Fatou Diene, an oyster farmer in the mangroves near Dionewar Island, Senegal. Across the globe, farmers are adopting low-emission practices, restoring degraded lands, and protecting biodiversity. With the right support, they can do much more. Credit: ©FAO/Sylvain Cherkaoui

By Kaveh Zahedi
ROME, Sep 5 2025 (IPS)

Despite absorbing a quarter of climate-related losses and having the potential to reduce one-third of global emissions, agrifood systems receive less than 8% of climate finance. This imbalance threatens progress in addressing global climate challenges. If we’re serious about solutions, we need to start where the impact—and the promise—is greatest: investing in the systems that feed the world.

As countries move forward along the Baku to Belem Roadmap and the collective goal of mobilizing $1.3 trillion in climate finance by 2030, a critical juncture is fast approaching. At the upcoming Standing Committee on Finance Forum, to be held at the headquarters of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in Rome, governments will have a chance to correct this imbalance – and seize an opportunity that is already yielding results.

No serious path to achieve climate goals exists without agriculture. Yet despite this central role, the sector remains chronically overlooked in climate finance strategies and often is associated only with high perceived risks instead of its potential.

No serious path to achieve climate goals exists without agriculture. Yet despite this central role, the sector remains chronically overlooked in climate finance strategies and often is associated only with high perceived risks instead of its potential

The result is a persistent underinvestment in one of the few areas where mitigation, adaptation, and development gains can be achieved together—and at scale. Strategic investments in agriculture can strengthen national resilience, deliver measurable climate mitigation, reduce inequality, and expand economic opportunities.

Small-scale producers, who grow a third of the world’s food, received less than 1% of climate finance in the most recent two-year window. Livestock systems, which are major contributors to methane emissions, drew just 2% of climate development funding in 2023.

This gap represents a missed opportunity to accelerate progress on climate, food security, and livelihoods – especially in vulnerable regions.

We know what works. Between 2000 and 2022, emissions per value of agricultural production declined by 39%. Smarter, more efficient food systems are already taking shape. While current emissions from the agriculture sector are a major concern, these early successes demonstrate the potential of large-scale investments.

When we invest in agrifood systems, we are doing more than reducing emissions. We are expanding access to nutritious food, creating jobs in rural communities, increasing productivity, and restoring ecosystems. These are compound gains, spanning development and climate priorities alike.

Unlocking this potential will require deploying the full range of financing tools. The $1.3 trillion target cannot be met through public finance alone. It will require a mix of public, private, and domestic resources, aligned with countries’ needs and grounded in strong partnerships. Bilateral and multilateral finance will continue to play an important role.

Recent debt relief initiatives, including those from the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development, are also expected to help countries create the fiscal space needed to prioritize agrifood transformation.

The private sector is beginning to respond. From 2016 to 2021, climate-focused blended finance transactions targeting smallholder farmers grew from 26% to 36%, with 60% achieving both adaptation and mitigation benefits.

But this momentum must be sustained and expanded. Private investors still face real barriers: limited data, unclear policies, and a lack of investment-ready projects. Initiatives like FAO’s Green Climate Fund Readiness Programme are helping countries close those gaps and attracting greater capital into agricultural transformation.

Carbon markets offer another avenue to unlock value. Properly designed, they can reward farmers and rural communities for climate-positive practices. But current structures in voluntary carbon markets fall short.

As of 2023, agrifood projects made up just 1% of credits from voluntary carbon markets, with three-quarters concentrated in five countries. Smallholders and low-income economies are effectively excluded.

New global mechanisms under the Paris Agreement Article 6 offer a chance to reset this system. Countries need support to prepare robust measurement frameworks, reliable data and inventories, and inclusive governance. With the support from the Global Environment Facility in over 70 countries, this foundation is already being laid.

There are also powerful opportunities in optimizing how existing public funds are spent. Modelling in 6 Sub-Saharan countries shows that reallocations across different policy-support measures can generate additional agrifood GDP growth points, create almost a million off-farm jobs, lift more than 2 million people out of poverty, and reduce more than 700,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions.

This is not unique to a country. Through the GEF Food Systems Integrated Programme, co-led by FAO and IFAD, countries around the world are finding ways to make public budgets go further—generating climate benefits, economic growth, and social inclusion at once.

The challenge before us is simple to state, but difficult to resolve. Mobilizing climate finance is not simply a function of volume but also of the quality of the investments and the people it serves.

Without greater ambition, climate finance will not flow at the necessary scale and with the appropriate instruments. But climate ambition will stall unless finance reaches the sectors most capable of delivering transformation.

The Rome forum is a critical moment. It is a chance to align climate finance with climate opportunity. Through partnerships like the Food and Agriculture for Sustainable Transformation (FAST) Partnership and with a growing coalition of public and private actors, we can mobilize new resources, build better systems, and deliver real outcomes.

Farmers are already leading the way. Across the globe, they are adopting low-emission practices, restoring degraded lands, and protecting biodiversity. With the right support, they can do much more.

The window for action is narrowing. But the opportunity in agriculture is wide open. The question now is whether we will invest in it – at the scale and speed this moment demands.

Excerpt:

Plastic has worked its way into every corner of the food system. Credit: Giorgio Cosulich / FAO

By Kaveh Zahedi
ROME, Jun 11 2025 (IPS)

Each year, more than 12.5 million tonnes of plastic are used in agriculture alone, and another 37 million tonnes become food packaging. Very little gets recycled.

You don’t have to look far to see how plastic has worked its way into every corner of the food system. Seedling trays, mulch films, irrigation tubing, shipping crates, cling wrap. And that’s before it even hits the shelves. It’s efficient, cheap, and convenient, helping to protect crops and reduce food losses—but it lingers.

Plastic waste doesn’t disappear. It breaks down, over years, into particles too small to see.FAO’s research confirms that even tiny amounts of plastics can affect water retention, microbial activity, and plant growth. It also finds evidence that microplastics and plastic-associated chemicals can be absorbed by crops, potentially reaching edible parts

Plastic waste doesn’t disappear. It breaks down, over years, into particles too small to see.
FAO’s research confirms that even tiny amounts of plastics can affect water retention, microbial activity, and plant growth. It also finds evidence that microplastics and plastic-associated chemicals can be absorbed by crops, potentially reaching edible parts. These findings – due to be published later in 2025 – reinforce the need for immediate action to reduce plastic inputs in agriculture and protect the health of soils, crops, and consumers.

The Food and Agriculture Organization is helping governments, farmers, and industries cut down on plastic waste—through smarter use, better alternatives, and practical changes on the ground that bring better production, better nutrition, better environment and better lives and don’t compromise the bottom line for farmers.

As part of the response, FAO’s Provisional Voluntary Code of Conduct built through consultations with governments, scientists, producers, and private companies can guide the sustainable use of plastics in agriculture. It offers clear, actionable advice: reduce where possible, reuse when practical, recycle when safe. It points towards a gradual transition away from short-lived plastics, without putting food security or farmer’s incomes at risk.

One promising frontier is the shift toward bio-based and biodegradable materials—drawn from agricultural residues, organic matter, and natural polymers. FAO supports innovation through bioeconomy to help farmers replace conventional plastics with options that break down safely and support soil health.

Consider the banana sector. Plastic bags, twine, and wraps have long been standard in large plantations. FAO’s World Banana Forum has been working with producers and researchers to change that. By sharing practical guidance and exploring alternatives, farmers are beginning to cut down on plastic use and reduce the waste leaking into surrounding environments.

Then there’s the issue of pesticide containers. Too often, these are burned or tossed into fields, releasing toxic residue into the soil and air. FAO is piloting safer disposal methods—like the triple-rinse technique—and helping countries establish collection and recycling systems.

Together with the International Atomic Energy Agency, FAO is leading research on microplastic detection in soil. They’re using advanced isotopic techniques and working to develop standardized testing methods so countries can measure the problem and respond effectively.

Concerns don’t end with the soil. Microplastics have been found in water, salt, fish, and even some vegetables. FAO has conducted scientific reviews on how these particles move through food systems, and what they might mean for human health. Research is ongoing, especially around effects on the gut microbiome, but efforts are already underway to improve testing and keep consumers informed.

National programs are starting to shift practices in real time. In Sri Lanka, FAO’s CIRCULAR project, funded by the European Union, is helping reduce single-use packaging and improve retail design. In Kenya and Uruguay, FAO is helping develop greener policies through the Financing Agrochemical Reduction and Management” (FARM) project, funded by the Global Environment Facility. The programme combines technical support, farmer outreach, and policy reform to shrink the plastic footprint of agriculture.

The Global Soil Partnership, hosted by FAO, includes the Global Soil Doctors programme—farmer-to-farmer training focused on practical tools to manage soil pollution. Knowledge moves across borders, one field at a time.

Plastic pollution doesn’t stop at the shoreline. Fishing gear—lost, abandoned, or discarded—chokes marine ecosystems and threatens coastal economies. FAO has issued guidelines on marking fishing gear to make it traceable and recoverable. Through the GloLitter Partnerships, implemented by IMO in collaboration with FAO, 30 countries are improving waste management in ports, testing cleaner vessel technologies, and tracking sources of marine litter.

Reducing plastic in agrifood systems isn’t a single solution—it’s a process of rethinking how we grow, move, and consume food in ways that protect people, soils, and oceans alike. Step by step, FAO is working to help countries move toward more sustainable and resilient food systems—ones that don’t rely on plastics to hold them together.

Excerpt:

Sustainable forest management plans are strengthening production systems and lucrative value chains, such as cacao and açaí. Credit: FAO

By Susana Muhamad and Kaveh Zahedi
CALI, Colombia, Oct 29 2024 (IPS)

As countries are meeting in Cali, Colombia, for the 2024 UN Biodiversity Conference (CBD COP 16), the fate of biodiversity hangs in the balance, and with it, the sustainability of our food systems.

Agriculture and food systems are often associated with biodiversity loss. Land-use change, climate change, pollution, overexploitation of wild species, and the spread of invasive species – the main drivers of biodiversity loss – can all be linked to unsustainable agricultural practices.

Sustainable agriculture can enhance biodiversity, improve soil fertility and water availability, support pollination and pest control, while also promoting climate change adaptation and mitigation and healthy diets for all

But there is another side to the coin. Agriculture is central to the sustainable use of biodiversity, an important goal and, possibly, the biggest breakthrough of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), in its roadmap to a world living in harmony with nature.

Sustainable agriculture can enhance biodiversity, improve soil fertility and water availability, support pollination and pest control, while also promoting climate change adaptation and mitigation and healthy diets for all.

Evidence shows that the adoption of agroforestry, for example, cultivating trees, shrubs, and crops together on the same plots, can achieve up to 80% of the biodiversity levels of natural forests, reduce 50% of soil erosion, and boost healthy diets for 1.3 billion people living on degraded land.

Using an ecosystem approach to fisheries could help restore marine fish populations, increasing fisheries production by a staggering 16.5 million tonnes.

In Colombia, the Pacífico Biocultural project, financed by the Global Environment Facility (GEF), harnesses several agrifood systems solutions across the Pacific region of the country, helping biodiversity and communities, including Indigenous Peoples, Afro-descendents and small-scale producers, to flourish.

Sustainable forest management plans are strengthening production systems and lucrative value chains, such as cacao and açaí.

The project is working to restore mangroves, which defend the region against coastal erosion and extreme weather events. This also improves the harvest of piangua, a native mollusk valuable for both nutrition and livelihoods.

The project has provided new and existing protected areas with upgraded equipment and management plans. Ecotourism and bird watching corridors in these areas are creating new green jobs.

Among the main achievements of the Pacífico Biocultural project, the following stand out:

• Five ethnic territory planning instruments formulated or updated, covering 195,107.35 hectares;
• Increased management effectiveness for 586.035 hectares in eight protected areas;
• 27 green business initiatives, seven added value units (UVAs), and six community-based nature tourism initiatives supported; and
• Structured and implemented Participatory Ecological Restoration Plans in mangrove and tropical rainforest areas on 1,000 hectares.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) also leads the implementation of two other projects in the country, in coordination with the Ministry of Environment of Colombia.

The ‘Paisajes Sostenibles – Herencia Colombia (HeCo)’ project, financed by the EU, uses an integrated landscape approach, to achieve sustainability in agrifood systems in Colombia´s two strategic biodiversity regions – the Caribbean and Andes.

In the ecological corridor between the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta and the Ramsar site Ciénaga Grande de Santa Marta of the Caribbean region, the project works on the sustainability of coffee plantations, beekeeping, and tourism production chains in coastal areas.

In Ciénaga, it works on the artisanal fishing chain, mangrove restoration, tourism, and circular economy initiatives to address plastic pollution. In the Cordillera Central moorland ecosystem, the project aims to improve the sustainability of livestock management in the high mountains, hand in hand with the traditional inhabitants.

With an emphasis on the Amazon Biome, the Green Climate Fund (GCF)-funded ‘GCF-Visión Amazonía’ project, in collaboration with Colombia’s Ministry of Environment and the Institute of Hydrology, Meteorology and Environmental Studies (IDEAM), helps implement the REDD+ National Strategy, ‘Bosques Territorios de Vida,’ and the Deforestation Containment Plan. It specifically aims to shift from deforestation towards sustainable forestry development.

Colombia is clearly at the forefront of promoting the sustainability of agrifood systems. But while agrifood systems are receiving more attention in biodiversity policies, especially in National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs), most countries find it difficult to carry out these pledges.

The ability to incorporate biodiversity into policies and practices is frequently lacking in the agrifood sector. The amount of money that is available is insufficient to bring about change.

Today, we must consider how to scale up actions and investment to transform agrifood systems. Countries are updating their NBSAPs, to begin implementing the GBF.

Including biodiversity-friendly agrifood solutions and taking farmers, fisherfolk, and livestock herders and producers into account is an essential first step. Having a framework of policies which enable sustainable agrifood systems will smooth the path to creating peace with nature.

To help countries with this effort, FAO, the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) Secretariat, governments, and partners are launching the Agri-NBSAPs Support Initiative during the high-level segment of COP 16.

It proposes a work plan that includes tasks to help create an environment that is conducive to biodiversity, collect the best data for implementing and measuring biodiversity-friendly policies, obtain funding, and increase understanding.

The transition to sustainable, resilient, and inclusive agrifood systems will be accelerated by helping nations create and implement their NBSAPs and harmonize them with agrifood policies and interventions.

The GBF is an ambitious plan, a challenging plan. But in the long term, it will pay off for us and future generations. Biodiversity is the foundation of food security and nutrition, and an irreplaceable asset in our battle against climate change and its effects. Yet it continues to decline faster than at any time in human history.

Nature has enormous recuperative powers. Let’s give her all the help and opportunities we can to get back on her feet by restoring and sustainably using biodiversity, especially in the pursuit of agriculture. In the future, they will say this was the decade of transformation. We are the generation with the foresight to take steps to ensure the future.

Excerpt:

Bananas encased in plastic bags to protect them from insect and parasitic infestation. Credit: FAO/Giuseppe Bizzarri

By Kaveh Zahedi
ROME, Apr 22 2024 (IPS)

There is a growing wave of plastics, smothering our countryside and lapping at our shores.

Studies have shown we are breathing microplastics, eating microplastics, drinking microplastics, and picking them up through skin contact. Evidence is mounting that they can pose a potential threat to food safety and human health.

Scientists have found microplastics in the gut, human heart tissue and blood. They’ve been detected in breast milk, placentas, and developing brains. There is currently research suggesting that microplastics, a complex mix of chemicals, leach chemical compounds during cooking processes.

Agriculture is a large contributor to this wave. There were 12.5 million tonnes of plastic used in crop and livestock production in 2019 and 37.3 million tonnes in food packaging.

There were 12.5 million tonnes of plastic used in crop and livestock production in 2019 and 37.3 million tonnes in food packaging. Bringing crops and meat from field to fork accounts for 10 million tonnes of plastic every year, followed by fisheries and aquaculture with 2.1 million tonnes and forestry with 0.2 million tonnes, FAO estimates

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) estimates that bringing crops and meat from field to fork accounts for 10 million tonnes of plastic every year, followed by fisheries and aquaculture with 2.1 million tonnes and forestry with 0.2 million tonnes.

In the short term, materials like plastic mulch film on farms are relatively low cost and help improve yields and profits. But once they’re abandoned or lost, the plastic breaks down into microscopic pieces, which pollute soil and water supplies and habitats, and reduce productivity and food security in the long term.

Urgent action is needed – crossing national boundaries and sectors – by governments, producers, farmers, and individual consumers too.

The international community is suiting up for the plastics challenge. The Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on Plastic Pollution could reach a conclusion by 2025. At the same time FAO members are considering means to promote sustainable use and management of plastics in agriculture for stakeholders across the agrifood value chain.

The FAO has also just begun executing a project in Uruguay and Kenya, as part of the Financing Agrochemical Reduction and Management Programme.

Led by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and supported by the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the USD379 million initiative aims to develop legal and financial frameworks in seven pilot countries in all, to help farmers phase out pesticides and plastics and adopt better practices.

Developers forecast the five-year programme will prevent the release of more than 20,000 tons of plastic waste, avoid 35,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions and protect more than 3 million hectares of land from degradation.

The FAO promotes a variety of solutions to the plastic pollution problem, based on the principles of a circular economy.

Depending on the context, these include adopting agricultural practices that avoid the use of problematic plastics; substituting natural, biodegradable, or compostable alternatives; reusing plastic products if there are no harmful contaminants; establishing mandatory schemes for collecting waste and establishing financial incentives to drive behaviour change from production to consumption.

One thing is important. The solutions must not stop at national borders but overlap across agricultural sectors. We need the global framework provided by the legally binding global plastic pollution agreement and the specific details of best practices in the agriculture sector too.

But importantly we must begin now. Everyone must play a part. Plastic pollution in agriculture is a global problem that requires urgent action at every link in the production chain – from governments to farmers, plastics producers to grass roots users and consumers.

We are no strangers to a challenge such as this. The world united on behalf of the ozone layer and won. It is recovering. It’s time to suit up again and employ all the means at our disposal, try as many of the suggested solutions as possible, to slow down and disperse this ever-growing wave. Our health depends on it.

Excerpt:

Credit: iFarmer

By Kaveh Zahedi
BANGKOK, Thailand, Jun 1 2021 (IPS)

Last year, the Asia-Pacific region recorded its worst economic performance in decades. With the pandemic far from over, the region’s recovery is slow, fragile and highly uneven both across and within countries. As the region struggles to recover, how can countries rebuild their economies and revive their development?

The answer can be found in the flea market of Suva, the Facebook commerce online stores of Bangladesh, and the digital learning centers across Viet Nam. In these and so many other spots across the Asia-Pacific region, it is clear that women entrepreneurs are a driving force of recovery and the mainspring of commerce and technology. While we have always known that women entrepreneurs play an essential role in supporting inclusive economic growth in the region, the pandemic has made it more evident than ever that countries ignore women’s role as job creators, employees and contributors to economic expansion at their peril.

Advancing women’s equality in the Asia-Pacific region could add as much as US$ 4.5 trillion – a 12 per cent increase – to the region’s GDP annually by 2025. With the economic slump that countries now face, none can afford to continue to miss out on this largely untapped dividend.

That is why ESCAP – in collaboration with the Government of Canada – initiated the Catalyzing Women’s Entrepreneurship (CWE) programme. The programme addresses three fundamental barriers that are hindering the growth of women-led businesses.

The first is lack of access to finance. The programme works to unlock private capital and use this capital to support women enterprises. This capital – whether as loans, equity, or blended finance – is used to provide targeted support to women entrepreneurs. It has created partnerships and used blended finance to support a range of gender-smart investment mechanisms, including a FinTech challenge fund, impact investment, and a women’s livelihood bond. To date, the programme has supported over 7,000 women to access formal financial services and has unlocked over US$50 million in private capital for women entrepreneurs.

The second barrier is policy. Existing policies and laws often do not recognize the specific issues women-led Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) face.

The programme is working to influence national Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) policies and laws with Government partners in six countries. For example, in Cambodia, the programme worked with the Ministry of Industry Science Technology and Innovation to review the national SME policy and included special measures for women-led MSMEs.

COVID-19 has illustrated that businesses need to have greater resilience and the ability to ensure continuity through times of crisis. This is even more critical in places where other challenges like vulnerability to disasters and climate change have been in play. In Viet Nam, the past year has seen an extreme impact on agricultural farmers – a vast majority of them being women – because of the drought and saltwater intrusion. Based on consultations with female farmers and provincial officials in Ben Tre province – the largest agricultural bed of the country – the programme is developing a strategy to address the impact of climate change on female farmers in the Mekong Delta region.

The third barrier to growth in women-led businesses is skills. Women entrepreneurs need support to become equipped with digital and business skills to manage, sustain and grow their businesses.The CWE programme has assisted women entrepreneurs to use digital tools in their financial management and leveraging e-commerce to reach new clients and expand to new markets. In Cambodia, CWE is helping women entrepreneurs to use the Kotra Riel mobile app, which allows them to record income and expenses, and more importantly, to prepare financial records for their loan and financing applications.

All of these barriers have been in play in the aftermath of the pandemic. As a result, the impact on women and women entrepreneurs across the region has been disproportionate to their male counterparts. Women have continued to take the burden of unpaid care work and homeschooling. Sectors in which women employees work – such as the garment sector – have been hit harder than other industries, impacting women’s employment. Women entrepreneurs, who predominately make up the informal sector, face a range of financial and digital literacy constraints affecting business continuity.

Over the past year, we heard incredible stories of the resilience of the women entrepreneurs that our programme is supporting. We have seen women entrepreneurs repositioning their businesses and building back not only better but more agile, more capable and better prepared for shocks.

Take for example our partner iFarmer, in Bangladesh that quickly established new digitally enabled supply chains to keep women-led businesses running and providing food delivery Or the women enterprise recovery fund, in collaboration with our partners at UNCDF, that is co-financing fintech solutions that support women entrepreneur’s resilience and recovery.

But the scale of the challenge also requires a change in our response. In 2021 we will continue to scale up our work, leverage more capital, replicate and scale up our financing initiatives and share what we have learned. To increase the footprint of the programme, we are also leveraging regional partnerships, including with organizations like ASEAN.

Building back better means ensuring that women entrepreneurs not only survive this crisis but thrive coming out of it. This requires scaling up the resources directed to women-run businesses exponentially. Now that we have the model for success, we are looking for partners from across the private sector and development landscape to help us do just that. Because quite simply, the smartest investment for the SDGs is in the women of Asia and the Pacific.

Find out more at: https://www.unescap.org/projects/cwe

Contact us at: escap-cwe@un.org

Kaveh Zahedi is the Deputy Executive Secretary, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP).

Follow @IPSNewsUNBureau
  

Credit: SHE Investments Cambodia

By Kaveh Zahedi
BANGKOK, Thailand, May 7 2021 (IPS)

We are living through a decisive moment. The COVID-19 pandemic’s devasting impact is reaching every corner of the world. As we look back at this period, we will see history divided into a pre-COVID and a post-COVID world.

And a defining feature of the post-COVID world will be the digital transformation that has permeated every aspect of our lives. Chief Technology Officers can say that the pandemic has done their job for them, accelerating the digitalization of economies and societies at an unimaginable pace.

The digital transformation has gone hand in hand with the rise of digital technologies. These technologies have supported governments to implement social protection schemes at pace and scale. They have enabled e-health and online education, and they are helping businesses continue to operate and trade through digital finance and e-commerce.

However, ensuring that the digital transformation happening all around us does not become another facet of the deep inequalities of the countries in Asia and the Pacific is probably one of the greatest challenges we face as countries start to rebuild.

That is why inclusion must be at the heart of digital transformation if the promise to “leave no one behind” is to be met. In particular, we need to embed inclusive objectives in the four core foundations of the digital economy: Internet access, digital skills, digital financing and e-commerce.

Chances are you are reading this on your laptop or mobile phone, giving you access to the digital world. It is hard for most of us to imagine what life would be like during the pandemic if we didn’t. Sadly, this is a reality for over 2 billion people in the Asia-Pacific region. And among those two billion are some of the most vulnerable groups. For example, some 20 per cent of students in East Asia and the Pacific and almost 40 per cent of students in South and West Asia could not access remote learning this past year. This will have lasting effects that perpetuate inter-generational inequality and poverty.

To address the digital divide, our Asia-Pacific Information Superhighway initiative focuses on four interrelated pillars: infrastructure connectivity, efficient Internet traffic and network management, e-resilience, and affordable broadband access for all.

However, Internet access alone is not enough. There is a persistent and still expanding digital skills gap in the Asia-Pacific region. Among the top ten most digitally advanced economies in Asia and the Pacific, around 90 per cent of their populations use the Internet. At the beginning of the century, this share stood at around 25 per cent. By contrast, for the bottom ten economies, Internet users have grown from around 1 per cent in 2000 to only 20 per cent today.

In response, our Asian and Pacific Training Centre for Information and Communication Technology for Development is equipping policymakers and women and youth with digital skills by conducting demand-driven training programmes.

On digital finance, while the percentage of digital payment users has increased over recent years, the gap between men and women users persists. Additionally, in East Asia and the Pacific, there is a US$1.3 trillion formal financing gap for women-led enterprises.

And while the Asia-Pacific region is emerging as a leading force in the global e-commerce market – with more than 40 per cent of the global e-commerce transactions – these gains have been led by just a few markets.

As a response, our Catalyzing Women’s Entrepreneurship project addresses the challenges women-owned enterprises face by developing innovative digital financing and e-commerce solutions to support women entrepreneurs, who have been hit harder than most during the pandemic. We have supported a range of digital finance and e-commerce solutions through this initiative – such as a digital bookkeeping app and an agritech solution – providing more inclusive options for women entrepreneurs to thrive. To date, the project has supported over 7,000 women to access financing and leveraged over US$50 million in private capital for women entrepreneurs.

Inclusion is undoubtedly central to the United Nations Economic Commission for Asia and the Pacific’s (ESCAP) technology and innovation work that focuses on addressing the core foundations of an inclusive digital economy.

The recent ESCAP, ADB and UNDP report on “Responding to the COVID-19 Pandemic: Leaving No country Behind” underlined the key role digital technologies played during the pandemic and how they can also play a critical role in building back better. However, the report shows that digitalization can also widen gaps in economic and social development within and between countries, unless countries can provide affordable and reliable Internet for all and make access to the core foundations of the digital economy central to building back better.

While digital transformation is certain, its direction is not. Governments, civil society and the private sector must work together to ensure that digital technologies benefit not only the economy but society and the environment, and have inclusion at their heart. Only then do we stand a chance of realizing the transformative potential of digital technologies to accelerate progress on the Sustainable Development Goals.

Kaveh Zahedi is the Deputy Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP).

Follow @IPSNewsUNBureau
  

Credit: Unsplash / Lynda Hinton

By Kaveh Zahedi and Van Nguyen
BANGKOK, Thailand, Aug 4 2020 (IPS)

After decades of impressive growth, for the first time, Southeast Asia is experiencing a drop in measured human development. The economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic will likely take months to reveal itself and years to put right. Yet, a legacy of mobilizing under constraints is leading Southeast Asia’s pandemic response.

During the first two months of COVID-19 lockdown, the once bustling streets of Bangkok were unusually quiet. In the alley nested between two high-end shopping malls in downtown Bangkok, an elderly couple were not at their usual rice cart. Their regulars, motorbike taxi drivers and shop assistants, were absent. The couple have not returned now that things have eased. A Thai blind massage team shared, in our recent dialogue, that for them, no tourism equals no clients and no income.

Similar tales of woe can be heard in many other poor communities across Southeast Asia. Garbage pickers in the slums outside Manila; temporary workers living outside industrial zones in Ho Chi Minh city; undocumented migrants and refugees living along the borders of Malaysia, Myanmar and Thailand. They are among the 177 million people (below the $5.5 poverty line) that the World Bank now estimates will slip into poverty.

Southeast Asian communities are no strangers to calamities. In those times, they could probably turn to a relative, a friend or a neighbor for help. Or work extra to make up for the lost income. But the usual informal safety net only works if some are spared from the disaster. The COVID-19 pandemic does the exact opposite, striking everyone down at the same time. Closed restaurants need no kitchen hands; street hawkers and motorbike taxis are idle when all stay at home; empty hotels need no cleaning. The new brief by the Secretary General shows that Southeast Asia’s GDP is estimated to contract on average by 0.1 per cent in 2020 with 218 million informal workers having their livelihoods at risk.

The informality of work means that they are not protected by any formal social safety nets. Even before the crisis, our analysis shows that 60 per cent of the population in Asia and the Pacific had no protection when they become sick, disabled or unemployed. Many are so invisible that they would not even figure in the statistics. The prolonged drought in much of Southeast Asia and the looming monsoons in the coming months may risk sweeping away the few assets they have left. Their hopes for the future, investment in their children’s education, look grim. Poor children without internet access, computers and smart phones cannot readily jump into remote learning during school closures. Without safety nets, either formal or informal, to fall back on, many will inevitably slide into poverty with no clear respite in sight.

Yet good news has come from Southeast Asia. The region was among the first to be hit by the pandemic and contains some of the countries with the greatest success in curbing it, including Viet Nam and Thailand. Governments have been quick to roll out fiscal packages to help affected businesses and households. Our review of COVID-19 responses reveals a diverse mix of relief packages including support for health responders, subsidies for small and medium-sized enterprises, wage subsidies and direct cash transfers for vulnerable populations.

A myriad of local initiatives are another source of great hope. In Thailand, local voluntary groups have quickly come together to locate and provide essential packages to the most in-need communities, including those unregistered. New ways of providing health support have emerged such as teleconsultation for rehabilitation in Singapore and targeted telehealth services for children with disabilities in Malaysia. These good practices were shared in our recent dialogue for protecting and empowering persons with disabilities. Permeating these practices is a strong sense of coming together from both the public and private sector.

The crisis has also shown that limited fiscal space and resources have not stopped countries from supporting their people. Measures that once were thought to be expensive such as establishing universal health care and broadening social protection coverage are now rightly seen as essential investments in people. Measures that were seen as luxuries such as securing internet for all are now recognized as a lifeline especially for poor and vulnerable communities including refugees and migrants. Measures that would help us respond faster to crises such as providing people with basic legal identity are now a must.

Southeast Asia’s long road to recovery has started. Time will tell if the emergency measures can be “locked in” to help address the region’s deep inequalities and put it on a green recovery path as advocated by the United Nations Secretary General in his recent brief on COVID-19 in Southeast Asia. Only then will the people of Southeast Asia be more resilient in any future crisis.

Kaveh Zahedi, Deputy Executive Secretary, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP)

Van Nguyen, Sustainable Development Officer, Office of the Executive Secretary, ESCAP

“The 2030 Agenda is coming to life”, declared the Secretary General at the opening of the first SDG Summit, a quadrennial event for the follow up and review of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. As leaders from Asia – Pacific took the floor, they highlighted country progress of SDG implementation and reaffirmed commitment to achieve the 2030 Agenda. Statements reflected different approaches across the region. Yet all converged on one priority: accelerated actions and transformative pathways.

Kaveh Zahedi

Because we are not on track.

Earlier this year, our Asia Pacific SDG Progress Report emphasized the region will not achieve any of the 17 SDGs by 2030 at the current pace of progress. While less people in Asia and the Pacific are living in extreme poverty (Goal 1), the poorest are harder to reach. They are more vulnerable to stresses and shocks as progress in reducing inequality has stagnated (Goal 10). Our region’s stubborn reliance on fossil fuels (Goal 7) continues to anchor countries to the grey economy of the past, shroud crowded cities with smog (Goal 11), and put millions of lives at risk (Goal 3). Communities living in low lying coastal areas are seeing their homes being swept away by rising sea levels (Goal 11) as climate actions have yet to take effect (Goal 13).

Business as usual is simply not an option.

Accelerating progress is essentially not about advancing on a single or a cluster of goals. Transformations are needed in the underlying systems behind the 17 Goals. Six entry points identified in the Global Sustainable Development Report 2019 offer a clear pathway to trigger change and multiply the impacts of our actions.

They resonate greatly with the development challenges of Asia – Pacific.

Investing in human well-being and capabilities such as increased public spending in Asia – Pacific to match the global average in the area of education, health and social protection, can lift over 328 million out of extreme poverty by 2030. It will also allow us to build resilience of the most vulnerable populations against external shocks, as revealed in ESCAP’s 2018 Social Outlook for Asia Pacific.

Increased investment to achieve energy decarbonization and universal access to energy would allow our region to reduce energy-related carbon dioxide emission by almost 30%; and avoid nearly 2 million premature deaths by 2030, as shown in ESCAP’s Economic and Social Survey of Asia and the Pacific 2019.

The entry point of promoting sustainable urban and peri-urban development is ever more critical as our region became majority urban for the first time in human history in 2019. The Future of Asian & Pacific cities Report 2019 shows that 1.2 billion new residents will move to Asian-Pacific cities by 2050. They will all need decent jobs, affordable housing, transportation, and clean water and sanitation.

Van Nguyen

We have the tools to support this transformation, with the four levers identified in the Global Sustainable Development Report 2019.

Governance, particularly effective, transparent, accessible and inclusive institutions, is fundamental to drive the implementation of the Goals. Countries gathering at the 6th Asia-Pacific Forum for Sustainable Development declared that the delivery of the SDGs relies on the whole-of-society approach.

Multi-stakeholder partnerships and participation are key success factors.

Sound economic policies and finance are key to fast track progress. ESCAP’s Economic and Social Survey of Asia and the Pacific 2019 estimates that the annual additional investment of 1.5 trillion to achieve the SDGs by 2030 in Asia-Pacific is affordable if countries develop sound tax policy, efficient public spending and private sector engagement.

Empowerment and inclusion, the epicenter of individual and collective action, was found to contribute to reducing inequality and accelerating the progress towards a broad array of the SDGs, according to the 2019 research Accelerating progress: An empowered, inclusive and equal Asia Pacific.

Emerging technologies and innovations have the potential to change lives on an unprecedented scale. One such example is the use of big data applications in forecasting and early warning of extreme weather events, such as during the super typhoon Mangkhut in 2018, documented in the ESCAP’s Asia-Pacific Disaster Report 2019. Such good practices need to be scaled up.

The SDG Summit concluded with a political declaration which calls for a “decade of action and delivery for sustainable development”. Since then, we have seen over twenty commitments for actions for Asia-Pacific by Governments, civil society organisations and the private sector across the 17 Goals registered on the SDG Acceleration Platform. This has given us hope as we move into the year of 2020. The region is arriving at this critical juncture in the path towards sustainable development. We know where we want to be. It is time to deliver on our pledge.

Kaveh Zahedi, Deputy Executive Secretary for Sustainable Development, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP)

Van Nguyen, Sustainable Development Officer, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP)

Children run away from a forest fire in a village in Palembang, South Sumatra, on Sept. 18. Credit: Antara Photo/Mushaful Imam

By Kaveh Zahedi
BANGKOK, Thailand, Oct 1 2019 (IPS)

Last week, world leaders gathered at the United Nations in New York for the Climate Action Summit. Their goal was simple: to increase ambition and accelerate action in the face of a mounting climate emergency.

For many, this means ambition and action that enable countries to decarbonize their economies by the middle of the century. But that is only half the equation.

Equally ambitious plans are also needed to build the resilience of vulnerable sectors and communities being battered by climate-related disasters of increasing frequency, intensity and unpredictability.

Nowhere is this reality starker than in the Asia-Pacific region, which has suffered another punishing year of devastation due to extreme events linked to climate change.

Last year, Kerala state in India had its worst floods in a century. The floods in Iran in April this year were unprecedented. Floods and heatwaves in quick succession in Japan caused widespread destruction and loss of life.

In several South Asian countries, immediately following a period of drought, weeks of heavy monsoon rains this month unleashed floods and landslides. Across North East and South Asia, record high temperatures have been set.

The latest research from the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN ESCAP) has shown that intense heatwaves and drought are becoming more frequent.

Unusual tropical cyclones originate from beyond the traditional risk zones and follow tracks that have not been seen before, causing unprecedented floods throughout the region.

Science tells us the impacts are only going to increase in severity and frequency as the concentration of greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere continues to rise.

The poor and vulnerable are taking the biggest hit. Disasters cost lives and damage livelihood and assets. Disaster exposure has increased child malnutrition and mortality rates and forced poor families to take children out of school – entrenching inter-generational poverty.

It also perpetuates inequalities within and between countries. A person in small-island developing states in the Pacific is three to five times more at risk of disasters than a person elsewhere in our disaster-prone region. Vanuatu has faced annual losses of over 20 percent of its gross domestic product.

In Southeast Asia, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam have all faced losses of more than five percent of their GDP. In short, disasters are slowing down and often reversing poverty reduction and widening inequality.

But amid this cycle of disaster and vulnerability lies a golden opportunity for careful and forward-looking investment. The Global Commission on Adaptation recently found that there would be over $7 trillion in total net benefits between now and 2030 from investing in early warning systems, climate-resilient infrastructure, improved dryland agriculture, mangrove protection and in making water resources more resilient.

So where could countries in the Asia-Pacific region make a start? First, by providing people with the means to overcome shocks. Increasing social protection is a good start.

Currently, developing countries in Asia and the Pacific only spend about 3.7 percent of their GDP on social protection, compared to the world average of 11.2 percent, leaving people vulnerable in case they get sick, lose their jobs, become old or are hit by a disaster.

In the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines, we saw the effectiveness of social protection, especially cash transfers, but these were only made possible because the government was able to use a conditional cash transfer system and mechanism already in place for poor and vulnerable people.

Second, by lifting the financial burden of the poor. Disaster risk finance and insurance can cover poor and vulnerable people from climate shocks and help them recover from disasters.

A good example is Mongolia’s index-based insurance scheme which their government has been using to deal with the increased frequency of “dzuds,” where a combination of droughts and shortage of pasture lead to massive livestock deaths.

Disaster risk finance can also help countries pool the risks as is happening through the emerging Asean Disaster Risk Financing and Insurance program.

Third, by increasing investment in new technologies and big data. Artificial Intelligence-driven risk analytics, as well as the fast combination of sensor and geospatial data, can strengthen early warning systems.

Big data, including from mobile phones, can help identify and locate vulnerable populations in risk hotspots who have been the hardest to reach so far, ensuring faster, more targeted help after disasters.

Experience around the region has already shown the potential of using tech and big data to alleviate disaster risks. In India, a combination of automated risk analytics, geospatial data and a digital identity system – the so-called AADHARR system – have helped to identify and deliver assistance to millions of drought-affected subsistence farmers.

But much more investment is needed to make technology an integral part of disaster risk response and resilience building.

Climate-related disasters are likely to increase in the Asia-Pacific. This is our new climate reality. The Climate Action Summit provides the perfect platform to make the commitments needed for helping communities and people to adapt to this reality before decades of hard-won development gains are washed away.

Excerpt:

In less than ten days world leaders will be gathering at the United Nations in New York for the Climate Action Summit. Their goal is simple; to increase ambition and accelerate action in the face of a mounting climate emergency.

For many this means ambition and action that enables countries to decarbonize their economies by the middle of the century. But that is only half the equation. Equally ambitious plans are also needed to build the resilience of vulnerable sectors and communities being battered by climate related disasters of increasing frequency, intensity and unpredictability.

Kaveh Zahedi

The latest research from the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific has shown that intense heatwaves and drought are becoming more frequent; unusual tropical cyclones originate from beyond the traditional risk zones and follow tracks that have not been seen before; and unprecedented floods and occurring throughout the region. The science tells us that the impacts are only going to increase in severity and frequency as greenhouse gas emissions concentrations in the atmosphere continue to rise.

The poor and vulnerable are taking the biggest hit. Disasters cost lives and damage livelihood and assets. Increases in disaster exposure are increasing child malnutrition and mortality and forcing poor families to take children out of school – entrenching inter-generational poverty. And they perpetuate inequalities within and between countries. A person in the Pacific small island developing states is 3 to 5 times more at risk of disasters than a person elsewhere in our disaster-prone region. Vanuatu has faced annual losses of over 20% of its GDP. In Southeast Asia, Lao, Cambodia and Viet Nam have all faced losses of more than 5% of their GDP. In short, disasters are slowing down and often reversing poverty reduction and widening inequality.

But amidst this cycle of disaster and vulnerability lies a golden opportunity for careful and forward-looking investment. The Global Commission on Adaptation recently found that there would be over $7 trillion in total net benefits between now and 2030 from investing in early warning systems, climate-resilient infrastructure, improved dryland agriculture, mangrove protection, and in making water resources more resilient could generate.

So where could countries in the Asia Pacific region make a start? First, by providing people with the means to overcome shocks. Increasing social protection is a good start. Currently developing countries in Asia and the Pacific only spend about 3.7 per cent of GDP on social protection, compared to the world average of 11.2 per cent, leaving people vulnerable in case they get sick, lose their jobs, become old or are hit by a disaster. In the aftermath of Typhoon Hyan in the Philippines we saw effectiveness of social protection, especially cash transfers, but these were only possible because the government could use the conditional cash transfer system and mechanism already in place for poor and vulnerable people.

Second by lifting the financial burden off the poor. Disaster risk finance and insurance can cover poor and vulnerable people from climate shocks and help them recover from disaster, such as Mongolia’s index-based insurance scheme to deal with the increased frequency of “dzuds” where combination of droughts and shortage of pasture lead to massive livestock deaths. Disaster risk finance can also help countries pool the risks as is happening through the emerging ASEAN Disaster Risk Financing and Insurance programme.

Third by increasing investment in new technologies and big data. Artificial Intelligence driven risk analytics as well as fast combination of sensor and geospatial data, can strengthen early warning systems. Big data, including from mobile phones, can help identify and locate vulnerable populations in risk hotspots who have been the hardest to reach so far, ensuring faster more targeted help after disasters. Experience around the region has already shown the potential. In India, a combination of automated risk analytics, geospatial data and the digital identity system (the so called AADHARR system) have helped to identify and deliver assistance to millions of drought-affected subsistence farmers. But much more investment in needed to make technology an integral part of disaster risk response and resilience building.

Climate related disasters are likely to increase in Asia Pacific. This is our new climate reality. The Summit provides the perfect platform to make the commitments needed for helping communities and people to adapt to this reality before decades of hard-won development gains are washed away.

Kaveh Zahedi is Deputy Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP)

"Trolleys" - makeshift carts with a bench fashioned out of scrap wood and bamboo - being pushed along the tracks of the Philippine National Railway. Not only is this mode of transportation cheap (Php5.00), it is also environment-friendly compared to pollution-causing trains and other modern vehicles. Credit: ESCAP/Anthony Into

By Kaveh Zahedi
BANGKOK, Thailand, Jul 11 2018 (IPS)

Three years into the implementation period of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, is Asia Pacific on track to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)?

According to ESCAP’s recent Asia and the Pacific SDG Progress Report, the answer is yes for only one Goal, unlikely for many Goals, and probably not for a few Goals where the region is moving in the wrong direction, most notably on inequality.

While there are major variations across the vast Asia Pacific region, between and within countries, the overall trajectories are clear and point to areas where urgent action is needed.

ESCAP’s analysis shows that inequalities are widening in terms of income and wealth, opportunity and access to services. Income inequalities grew in almost 40 per cent of all countries. Large disparities exist in access to education, bank accounts, clean fuels and basic sanitation.

Poor and disadvantaged groups are disproportionally impacted by environmental degradation, including diseases from air pollution and natural disasters. Inequalities in income and lack of employment opportunities, along with poverty, landlessness, and vulnerability to natural disasters and climate change, all heighten the risk of extremism and conflicts that could unravel development gains in Asia Pacific.

This is a concern as disaster risk is outpacing efforts to build resilience in Asia Pacific. A person living in the Asia Pacific region is five times more likely to be affected by natural disasters than a person living in any other region. Poor people are disproportionately affected by such disasters: between 2000 and 2015 the low and lower middle-income countries experienced by far the most disaster deaths.

Extreme weather events, including slow onset disasters such as drought, are undermining food security. They can lead to hunger among the most vulnerable, particularly those in rural areas working in agriculture. Yet disasters also widen inequalities in urban areas. Climate change will continue to magnify and reshape the risk of disasters and increase their costs.

As a result, risk governance needs to be strengthened, investments in disaster risk reduction increased and the fiscal burden of disasters better managed to avoid a disproportionate impact on the poor and vulnerable. With over half of global GHG emissions coming from Asia Pacific, countries in the region also face the considerable challenge of decarbonization.

Children living in an urban slum in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Credit: ESCAP/Kibae Park

However, the necessary energy transformation in Asia Pacific is still in an early stage. Progress on achieving SDG 7 is insufficient. Major gaps remain between current trajectories and what is needed to meet SDG targets and wider aspirations from the Paris Agreement on climate change.

While access to electricity has reached 90%, up from 70% in 1990 at a time of major population growth, the progress in access to clean cooking fuels has been slow. The significant growth in renewable energy has been outpaced by growth in energy demand and fossil fuel use.

There are signs the region has begun to decouple energy use and gross domestic product, an important step for energy efficiency, but again progress is too slow to meet energy efficiency targets under SDG 7.

The energy transition pathways to 2030 will require full alignment of national energy policies with SDG 7, the development of national energy transition roadmaps, a quantum leap in the financing of sustainable energy, especially from the private sector, and the rapid phase out of fossil fuel subsidies.

Over the past few decades, Asia Pacific has succeeded in dramatically reducing poverty, increasing levels of education, extending life expectancy and building fast growing and resilient economies that have largely weathered the global financial crisis. The region is at the forefront of many technological developments that will shape the future of manufacturing, work and daily lives.

But leaving no one behind will require re-aligning investments to deliver the 2030 Agenda and targeted policies for the most vulnerable. This includes addressing the challenges of population ageing in Asia Pacific, where one in four people will be 60 years or older by 2050.

It also includes building disability inclusive societies for over 600 million people with disabilities, to address their disproportionate rate of poverty, remove barriers to education and work, and enable their full and effective participation in decision-making processes. It calls for achieving safe, orderly and regular migration to address the challenges faced by over 60 million international migrants in the Asia Pacific region.

It requires investment in building resilience and in promoting innovation. And it demands eliminating gender disparities, closing gender gaps and investing in women, including by promoting women’s entrepreneurship.

What ESCAP’s work over the past year has shown is that the region has not yet put in place the policies that will drive the transformative change needed to deliver on the Regional Road Map for Implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in Asia and the Pacific.

Recent history has demonstrated the region has everything it takes to change course. Whether this will happen soon enough and fast enough to achieve the SDGs remains an open question.

The link to the original article: https://www.unescap.org/blog/is-asia-pacific-on-track-to-meet-the-sustainable-development-goals

Excerpt: