methodology.
The evaluation of SUTI indicators revealed gaps in reporting within the public transport sector and the need for further digitalization in the industry. This will allow for more rapid monitoring of changes and more accurately planned investments in sustainable urban mobility. With seven out of ten SUTI indicators, Almaty demonstrates good development progress. However, the main shortcomings are primarily attributed to a lack of availability of updated data on certain indicators, indicating the need to build the capacity and capabilities of the city administration in a more comprehensive assessment of the situation in the transport system using digital tools. The introduction of SUTI can help to identify specific policy measures for strategic planning of transport system in Almaty as well as in other major cities in Kazakhstan.</p
SDG 16 : Peace, justice and strong institutions: promote peaceful and inclusive societies
No full textSDG 16 highlights the need for peaceful societies, access to justice and effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels. Its realization is essential for achieving all SDGs, for fulfilling the aim of leaving no one behind and enabling the protection and promotion of all human rights. In 2023, the Global Peace Index (Institute for Economics and Peace, 2023) noted a slight improvement in peacefulness in the Asia-Pacific region—taken to include East, Southeast and North Asia and the Pacific countries. Scores worsened for six countries in this region, driven chiefly by increased internal armed conflict, while 13 countries recorded improvements. An analysis by Freedom House revealed a nominal improvement in political and civil liberties in the Asia-Pacific region (Freedom House, 2023). Improvements likely stemmed from prodemocracy and pro-reform movements in some countries, relatively free and fair elections, and eased pandemic-related restrictions. However, severe restrictions on civic and political space and fundamental freedoms, including threats and attacks on media and human rights defenders, persisted in the region, alongside profound human rights and humanitarian crises (OHCHR, 2022). Transnational organized crime syndicates in Southeast Asia are expanding in scale and complexity, undermining the region's security and stability. Traditional threats like trafficking and corruption continue alongside emerging issues like trafficking in persons for forced criminality. The profile for SDG 16 was developed by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) with inputs from the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA), the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS).</p
ESCAP-World Bank trade cost database
No full textThe ESCAP Trade, Investment and Innovation Division, in support to the ARTNeT research programme on trade facilitation, initiated development of a bilateral trade cost database in 2010 in an effort to increase understanding of the cost of trading between countries in Asia and the Pacific and beyond. The trade cost measure, based on Novy (2012) [1], is a comprehensive all-inclusive measure based on micro-theory and calculated using macro-economic data, providing an alternative measure of trade facilitation performance. Following release of a first version of the database in 2010 using trade and GDP data, an improved and expanded version 2 was released in December 2011 - based on gross output data and providing sectoral trade cost estimates for about 100 countries. In late 2011, United Nations ESCAP and the World Bank (WB) joined hands to develop a common standard methodology for calculating comprehensive international trade costs and provide the research and policy community with a global reference [2]. The current version includes data from 1995 to 2019 for over 180 countries.
Note: In addition to maintaining the ESCAP-World Bank trade cost dataset, ESCAP also issued a Value-added trade cost database, based on the OECD-WTO TiVA data and which includes trade cost in services. The database is available here. More information and a preliminary analysis of that dataset is available here. More recently, ESCAP has also developed a simple methodology to forecast ESCAP-World Bank trade costs based on EIU data, available here.
Updated: July 2021 [1] http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1465-7295.2011.00439.x/abs</p
Targeting transformative disaster risk resilience in South and South-West Asia : Asia-Pacific Disaster Report 2024 for ESCAP Subregions
No full textThe “Asia-Pacific Disaster Report 2024” highlights the growing severity of climate-related disasters in South and South-West Asia, driven by climate change and impacting millions of lives, economies, and ecosystems. Over the past five decades, the region has endured over one million fatalities, $485 billion in damages, and three billion affected lives. Climate hazards such as droughts, floods, heatwaves, and surface winds are emerging and intensifying. Areas like the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna basin, Indus basin and parts of Türkiye, Bhutan, and Nepal consistently emerge as hotspot for intensifying multi-hazard across all climate scenarios. Biodiversity, including critical mangrove ecosystems, faces increasing pressure, further jeopardizing regional resilience. Despite progress in sustainable development, the region struggles with regressing performance on climate-focused SDG 13. Addressing these challenges necessitates transformative adaptation strategies, integrating risk-informed investments, technology-driven innovations, and robust policy reforms. It also emphasizes the need for enhanced climate adaptation strategies, disaster risk reduction, and early warning systems (EWS) to protect vulnerable communities. Through transformative adaptation, including investments in resilient infrastructure, technology-driven EWS, and cross-border cooperation, the report calls for regional collaboration to improve disaster preparedness, support sustainable development, and mitigate economic impacts.</p
Partial and general equilibrium impacts of trade digitalization using structural gravity model
Get PDFThe study estimates partial and general equilibrium impacts of trade digitalization on trade flows using data from the UN Trade Digitalization Index (TDI) 2024 and a structural gravity model. This approach, unlike earlier gravity model studies on the topic, allows for the derivation of both trade and welfare effects associated with trade digitalization. Estimated partial equilibrium effects suggest that a 10 percent increase in trade digitalization may increase trade flows by approximately 8 percent globally. Based on the gravity model estimates, a general equilibrium model is constructed. Counterfactual simulations are conducted to further assess the potential effects of various trade digitalization reforms, where countries in different world regions and globally are brought from their current state of implementation to a common level. The general equilibrium results indicate that global trade increases by nearly 5 percent when partial implementation of the trade digitalization measures included in the UN TDI is achieved. When full trade digitalization is implemented, trade rises by almost 13 percent. Real wages also increase by over 3 percent when trade digitalization measures included in the UN TDI are fully implemented. Concurrently, producer prices fall by nearly 4 percent globally under the full implementation scenario. While the size of impacts varies across regions, the direction of impacts is consistent across all regions, confirming that trade digitalization offers great opportunities in inducing trade, as well as in increasing wages and reducing costs for consumers. The Pacific Islands and Sub-Saharan Africa emerge as the top beneficiaries in terms of potential trade growth, suggesting that trade digitalization be prioritized as part of their sustainable development plans
Model framework for policy action on the care economy : concept paper
Get PDFThe final publication in the toolkit, Valuing Unpaid Care and Domestic Work and Investing in the Care Economy: A Policymaker’s Guide, serves as an inter-ministerial guide for implementing the MFA. This guide is strategically crafted to directly support policymakers, especially those within ministries of women's affairs and related governmental departments, in effectively organizing and conducting national consultations on the care economy, fostering alliances with other line ministries. Tailored to support a comprehensive three-day consultation process, the guide is structured into phases: conceptual introduction, targeted consultations, and strategic planning. Each phase is designed to help ministries identify policy entry points, establish shared principles, and develop cohesive action plans tailored to their specific contexts.
Related working papers: How to Invest in the Care Economy: A Primer; Model Framework for Policy Action on the Care Economy Concept Paper; ‘Designing Policymaker Training to Address the Care Economy: A Facilitator’s Manual’.</p
New Zealand - United Kingdom FTA environmental goods list : HS2017 to HS2012 conversion note
Get PDFFree Trade Agreement between New Zealand and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (NZ – UK FTA) concluded in February 2022 and enforced from May 2023 in its Article 22.7 states the intention of the parties to eliminate customs duties on bilateral trade in environmental goods. For the purposes of this agreement, environmental goods are defined as “goods which can positively contribute to the clean growth and sustainable development objectives of the Parties, including climate change mitigation and adaptation, and wider environmental goals.
Annex 22A to the agreement, provides a list of 293 HS2017 six-digit subheadings associated with 324 product categories that can, directly or indirectly, provide environmental benefits. In addition to HS six-digit codes and HS subheading descriptions, Annex 22A includes additional product specifications (where applicable) and remarks on the environmental benefit associated with each product included.
To ensure comparability of analysis implemented with the help of Trade Intelligence and Negotiation Advisor (TINA), conversion of six-digit subheadings listed Annex 22A from HS2017 to HS2012 version was undertaken. The purpose of this technical note is to describe the conversion process and to substantiate individual conversion decisions made in this process. </p