Covid-19, climate change and conflict have left Asia-Pacific at a crossroads

The region has made tremendous progress in the past 75 years, but now it faces a series of overlapping and cascading challenges
We need crisis-prepared policies to protect our most vulnerable populations and get back on track to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals

Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana

Published: 3:30am, 23 May, 2022

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The Asia-Pacific region is at a crossroads today. It could further break down or break through to a greener, better and safer future. Since the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) was established in 1947, the region has made extraordinary progress and emerged as a pacesetter of global economic growth that has lifted millions out of poverty.

Yet, as ESCAP celebrates its 75th anniversary this year, we find ourselves facing our biggest shared test amid cascading and overlapping impacts from the Covid-19 pandemic, raging conflicts and the climate crisis.

Few have escaped the effects of the pandemic. Millions of people have been pushed back into extreme poverty, with millions more losing their jobs or livelihoods and a generation of children and young people missing precious time for education and training.

As the pandemic surges and ebbs across countries, the world continues to face the grim implications of failing to keep the temperature increase below 1.5 degrees Celsius and continuing to degrade the natural environment. Throughout 2021 and 2022, countries across Asia and the Pacific were battered by a series of natural disasters, with climate change increasing their frequency and intensity.

Meanwhile, the rapidly evolving crisis in Ukraine will have wide-ranging socioeconomic impacts. Higher prices for fuel and food are increasing food insecurity and hunger across the region.

Rapid economic growth in Asia and the Pacific has come at a heavy price, and the convergence of these three crises has exposed fault lines in a short time. Unfortunately, the hardest-hit people are those with the fewest resources to endure the hardship. This disproportionate pressure on the poorest and most vulnerable is deepening and widening inequalities in both income and opportunity.

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The situation is critical. Many communities are close to tipping points beyond which it will be impossible to recover, but it is not too late.

In this richer yet riskier world, we need more crisis-prepared policies to protect our most vulnerable populations and shift the Asia-Pacific back on course to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals as the target year of 2030 comes closer. Our analysis shows that we are already 35 years behind and will only attain the goals in 2065.

To do so, we must protect people and the planet, exploit digital opportunities, trade and invest together, raise financial resources and manage our debt.

The first task for governments must be to defend the most vulnerable groups by strengthening health and universal social protection systems. At the same time, governments, civil society and the private sector should be acting to preserve our planet and mitigate and adapt to climate change while defending people from the devastation of natural disasters.

For many measures, governments can exploit technological innovations. Human activities are steadily becoming “digital by default”. To turn the digital divide into a digital dividend, governments should encourage more robust digital infrastructure and improve access along with the necessary education and training to enhance knowledge-intensive internet use.

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Much of the investment for services will rely on sustainable economic growth fuelled by equitable international trade and foreign direct investment. The region is among the largest sources and recipients of global FDI flows, which is especially important in a pandemic recovery environment of fiscal tightness.

While trade links have evolved into a complex noodle bowl of bilateral and regional agreements, there is ample scope to further lower trade and investment transaction costs through simplified procedures, digitalisation and climate-smart strategies. Such changes are proving to be profitable business strategies. For example, full digital facilitation could cut average trade costs by more than 13 per cent.

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Governments can create sufficient fiscal space to allow for greater investment in sustainable development. Additional financial resources can be raised through progressive tax reforms, innovative financing instruments and more effective debt management. Instruments such as green bonds and arranging debt swaps for development could have the highest impact on inclusivity and sustainability.

Significant efforts must be made to anticipate what lies ahead. In everything we do, we must listen to and work with both young and old, fostering intergenerational solidarity. Also, women must be at the centre of crisis-prepared policy action.

This week, ESCAP is expected to agree on a common agenda for sustainable development in Asia and the Pacific, pinning the aspirations of the region on moving forward together by learning from and working with each other.

In the past 75 years, ESCAP has been a vital source of knowledge and support for the governments and people of Asia and the Pacific. We remain ready to serve in the implementation of this common agenda.

To quote United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres, “the choices we make, or fail to make, today could result in further breakdown or a breakthrough to a greener, better, safer future. The choice is ours to make; but we will not have this chance again.”

Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana is the United Nations undersecretary general and executive secretary of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific

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