Transcript PRESENTATION NAME - Regional Commissions

MDG Priorities in Asia and the Pacific
Dr. Noeleen Heyzer
Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations
and Executive Secretary of ESCAP
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Key ESCAP Resources on MDGs
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Impressive progress
 Impressive gains in many MDG indicators,
especially in reducing poverty.
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Between 1990 and 2005, the number of poor people declined from
1.5 billion to 947 million
 The region is also on track for another key target
namely universal access to primary school
 Asia and the Pacific is an early achiever for some
targets
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Reducing gender disparities in primary and tertiary education
Halving the proportion of people without access to safe drinking water
Stopping the spread of HIV and AIDS and tuberculosis
Reducing consumption of ozone-depleting substances
But the region is lagging behind for some
important targets
 Slow progress on many others such as
– In reducing hunger
– In achieving higher standards of health
– In ensuring that girls and boys complete the primary
education
– In reducing child mortality
– In improving maternal health
– In providing basic sanitation
 Need to step up efforts
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Country groups on and off track for the MDGs
Status of achievement for 21 indicators based on latest internationally comparable data for sub-regions
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Considerable variation between
country groupings and sub-regions
 The region’s 14 least developed countries have made slow or no
progress on most indicators
 Performing well only on gender equality in primary and
secondary education and in reducing the prevalence of HIV
and AIDS and TB.
 The greatest progress has been made by South-East Asia which
has already achieved nine out of the 21 assessed indicators and
is on track for another four
 The North and Central-Asian countries (including Russian
Federation) are also early achievers for eight of the indicators
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Considerable variation between
country groupings and sub-regions
 South Asia is an early achiever or on track for nine
indicators but is progressing only slowly on many
others
 The Pacific Island countries have also been less
successful, regressing or making no progress in 11
indicators and advancing only slowly in another three
 Also moving forward slowly on expanding access to
improved sanitation facilities and safe drinking water
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• The Proportion of undernourished has fallen only
slightly
• The total number of hungry people barely changed.
Undernourishment by Regions
Asia and the Pacific
East Asia
Southeast Asia
South Asia
Central Asia
Western Asia
Oceania
Latin America and the Caribbean
Near East and North Africa
Sub-Saharan Africa
Developing World
WORLD
Source: FAO
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% of population
1990-92
2004-06
20
16
15
10
24
15
25
23
8
10
38
13
12
13
12
8
6
34
20
16
8
30
16
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millions
1990-92
2004-06
586
566
183
136
106
85
286
337
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6
6
2
1
1
53
45
19
169
826
845
34
212
858
873
Strategies to Reduce Hunger and Improve Food Security
• Creating jobs and increasing incomes
• Boosting agricultural production
• Maintaining stable and reasonable food prices
• Providing safety nets for the poor
• Implementing feeding programmes
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Improving Basic Services such as Health and
Education is a Key for Achievement of Many
MDGs
• Investing more in basic services
• Ensuring social inclusion and equal access to
social services
• Giving priority to maternal and child health
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Strengthening basic infrastructure
 Achieving the MDGs in the region will require stronger basic
infrastructure, particularly road transport, water supply, sanitation,
electricity, information technology, telecommunications and urban lowincome housing
 The linkage between poverty reduction and infrastructure has been
established through several regional studies.
 Better rural roads, for example, expand markets for marginal and
small farmers and thus reduce rural poverty
 They also allow households better access to schools and health
centres.
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Infrastructure gaps in the Asia-Pacific
• Infrastructure gaps in Asia-Pacific are wide between
countries and within countries
• e.g.
– About 23% of households still without access to electricity
– About 24% of rural population do not have access to all-season
roads
• Closing infrastructure gaps
• For 2010-2020, the needs are nearly $800 billion per annum
• Also an opportunity to generate additional aggregate demand for
sustaining the region’s dynamism in post-crisis world
• Scope for regional cooperation in infrastructure development
• Regional financial architecture could assist in efficiently
mobilizing regional savings for closing these gaps
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Seven key drivers for accelerating progress
towards MDGs
• Rebalancing Asia-Pacific economies in favour of
greater domestic consumption
• Making economic growth more inclusive and
sustainable
• Strengthening social protection
• Reducing persistent gender gaps
• Ensuring financial inclusion
• Boosting international economic assistance and
• Exploiting the potential of South-South cooperation
and regional cooperation
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Towards 2015
 The list of drivers is by no means exhaustive
 Each country has to address its own specific needs
and opportunities
 They can help accelerate progress towards many of
the goals where the progress has been slow in order
to sectoral priorities
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Copy of presentation can be
downloaded at:
www.un.org/regionalcommissions
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