First Parliament of Asia, The: Sixty Years of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (1947-2007)

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The First Parliament of Asia Sixty Years of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific

(1947 - 2007)

Figures Figure 1

The Asian and Pacific Region .........................................................................................................

12

Figure 2

The Asian Highway Route Map .....................................................................................................

54

Figure 3

The Asian noodle bowl of trade agreements ..................................................................................

61

Figure 4

Membership of ECAFE and ESCAP ....

Figure 5

Population growth rates in Asia

Figure 6

Human development index

Figure 7

Rise in per capita

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1950-2001

.......................................................................... 78

Contents Foreword Acknowledgements Introduction

he History ~ a k e r s The contribution of the United Nations ................................................................................. An Asian commission............................................................................................................. Who could join? .................................................................................................................... What to do?........................................................................................................................... Where to live?........................................................................................................................

chapter TWO

Igniting a n Economic

ower rho use

Embarking on indusuialization.............................................................................................. The infrastructure imperative ........................................................:........................................ Boosting international uade ..................................................................................................... Creating a regional think tank ................................................................................................ Counting on statistics ............................................................................................................ .. Mobd~zingdevelopment finance ............................................................................................ ESCAP's technical cooperation .............................................................................................. The Pacific dimension ............................................................................................................

o u t of Poverty Millions more people ............................................................................................................. Empowering women .............................................................................................................. Promoting the rights of persons with disabilities .................................................................... Facing the H N pandemic ...................................................................................................... Comprehensive health systems............................................................................................... Paths from poverty .................................................................................................................

he Greener path Flood control and integrated water resources management..................................................... Energy for sustainable development ........................................................................................ Mineral resources ................................................................................................................... A new environmental awareness............................................................................................. Dealing with disaster.............................................................................................................. Going for green growth ..........................................................................................................

~ i v i n i the n ~ Future A crowded institutional environment ..................................................................................... 124 .. 126 A region of widening dispar1ues ............................................................................................. An era of reform ..................................................................................................................... 128 Moving towards 2020 ............................................................................................................ 130 Appendix I . ESCAP Members and Associate Members ...................................................... 138 Appendix I1 -Executive Secretaries of ESCAP ...................................................................... 140 Appendix 111-Abbreviations ............................................................................................... 156 158 Endnotes...............................................................................................................................

United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) 1947 - 2007

In the ancient civilizations of the Asian and Pacific region, the passage of time is marked by 12-year cycles; within these the completion of the fifth cycle is especially significant. Sixty-year-old institutions, like 60-year old people, can therefore be permitted some anniversary reminiscences, along with a few questions - where did we come from, what have we done, where are we going? Having been created in 1947, the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) is now 60 years old - and is entering its seventh decade at a time when the United Nations system as a wholeis going through a period of reflection and reform. I commissioned B e First Parliament ofAsia firstly to be part of ESCAP's process of reflection. I wanted a brief, attractive and 'reader-friendly' history that would show how the Commission emerged and how its activities have changed over the years to match the priorities of the governments of its members and associate members. Equally important, I wanted the book to help readers gain a better understanding of ESCAP and its current programmes - and appreciate the challenges that the Commission faces in an increasingly complex and fast-moving global environment. ESCAP's evolution over the past 60 years cannot, of course, be understood without considering the wider picture. In this book we have therefore tried to embed ESCAPb story into that of the Asian and Pacific region as a whole, which has moved from a region stamped by the effects of a long colonial history, to its emergence as a major player on the global scene. The evolution of ESCAP mirrors this fascinating, on-going process, which has not always been smooth. Inevitably, this narration is a highly selective process, weaving together many different facts and ideas. You may not agree entirely with the book's choices and perspectives, but I hope you will find the presentation useful and informative.

Kirn Hak-Su Executive Secretary

The designations employed and the presentation of the material in this pub~~cation do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Secretariat of the United Nations concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. The opinions, figures and estimates set forth in this publication are the responsibility of theauthorsandshouldnot necessarilybe consideredas reflectingtheviewsorcarryingthe endorsement of the United Nations. Mention of firm names and commercial products does not imply the endorsement of the United Nations.

Overall guidance and direction for the preparation of the book was by Executive Secretary Kim Hak-Su, with support by San Yuenwah working in consultation with the ESCAP 60th Anniversary Task Force chaired by Nanda Krairiksh. The text was written by Peter Stalker. The graphic design was created by Marie Ange Sylvain-Holmgren who also undertook the preparation of the camera-ready layout. The Department of Public Information, United Nations Headquarters, contributed valuable archival photographs and other material. Appreciation is extended to Lily Chau, Clara Gouy and Veena Machanda. Tuenjai Chuabsamai and Chavalit Boonthanom assisted in organizing photographs, to facilitate selection. All ESCAP Divisions and Offices, as well as the ESCAP Staff Council and Association of Former International Civil Servants-Thailand (AFICS-T), were invited to contribute information and anecdotal stories. In the preparation of the book, all Divisions and Offices of ESCAP and the ESCAP Staff Council participated in a wide consultation process presided over by the Executive Secretary, with the active involvement of Deputy Executive Secretary Shigeru Mochida and Principal Officer Raj Kumar. Appreciation is extended to the following ESCAP secretariat staE members who assisted in reviewing the evolving versions of the draft manuscript and provided specific inputs and comments: Aiko Akiyama, Noordin Azahari, Rene Eduard Bastiaans, H e r d Berger, Tiziana Bonapace, Barry Cable, Cai Cai, Michael Chai, Anchalee Charnsuparindr, Rae-Kwon Chung, Peter Frobel, Fu Haishan, Pietro Gennari, Eugene Gherman, David Hastings, Masakazu Ichimura, Beverly Lyn Jones, Richard Kalina, Geetha Karandawala, Thelma Kay, Siliga Kofe, Nanda Krairiksh, Raj Kumar, Hak-Fan Lau, Lee Hyeo-Kyeong, John Loftus, Mia Mikic, Amitava Mukherjee, Prasong Ongpreechakul, Shigeru Mochida, Keiko Osaki, Park Pill-Hwan, Antti Piispanen, Ravi Ratnayake, Rita Reddy, Pranesh Saha, San Yuenwah, Hiren Sarkar, Marinus Sikkel, Shamika Sirimanne, Ilpo Survo, Marie Ange Sylvain-Holmgren, Srinivas Tata, Siva Thampi, LeHuu Ti, Peter Van Laere, Tim Westbury, Xuan Zengpei, Yang Yafei and Yap Kioe Sheng. Appreciation is extended to the following for their contributions: Sun Gang of UNAIDS Asia-Pacific Intercountry Team, Bangkok, for assistance in verifying and updating HIV data. Former ESCAP colleagues for their insights: Chingchai Likitnikul, Jerrold W Huguet, Surender M. Sachdev and B.N Yugandhar. Artists who contributed their art work: Kanak Chanpa of Bangladesh, Tsendiin Nasanbat of Mongolia, Suthep Kittisunthorn and Waeowjuck Nukul of Thailand. Grateful thanks are extended to those whose photographs have been included in the book - their names appear on the respective photographs. Many others contributed in diverse ways and we thank them all.

ESCAP is not easy to portray. This is a complex entity. True, it has an Executive Secretary, and a secretariat of nearly 600 people. True, most of them occupy an identifiable United Nations building in Bangkok, Thailand. True also, ESCAP has an advisory committee of permanent representatives who liaise between the secretariat and the member governments. But ESCAP is much more than this. It is the United Nations regional presence in Asia and the Pacific. And, like the United Nations as a whole, ESCAP is therefore the sum total of its membership of 62 governments which meet in the annual Commission sessions and which represent more than half of humanity - from Moscow to Auckland, from Ankara to Apia, not to mention drawing in members from London, The Hague, Paris and Washington D.C. This history of ESCAP cannot therefore always follow a linear chronology. It does set out in a fairly straightforward fashion with an opening chapter that covers institutional origins, starring with the founding of the United Nations and then the birth of the Commission. But subsequent chapters tell the story through three overlapping narratives that cover economic, social and environmental issues. The final chapter then draws the institutional threads together again to consider ESCAPH process of reform and its vision for the future. Readers of this brief history can expect some of the characters to change their names. Many countries, for example, chose new names as they shed their colonial identities: Ceylon became Sri Lanka; the New Hebrides became Vanuatu. Even the Commission itself experienced a significant name change: it was born in 1947 as the Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East (ECAFE), but in 1974 emerged anew as the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP).To simplify the historical presentation, countries and institutions are identified in the text by the name they had at the time. Fortunately, there are also many reassuring continuities. The Asian and Pacific region has given the global community some of its richest cultures and most durable systems of philosophy - which were evident even as the region's representatives were conceiving their new United Nations organization back in 1947, when the story starts.

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He himself was making history. Not only was he one of the principal drafters of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, he was also a driving force behind the founding of the largest of the United Nations regional commissions -what was to become the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP). S i years later the structures that Chang and his collaborators were establishing continue to serve the global community. Chang and the other pioneers of the United Nations system were of course living in a very different world - and one still suffering from the ravages of the Second World War. In 1947 only a few countries in the region had

'Ihe years of colonialism had also had profound economic effects

emerged as independent nation states: most were still ruled by European

-changing the balance of power between Europe and Asia. Until

powers. Across the region many countries remained desperately short of

the 19th century the world's two largest economies had been

food, raw materials and transport and some of their largest cities lay in ruins.

China and India. Indeed countries in Asia had some of the oldest civilizations and for millennia had led the world not just in scholarship and the arts and in the sophistication of their civil institutions but also

Faced with this level of destruction, the countries of Asia and the Pacific, like those in war-torn Europe, were hoping for a rapid recovery. But in Asia the developing countries anticipated something more: they sensed the birth of a new era and a fresh - and cross-national -political consciousness. As the Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru, put it in a speech in 1947: the time had come for us, the peoples o f Asia, to meet together, to hold together and to advance together. He also looked f o d to the end of the colonial era - a time when

in manufacturing and commerce. India, for example, was a major exporter of spices and textiles, which its merchants sold to Arabia, Egypt, Rome, South-East Asia and China. And China too was exporting a range of goods including tea, porcelain and fine silk. It is estimated that in the year 1000, Asia was responsible for more than two-thirds of world gross domestic product; even in 1820 it still produced more than half?

For Asia, the advent of colonization, on the one hand, and a simultaneous industrial revolution in Europe and North America on the other, triggered a period of relative decline. As they developed new industrial technologies, the European countries, and later North America, powered ahead, and often did so directly at the expense of

the walls that surround us Fall down and we look at one another again as old friends long parted.

Asian countries - stifling their exports of high-quality goods, particularly Indian textiles. Soon the Asian countries had fallen behind. Between 1750 and 1900 India's share of world manufacturing output had fallen from 25% to 2%.3

s he contribution of-the u n i t e d Nations Only now, 60 years later, are Asia's major countries finally reasserting themselves and establishing a prominent economic, as well as political, presence on the global stage. Not only do they represent more than half the global population, they have also become the workshop of the world, renowned for their levels of energy and skill and the swiftness with which they can adapt to global demands. This success derives from the efforts of millions of women and men across the region - from garment workers in Bangladesh, to coffee farmers in Viet Nam, to tourist guides in Samoa - along with entrepreneurs and public policy makers. Less well known, however, is the contribution of the United Nations. Most people think of the UN only as a political forum, and certainly the primary reason for establishing the UN was indeed political: to allow nations to settle their differences through negotiation and, as the UN charter puts it,

to save succeedinggenerations f r o m the scourge of war. But the founders of the UN also had a broader purpose and from the outset established the Economic and Sodal Council (ECOSOC) - a body consisting of 54 members of the General Assembly whose task was to extend the concerns of the UN beyond peace and security to "international, social, cultural, educational, health and related matters". They were not, however, starting from scratch. ECOSOC was able to embrace within the United Nations family a number of 'specialized agencies' that had already been fostering international cooperation. Some of these had a long history: the International Telegraph Union, for example, had been formdd in 1865 and the International Labour Organization, in 1919. But the freshly created UN would also add a number of new entities such as UNESCO and UNICEF, as well as other organizations, including UNDP, which would emerge later. The conflict that had triggered the founding of the UN was truly a world war, so this new international body would primarily seek a global rather than a regional perspective. And certainly in the early days it was not dear that the UN would pay any

special regard to Asia and the Pacific. Indeed if there was to be specific regional attention it seemed more likely to be directed to Europe. This was evident in June 1946 when ECOSOC established a 20-member Temporary Sub-Commission on the Economic Reconstruction of Devastated Areas. This Sub-Commission did in fact establish two working groups, one for 'Europe and Africa', and one for 'Asia and the Far East'. But the working group for Europe was quicker off the mark. l h e Asian group suffered not just because the members of the Sub-Commission thought that the problems in Europe were more urgent, but also because Asia and the Far East was such a vast and diverse region that it was harder to gather sufficient reliable information on the post-war situation. Most people accepted that the region's problems were severe and extensive, but had scant data to back this up. Asian interests also suffered because the region was underrepresented in the United Nations. In 1945, when the UN was founded it had just four members from within the region: China, India, Iran and the Philippines. And of these only three were independent, since India had joined whiie still a colony: British India. Nevertheless, the fact that the European working group was pressing rapidly ahead ultimately had spin-off benefits for Asia, since it established principles of regional organization that Asia was able to follow. Thus, one of the European proposals was to establish an 'Economic Commission for Europe' - a forum to encourage international cooperation that might stave off the kind of 'beggar-my-neighbour' policies that had been so ruinous in the 1930s - as countries erected trade barriers to protect their home markets. Instead, working through such a commission, governmentscould jointly study the problems of the region as a whole and suggest priorities for national action and international cooperation. Not everyone was in favour. Some countries raised objections: Canada, Australia and New Zealand, for example, were concerned that creating a regional institution would work against the emergence of a unified world. They also wondered how a regional body would interact with UN specialized agencies, especially the International Labour Organization and the Food and Agriculture Organization. Would it not cut across their responsibilities and create confusing overlaps?

An Asian commission Most countries, however, appeared to be in favour of a European commission. But this raised another question: why only a commission for Europe? What about the rest of the world, and Asia in particular? ?he delegate of the Philippines at the UN therefore proposed a Commission for Asia and the Far East - an idea also promoted by the Chinese delegatewho did not actually have any instructions on this matter from his own government, but in that era diplomats had greater leeway for improvisation and personal initiative.

A number of countries doubted the value of an Asian commission. Some countries argued that Europe's circumstances were special and that the situation in Asii was very different. But China's delegate put Asia's case persuasively, reminding everyone that China was one of the great powers in the UN and thus entitled to appropriate consideration. And he could also point out that Asia had more than half the world's people - and with the population in some countries growing at 3% or more annually its share was likely to increase rapidly. China and the other Asian countries had a further reason to press for a regional commission: they hoped it could open up channels of multinational aid. ?his was an urgent matter since they were about to lose one of their few existing sourn: the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA). Although UNRRA had 'United Nations' in in title, it actually predated the United Nations, having been founded in 1943 to organize relief to areas that had been liberated by the AUies during World War 11. UNRRA donors included not just the allied countries, but also a number of other countries many of which were themselvespoor butwhich neverthelesspledged 1%oftheir income to support reconstruction in the war-maged countries. Even so, the largest donors were the Governments of the United Kingdom and the United States of America which provided around 90% of UNRRA funds - and they made it clear that they would not support UNRRA beyond the end of 1946. In Asia, some of the UNRRA h d s had gone to the Philippines but most had been disbursed to China. Even so, millions of Chinese people still faced the threat of starvation.The Government of China was understandably concerned and looking for alternative sources of relief- and hoped that the proposed commission would open at least one option.

Fortunately, China's delegate did not have to rely solely on the backing of the few Asian members of the UN. He was also able to gather support from elsewhere, particularly from Latin America. Most Latin American countries had won their independence in the early 19th Century. So at the founding of the United Nations they represented a substantial body of independent nations - making up around 40% of UN membership. And in an early example of developing country solidarity they were able to give crucial support in securing a recommendation from ECOSOC for the establishment of two regional commissions - one for Europe and also one for Asia - a proposal that was endorsed by the General Assembly in December 1946.

Peng-chun Chang (right) Meanwhile China's delegate, as Chairman of the Working Group for Asia and the Far East, was preparing an assessment of the region's situation. Although the group's report was understandably light on data, it nevertheless painted a formidable picture of destruction and misery - and this among people who even before the war were living at the margins of subsistence. The group also considered how the proposed Asian wmmission would work and they formulated its basic terms of reference.

In March 1947, ECOSOC duly established both the Economic Commission for Europe (ECE) and the Economic Commission for Asia and the 'Far East' (ECAFE). From a 21st Century perspective the name of the organization, which was to endure until 1974, seems redolent of the Eurocentric colonial era. Where was the 'Far East' far from? Chang in particular objected to the title, pointing out that China did not locate itself in the East, but rather at the centre of the Earth.

As well as having an odd name, E W E had, for an Asian body, a suange composition, with only four Asian members, namely, China, India, the Philippines and Thailand, who were outnumbered by the six non-Asian members: Australia, France, the Netherlands, the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics, the United Kingdom and the United States of America. This was because most countries in the region were still colonies, and the non-Asian members argued that colonies could not join the Commission as they were not entitled to be members of the United Nations. This issue was resolved in the short term by allowing non-independent countries to have 'associate membership', and in the longer term by the process of decolonization which was to liberate dozens more independent countries which could duly join in their own right. This era of decolonization was to prove traumatic. It had started in 1946 with the relatively peaceful independence for the Philippines from the United States of America. But it was to prove much more violent in 1947 for India Athough India's leaders, notably Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehm, had hoped that, following independence from the United Kingdom, India would survive as one nation, their hopes were dashed. Amid terrible bloodshed, British India was partitioned into India as a secular state and Pakistan as a new country in two parts, East and West, most of whose people ix months into ECAFEh life, Pakistan, led to were Muslim. S independence by Muhammad Ali Jinnah, duly became its first non-founder member. But it was soon joined by a batch of associate members when the United Kingdom pmposed the inclusion of its other Asii territories: Burma, Ceylon, Hong Kong, Malaya and British Borneo. And France fmm its territories added Cambodia and Laos - though not Viet Nam where it was proving difficult to form a representative government. For two of the region's other large nations, membership was to prove more tortuous and contentious. First there was the complex case of Indonesia. At the founding of E W E , Indonesian nationalists, led by Sukarno and Mohammad Hatta, were still in the throes of a struggle for independence from the Netherlands. The colonial country wanted the 'Netherlands Indies' to become an associate member, but the freedom fighters of the 'Republic of Indonesia', who already wnuolled much of the territory, wanted the Republic to join in its own right. In the went there was a compromise: in 1948 ECAFE admitted both the Republic and the 'Rest of Indonesia' as associate members. Then in 1950, following independence, ECAFE welcomed Indonesia as a full member.

Mr. Gunnar Mydral Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Europe (ECE) having an informal meeting at the United Nations Headquarters. New York, 1953 Even more difficult was the case of China. China's delegate had been negotiating on behalf of nationalist China. But just two years after the founding of ECAFE, China's nationalist government was overthrown in the revolution that led on 1 October 1949 to the f o r d establishment of the People's Republic of China. Few governments recognized the new regime. The Soviet Union was one of the first and, for the next six years proposed, regularly but unsuccessfully, that the People's Republic of China be accepted as the representative of China. But it was not to be, and until 1971 China was to be represented in ECAFE by the then Republic of China whose leaders had retreated to the island now referred to as Taiwan Province of China. Even Japan also had to wait for admission as a full member until some years after the signing of the peace treaty. Initially it sent observers to the Commission sessions, before joining first as an associate member and then as a full member in 1954. It was not too long before ECAFE's geographical boundaries were to be stretched to the west. In 1958 Iran, in the absence of a commission for West Asii, decided to join ECAFE.

Asia and the Far East now had an economic commission with a growing membership and a widening geographical scope. But what exactly would it do? How could it best contribute to the development of the region! Thus far, its founders had established its functions only in fairly broad terms: the Commission and its small secretariat were to provide member countries with research and advice on economic issues and make appropriate recommendations. But this general mandate left many questions unresolved. Part of the problem was that ECAFE was starting from scratch. While the Economic Commission for Europe could get up to speed fairly quickly by absorbing some of Europe's existing institutions and continuing some of their relief agenda, ECAFE was starting with very few people and a blank sheet. This left much responsibility on the shoulders of the first Executive Secretary, P. S. Lokanathan. Formerly a professor of economics at Madras University, Lokanathan also had considerable communications experience - as editor first of the Hindurtani Times, and then of the Eartern Economist. He understandably had great ambitions for E W E . In June 1947 in Shanghai, and with little by way of preparation, the Commission held in first meeting - in which it tried to addms some of the unresolved issues. One was ECAFE's research focus. Clearly the most immediate task was to identify priorities for economic reconstruction. Indeed the non-Asian member countries presumed that this would be ECAFE's only task: the United Kingdom, for example, thought the Commission should concentrate on long-term reconstruction needs, particularly in transport, fuel and skilled personnel. India and the Soviet Union, on the other hand, and supported by Lokanathan, had greater ambitions: they wanted E W E to move on quickly from dealing with the dwastation of war and start to serve as an instrument for Asian economic development. The second area of disagreement concerned ECAFE's potential for securing international aid. On this issue too the developing countries were more optimistic- and impatient.3he Philippines, for example, wen thought that E W E could get by without doing much new research at all and instead use existing knowledge as a basis for endorsing international aid to the Philippines. China and India had even higher hopes and were expecting ECAFE to serve as a channel for krge flows ofaid across the region - equivalent to those going to Europe via the Marshall Plan.

The two largest potential donors, the United Kingdom and the United States ofAmerica, poured cold water on this. The United States of America warned that Asian countries should avoid becoming dependent on aid; rather, it argued, they should concentrate on building political stability and reducing trade barriers - and thus make themselves more attractive to international investors. As the Commission's first historian put it, ECAFE's developing country members "wanted aid and got sermon^".^ These debates were to be played out over several years in the Commission sessions, which for the first two years were held twice a year, Following the first session in the heat of Shanghai in June 1947, the second was held in the cooler mountain air of Baguio in the Philippines. After much debate, E W E ' S functions were eventually agreed in broad terms that in principle would allow the Commission to take on most of these functions. One of the most consistent and best known through the years has been the production of a major economic survey. In 1948 this started as a bulletin that appeared twice a year, but from 1957 the Commission produced annually what is now the Economic and Social Suwq ofAsia and the Pan&. Over the decades, the Survq has changed in both format and content but continues to provide a regular and timely analysis of regional and sub-regional trends. Other early activities were to be more limited than some people hoped. From 1949 ECAFE began setting up various advisory bodies such as the Working Party on Industry and Trade and a Bureau on Flood Control. Lokanathan, and India and Pakistan in particular, hoped that these would enable E W E to formulate projects for financial support from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development - the World Bank. 'Ihe United Kingdom and the United States of America briskly dismissed this, saying that potential borrowers should deal with the institution directly - and certainly not presume to advise the Bank on what loans to make. Nor was E W E to have much control wen over United Nations funds. In 1949 the UN established the United Nations Expanded Programme on Technical Assistance (EPTA) - which a dozen or so years later would evolve into the United Nations Development Programme. Lokanathan envisaged ECAFE helping to administer EPTA's funds. But the UN SecretaryGeneral turned this down: E W E could certainly help governments identify and formulate projects, he said, but the ultimate decision would rest with United Nations Headquarters in New York.

>>>

Meanwhile most of the aid strings in the region were pulled by the two dominant Western powers: the Office of the United Kngdom Special Commissioner in South-East Asia, which controlled the allocation of food and other scarce resources, and the US occupation authority in Japan, the Far Eastern Commission. As ECAFE got under way arguments also rumbled on about the extent to which it could engage in longer term development. ECAFE was already doing useful work in collecting information and publishing studies. But the Asian members wanted it to play a more active role in promoting industrial development. The Western members consistently resisted this. Since in the early years they enjoyed more votes on the Commission, they regularly won the day. This state of affairs was, however, causing considerable irritation. Matters came to a head in 1950 when, in one of ECAFE's sub-sidiary bodies, the delegate of a Western nation, not satisfied with casting one vote, actually cast two; the other on behalf of his nation's colony which he also represented. 'This so incensed the Asian members that they decided it was time to alter ECAFE's terms of reference and deny the Western countries any voting rights at all. But the U N in New York, represented by David K. Owen, Assistant Secretary-General in charge of the Department of Economic Affairs, suggested a compromise: that the countries outside the region should instead simply exercise restraint. At the Commission's 195 1 session Lokanathan therefore proposed that on some issues the 'non-regional' members should refrain from voting, 'especially on matters predominantly concerning the region'. 'The British delegate initially resisted this, but eventually conceded; indeed he went further and offered to chair the group that would draft the policy that became known as the 'Lahore Convention'. 'This committed the Western countries not to vote against economic proposals that had the support of the majority of the region's countries. Crucially this convention also required the Commission to 'take full account of the views of the associate members in the region' which to all intents and purposes gave colonies a vote.

The developing countries had thus demonstrated an early solidarity, gaining control of ECAFE which gave them an important platform. Indeed for decades it was their only regional organization - referred to in the early years as the 'Parliament of Asia'. Unfortunately this solidarity was to erode during the Cold War as Asian countries took different sides in the superpower struggle. These divisions sharpened after 1954 with the establishment of the South-East Asian Treaty Organization (SEATO), an anti-communist alliance between the major Western powers and some Asian allies, including Pakistan, the Philippines, the Republic of Korea, South Viet Nam and Thailand. 'The opposing group had its origins in the landmark 1955 Afi-ica-Asia conference in Bandung, Indonesia, where key Asian members including India and Indonesia asserted their independence from East-West ideological confrontation and declared that they were neither pro- nor anti-communist but 'non-aligned'.

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These differing perspectives inevitably surfaced within ECAFE. As in other parliaments, the representatives often divided along predictatble lines, especially on the most contentious issues. One of these was China. The ECAFE secretariat and the non-aligned countries thought that even if communist China was not a member it would still be reasonable to publish information on what was after all one of the region's largest economies. The Western members disagreed, refusing to recognize China either politically or economically. Another dispute concerned the Republic of Korea and South Viet Nam whom the non-aligned group did not consider to be independent countries but for whom the Western powers wanted to secure admission.

'lhc sixth cssion of the Economic Commission for Asia and rhc F;lr East where the China representation question was discussed. Bangkok, 16 May 1950.

where to live? The political turbulence in the region also affected ECAFE's location. In the case of Europe there had been little debate about where its Commission should be based: most people felt that it should be located at the UN regional office in Geneva which had been the home of the predecessor of the UN, the League of Nations. But the UN had no similar office in Asia and ECOSOC declared that until the UN chose one E W E should establish itself in Shanghai - already an international centre where most Western counuies had 'settlements' before the Second World War. In June 1947, ECAFE's small secretariat duly opened an office in Shanghai, initially in the same building as the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, before moving a few months later to a larger building which also contained the Shanghai offices of other United Nations bodies and specialized agencies. By June 1948, the staff consisted of four economic affairs officers, several consultants, some local staff and a few secretaries, most of them seconded from United Nations Headquarters.

In the event, however, the deciding factors were not financial but political. In December 1948, the civil war situation had become so difficult that the secretariat was compelled to evacuate to Singapore for about two weeks and then, early in 1949 it settled in Bangkok. ECOSOC subsequently confirmed this as the working location "until such time as the site of the office of the United Nations in Asia and the Far East shall be determined." Ultimately Bangkok was also to be the permanent home. This decision too was determined by political considerations. Ostensibly, ECAFE officials were dispassionately to analyse the merits of rival hosts and make a recommendation accordingly. Over the next couple of years two senior officials, one from the United Nations Headquarters and one from ECAFE, duly visited a number of other potential homes, including Karachi, Lahore, Bangalore, Colombo and Rangoon. Following their report, the Secretary-General declared that ECAFE should remain in Bangkok. In fact, however, the decision had been taken previously and on geo-political grounds related to the fraught political situation in Indo-China. Many senior United Nations officials, as well as Western diplomats, felt that decamping from Bangkok would be interpreted as a United Nations retreat in the face of political uncertainty in South-East Asia.5 Even so, Bangkok was to remain only the Commission's 'working site' until July 1970, when it was officially declared by ECOSOC to be ECAFE's official headquarters.

-

However, a number of other countries were also keen to host the secretariat. In 1947 when the Commission held its second session, in the Philippine city of Baguio, the Government of the Philippines suggested that since ECAFE's records had just been moved to Baguio this might also become ECAFE's permanent headquarters. There were also a number of other invitations -from India, Malaya and Pakistan. China reacted sharply to these approaches, seeing no reason why the secretariat should move from Shanghai. ECAFE's accountants might have suggested an answer, for the stay in Shanghai was proving expensive. To pay local expenses ECAFE had to exchange its dollars to p a n at the official exchange rate which was far higher than the market rate. As a result, by the end of 1947 for every dollar ECAFE was spending, the Government of China took 55 cents.

At first E W E was housed in the Grand Palace, the building occupied by the Ministry of Finance and then at Peruskawan Palace. By 1954, the number of staff had grown to 178 so the Government of Thailand offered one of Bangkok's newest buildings, the Sala Santitham (Hall of Peace) near the Royal Palace and behind which the Government of Tnailand built a wnfetence centre

One of ECAFE's earliest emplo~eec,Rill Tanzer, from the United Kingdom and the first head of the United Nations Information Service in Bangkok, recalls the early years:

when I arrived in ~ a n ~ k itowas k the rainy season. The roads were a ua ire, transport was crowded and one neede ru ber boots t o step out o f the house. ECAIY was then located in ndioxly named ~eruskawanpalace, was still much a remember the l ha when I arrived in On OKce One morningto Ad a desk No more cobras into air-conditroned splendour.

l i?

S

wridin

B

In the fifties ~angkokwas still unspoiled, fawinatpicturesque and exciting. he sun set early. T e mosquitoes came out and fans were a nccasit . b u t shortly after sunset there was invariab a power cut.

int?

rY

o n e would then switch on the skp-up, a small box bou&t in the market, and happily pirate one's nei&bouh electrjcity before his supply was also exhausted ~ n later l did the Thai ~ovemment, ithco,,siderabUN help, embark on an ambitious electrification nropmme.

4

By 1974, ECAFE had evolved into ESCAP - the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific - to reflect a greater attention to social issues and to the interests of the Pacific. By then, the membership of ESCAP had grown to 31 Governments. But this evolution also increased the number of Secretariat staff, intensifying the pressure on space. The overcrowding was resolved only in 1975 by the construction of a new United Nations complex next to Sala Santitham - a 15-storey secretariat tower and a seven-storey 'service building', completed at a cost of around some $5 million. The Government of Thailand supplied architectural and engineering services and also leased the land to the UN for $1 per year. At that point theunited Nations ESCAP building was one of the tallest in the city - though by the standards of contemporary Bangkok it seems relatively modest. ESCAP's location in Bangkok also offered opportunities for reaching out to the Thai public through the United Nations Information Services (UNIS). For this purpose one of its natural allies has been the United Nations Association of Thailand (UNAT), a non-governmental organization closely linked with the Ministry of ForeignMairs ofThailand, particularly through former Ambassadors of Thailand who are at the helm of UNAT. Over the years, UNAT and ESCAP have organized many public lectures and seminars, and have jointly marked United Nations Day on 24 October every year. UNIS has also arranged visits to ESCAP for members of the public - from Thailand and elsewhere - and briefed them on its work. Despite its new building ESCAP still found itself during the 1980s with only small facilities for conferences. So in the early 1990s the Sala Santitham, which had been damaged by a fire in 1969, was demolished and in its place arose the curvaceous UN Conference Centre, opened on 9 April 1993 by His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand. Apart from its imposing design, one of the most striking elcments on the ceiling is an impressive piece of artwork presented by the Government of Thailand called 'A Structure of the Universe'. Composed of marble, brick, mirror, wood, and various kinds of metal, it depicts the sun and moon at the centre of the solar system and, with understandable optimism, the United Nations as the central world body.

His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand inaugurated the United Nations Conference Centre in Bangkok on 9 April 1993

A Structure of the Universe by Prcecha 7hoathong Ceiling of the United Nations Conference Centre in bangkok

F

or centuries, Asia was the cdossus OF

the world economy.m 1300 the

had a

popuIation of ra-t minion -

t e r

he times p

than that of Western Europe. ~

n itdwas already a huge and dynamic tradinsarca - wcchanginga vast array of pods: ~ p c wtwctiks, , porcelain, precious mdals, carpets, p c r f u m e , ~ ~ ~ ~ l I e ~ , horses, timber, salt, raw silk, p l d , siher and mediinal herbs. ~ndian traders, for example, , were sailingwwt to the Persian ~ u l fthe

~ e sea d and k

t ~hica, and offeringgoods

and .Spanish that were then sdd on by ~talian

traders. T+WJalso travelled, in the other - thou& direction, to what is now ~ndooesia at that time could not venture much further east since their ships could not withstand

the typhoons of the south china sea - nor could their sailors fend uff the ferocious local pirates.

This page intentionally left blank

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I

isolation came at an economic price. By 1950

China's GDP per person had shrunk by a quarter while Britain's had risen fivefold? But China was not alone in experiencing economic stagnation: for the four centuries up to the end of the Second World Wal most of the region was in economic decline. Much of this decline took place over the period of colonization. The main priorities of the colonists were ro achieve a good return on investment, and abundant supplies of raw materials. Their trade policies had a devastating impact on Asia's markets for manufactured goods. For example, Britain protected its own textile industry from Indian

W

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le, v i p s far

established a technological lead. As a result,

Lh traders -

while in the early 18th Century India had been

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a major player in the world textile market, by the

and able

middle of the 19th Century it had lost all of its

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export markets along with much of its domestic

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sales.7 Between 1500 and 1950, Asia's share of

,

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competition until factories at home had

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global GDP fell from 65% to 19%.

ine. This was an

The situation was different in Japan. Even as a 'closed

end of the 14th

country' until the middle of the 19th Century, Japan

n r i v e withdrew y the country

de and rejected foreign overtures. , K - d o 0 f from international uad! for another 200 years.

had becn developing a sophisticated economy with complex road networks and irrigation systems

- and had become highly urbanized.

trnbarkine o n industrialization

By the time of the formadon of W E , most Asian mum tries wae thus at very early stages of indusaial development How should they get srarvd?As President Manud b x a s of the Philippins argued at the Commission's second -ion in 1947:

S. Most

L;&.

ar p h . the first AS pm of its function

Forging Asian industry Some countries were also looking to invest rapidly in heavy industry. They wanted to move straight to the production of capital goods and, in particular, to build their capacity to manufacture iron and steel. Asia did of course already have a steel industry. In China, a government enterprise had built the first mill at Hangyang in 1896. In Japan, the first mill was built in 1898 also by a government enterprise. In India, however, the first mill was built by a private company, Tata, at Jamshedpur in Bihar in 1911.9 But by 1947 Burma, Indo-China, Indonesia, Pakistan and the Philippines were also keen to establish steelmaking capacities while India was impatient to expand its own small industry. ECAFE operated through 'working parties' - groups of experts gathered from government and industry - and its first was on industrial development. This warned ECAFE's Asian members that their progress would be hampered by shortages of steel, and thus supported their steel-making ambitions. Some members of ECAFE were sceptical. They predicted that as European countries stepped up post-war production there would soon be a global oversupply, enabling Asian countries to import all they needed. As it turned out, the Asian instincts were correct, as the onset of the Korean War and rearmament in the West was to absorb much of the new steel production. The Working Party on Industrial Development formed an Iron and Steel Subcommittee to examine the possibilities. Its members surveyed national plans and provided countries with technical information - looking at European techniques on scrap collection, for example, and suggesting how Asian countries could learn from this experience. They also offered advice on how to set up steel rolling mills as well as on makmg steel using raw materials other than coking coal - of which only India and China had ample supplies. In addition they organized visits of Asian iron and steel experts to Japan and Western Europe. What was the consequence of all this activity? Ten years later, regional steel production had risen substantially. True, 99% of the output was still in Japan, China and India, but Pakistan, the Philippines, the Republic of Korea andTaiwan Province of China had also made good progress. And Singapore, following recommendations by a U N team of experts, had established a National Iron and Steel Mills plant on the Jurong Industrial Estate.

Not all went well; some countries had clearly given more thought to expanding production than to using the output. In Burma, for example, a steel mill subsequently had to close down. Elsewhere, however, there was a growing market for steel and overall production expanded. Over subsequent decades, ECAFE was to continue its support for steel production. In 1971, for example, to encourage technology transfer it helped establish the South-East Asia Iron and Steel Institute which was based initially in Singapore and then Manila, and is now located in Shah Alam, Malaysia. This provides a forum for the exchange of information as well as encouraging regional cooperation among both governments and industries. Throughout this period the forerunner for industrial development in the region was Japan. During the Second World War the country had lost around 70% of its industrial output. But by the 1960s with its skilled workforce and know-how, and access to the US market, it was recovering rapidly and by 1964 it had joined the OECD. In less than three decades it became the world's second largest economy. And in the 1970s following in ~ a ~ a nfootsteps, 'l came the four Asian 'tigers' - Hong Kong, China; the Republic of Korea; Singapore; and Taiwan Province of China - each of which benefited from competent and stable governments supported by high-quality labour forces. Then at the end of the 1970s, China's economy embarked on a period of liberalization and rapid industrial development. Nowadays, many Asian countries have become major industrial powers. China produces one quarter of the world's steel output and has become the leading exporter.10 And many of the original Asian steel makers are still prospering: at the beginning of 2007, Tata, for example, which is still India's largest private steel company, took over a large Anglo-Dutch steel conglomerate, becoming in the process the fifth largest global steel manufacturer. ECAFE's support was of course not limited to iron and steel. In 1966 it established the Asian Industrial Development Council and carried out regional and sub-regional surveys in petrochemicals, for example, and agricultural machinery, while identifying investment opportunities for joint ventures in which two or more countries could participate.

>>>

Phnning and markets Nor was ECAFEi early support for industry confined to largescale production. In 1954, for example, it arranged for directors of small companies to visit Japan to look at the organization of small-scale industries. As a result, a number of countries were able to followthe Japanese model of support for small businesses - centraking punhases of raw materials,for example, and pmviding r e s d and training institutes.

In the 1950s and 1960s governments were hop& that development could be achieved largely by following national plans. E W E also believed that the same principles could be extended to the regional level so as to achieve a regional division of tabour. As the Report of the Conference of A s i i Economic Planners put it in 1964, "The guiding principle should be intra-regional and international specialization in production, on the basis of mutual agreementn.There is no evidence, however, that this had

a u x , h c e with international developments.

-

duce annual p h though these wiU also

In the period 1983-1990,ESCAP ment ~lanninefor the develo~iw

p"&oix

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--v

.

mreg&

&tours; held annually in the

was to

aits attention m m m the opgation

including those of the former Soviet Union, in their d o r m a t i o n from m d y planned to madcet-mientedsystems.

- -

ISCAP, like other UN agencies, is eogaging much m m dosely with the private sector. In 2004, for example, it launched the As'~rl-PacificBusiness Forum which is held aeattayF in wniugcdod with the Commission session. Up to 400 senior government &cials, business executives and repmtatives from eivil society meet to consider godaand economic issues and their implications for the region. Another initiative was theBusinessAdvlsoryCod(BAc)&&wassetupin2004to~theExcattive Secretary on how to promote moperation between ESCAP and the private sector. lhe

Cound, cansistiag of20 prominent bashes laden, pprovides a dbusings perspaaiye on E S W i work 'b

Aimingfor higher technology ES<:AI' has also heen helping members and associate members develop their small and medium-sizcd enterprises (SMtls). O n e important initiative has been to nurture hightcch start-up companies through 'technology incubators'. Since 2000, ESCAP has successfi~llyimplemented three technical projects to support such incubators for SMEs from Mongolia to Knzaklistan. f3y the early 21st Century, Asia was responsible for more than half of the exports of tlie wurld's information and communications technology goods.'-' But while many countries and enterprises have been able to take advantage of these developments, others wcre in danger of being left behind -creating a 'digital divide'. In the Greater Mekong Subregion ESCAP has therefore started an e-business and new technology project to improve the trade possibilities for SMEs. In each of the participating countries, a selected agency will have a website to support the business opportunities for SMEs; i n Cambodia there is one for each province. In Virt Nam a business portal VNemart, connects SMEs and potential buyers. and already has 5,000 members. And through the UN Special I'rograninie for tlie Economies of Central Asia (SPECA), for example, ESCAI' and tlie UN Economic Con~missionfor Europe are supporting a I'rogrmitiie for Improving Business Opportunities through I C T Access Points. In tlie Pacific, the ESCA1' Pacific Operations Centre (EPOC) has also been offering husinesses assistance for inforniarion technology, though it1 this case through governments. 'li~v;llu,for example, is blessed with the internet domain name of ".W". The Government rctlized tlie commercial potential of this name but lacked the resources to manage and m;~rkcrthe domain name on its own. It decided therefore to contract the administration and management of the domain and co~nmissionedEI'OC to provide advice on the rcclinical and lcgil aspects of the agreement. It also asked EPOC to help devise a policy fLr the domain ii~nie'sfilture ~ i i a ~ ~ ~ g e and ~ i i epotmtial. ~it At present this agreement contributes 10% to 20% ofTi~valiisannual budget. A~iothcrpriority in the information age is to ensure more opportunities for women. t1SCAI' has heen playing a strong role in training women in information technology. Frum I099 to 2003, h r example, it helped to org~nizethe annual Asia-Pacific Women's Electronic Nctwork Training, a number of whose graduates have been able to launch highly succcssfi~lbusinesses. such :IS tlie www.ehoniemakers.net portal in Malaysia. w1ik.h hrin;: to;:r,rhcr :In c-communiry of women \rorliins from home.

he inkrastructure imperative

Asia has had some of the world's most fabled travel routes, from the historical Silk Road to the Trans-Siberian Railway, from India's Grand Trunk Road to the vast Mekong k v e r system. But by the end of the Second World War much of the region's infrastructure was in a poor state of repair. Although the networks were to expand quite rapidly over subsequent decades, and the promise of the old caravan routes were later revived, the transport networks struggled to keep pace with the demand from passengers and freight. Nor were these roads and railways heading in the most appropriate directions. Transport routes had mainly been designed to get raw materials to markets to serve the needs of colonial patterns of trade. Thus, in some countries many routes went from the interior to the coast with no attempt to join up the main national population centres. 'There was also little communication even between neighbouring countries - some of the main export routes for example were from Singapore to the United Kingdom, from Hanoi to France, or from Manila to the United States of America. At first Asian planners seemed content with, or at least resigned to, these arrangements, and did not pay much attention to transport. But by 1949 ECAFE had convened its first regional conference on the issue, in Singapore. In 1951 it formed an Inland Transport Committee and in 1952 the secretariat formed a transport division.

The A- l route of the Asian Highway, 15 miles from Kabul, leading to the Khyber Pass, Afghanistan. 1964

%king the train During much of the colonial era the dominant form of land transportation in many countries was the train - the one land carrier that can move almost anything anywhere the tracks go - and do so more cheaply than the alternatives. Britain, in particular, had invested heavily in railways. India, at independence in 1947, had more than 40,000 kilometres of track and a railway system that employed more than onemillin people. In the early years of the 20th Century even independent countries like Siam were building railway systems to help integrate their nation states.15 By the 1940s however, most systems based largely on singletrack lines, were buckling under the strain. Over the period 1948 to 1957 railway traffic across the region more than doubled - breakdowns were frequent and mainteknce was absorbing up to 40% of revenues.lG One option for coping with this rising demand would have been to double up the tracks but this would have been expensive and time consuming. Most countries chose therefore to try to make existing tracks more productive. E W E was able to contribute in a number ofways. One of the main priorities was to increase the number of skilled personnel. So in conjunction with the UN's Technical Assistance Adminisuation in 1954 it opeied a training centre in Lahore. And through its secretariat and sub-committees E W E offered assistance on a wide range of other subjects. l'hese included suggestions for addressing the shortage of hardwoods for sleepers - by using softer woods or concrete, for example - as well as exploring Merent methods of welding rail joints. And since a number of countries lacked sufficient coal to power their engines, and had to resort to burning wood, ECAFE was able to suggest ways of doing this in the most efficient manner. Over the years Asian countries were to develop some of the world's most sophisticated railway systems. From the 1960s trains, notably on Japan's Shinkansen lines, were already able to travel at over 200 kilometres per hour. In 2004 the Republic of Kor& 'KTX' trains halved the journey time fiom Seoul to Busan. And in 2006 China completed the world's highest railway running from Beijing to Lhasa.

Elsewhere, however, services were stagnating. And in particular it was clear that the region's railway networks were not hlfilling their potential for international trade - for several reasons, including difficulties in establishing cross-border connections. In some areas, links such as those between Cambodia and Thailand were made and then disappcarcd. One problem was that neighbouring countries often had different gauges, requiring cargo to be transferred from one type of rail car to another. ?his process was speeded up following greater use of containers and other techniques designed to overcome the discontinuities, but there was significant room for improvement. Moreover trains crossing borders were frequently slowed by multiple inspections - customs, quarantine and security - with the accompanying sheaves of paperwork. To address some of these problems ECAFEIESCAP from the 1960s promoted an ambitious Trans-Asian Railway Network. The aim was to connect rail lines between Singapore and Istanbul and provide a continuous 14,000-kilometre rail link. But progress proved slow, especially during the decades of the Cold War when neighbouring countries were reluctant to cooperate. In recent years, however, the network has sprung back into life. In 1995, for example, lines were built from Mashhad in the Islamic Republic of Iran to Sarakhs in Turkmenistan - links that provided the landlocked republics of Central Asia with rail access to ports in Turkey and the Islamic Republic of Iran. These and other gains for theTrans-Asian Railway Network were formalized in November 2006 in Busan, Republic of Korea, during an ESCAP Ministerial Conference on Transport which included the signing of an intergovernmental agreement. The 81,000 kilometres in the network were selected by 28 countries as vital arteries for the development of their international trade. The network also has an important social impact, bringing economic development to remote areas and creating employment opportunities through the development of 'dry ports'.

On the road Even more striking than the development of railways across the region over the past 60 years has been the expansion of road networks. Roads are cheaper to build than rail links, and easier to expand. In the 1950s the member governments of E W E were concentrating on low-cost earth roads and indeed in many remote areas these are still the most economical option. So in the early days ECAFE provided technical advice on techniques of soil stabiiition - whiie also advising on the best ways of building macadam and bituminous roads. As a regional body, ECAFEIESCAP has also been concerned to develop international road connections. Historically most of the movement between Asia and Europe had been by circuitous sea routes around the Cape of Good Hope or through the Suez Canal. For many products, however, it was clear that land routes, particularly within Asia, could be faster and more economical. And dearly trans-border routes would also be crucial for the region's 12 landlocked countries which could only gain access to ports through neighbouring countries. In a further $fort to create a sense of regional identity,

U Nyun, then ECAFEb Deputy Executive Secretary, in 1958 conceived a grand design to establish a highway running across Asia from what was then Saigon and Singapore to the Turkish border. The need was first raised in 1954 but it was not until 1958, when the project acquired a catchier brand name - the 'Asian Highway' - that it started to gain momentum. As U Nyun later put it, having become Executive Secretary in 1959:

he Asian highway was a rallyin

point for Asian countries. It was a wa o eth'n rqg in touch with each other agam, for roa s have always providedthe means o f contact between our and cultures. B and large ~ s i a n avo~d s the sea. Man o our historicalca itals were locatec&land: Kyoto, ~ a n d ay, a peklng, ~ e l h ionly . when the Europeans came were the ports developed!7

3

?

P

.

Sign post near the Khyber Pass, Afghanistan, 1964

Building the Asian Highway would largely involve upgrading selected national routes to form the basis of an international network. But it would also mean consuucting some inissii links' and, as these were completed, they were often debrated with motor-rallies. For the First Asian Highway Motor Rally in 1969, drivers set off from Vientiane in Laos, then drove through %a&d and ~ a l a ~ ion i ato Singapore. For the second rally in 1970, between Tehran and Dhaka, one of the maior achievements was the evening. of the border benveen India and Pakistan. Despite these breakthroughs, for the first 20 years or so the Asian Highway, like the Trans-Asian Railway, ran into political obstades. Not until the return of peace to SouthEast Asia in the 1980s and early 1990s did it start to take off again. By this time it was also receiving a boost from the rapid development of intra-Asian trade: by 1994 more than half ofAsia's trade was intraregional. To help keep things moving, the Commission at its 48th session in 1992 endorsed the Asian LandTransport Infrastructure Developkent (ALTID) project. ?his has three main components: theTrans-Asian Railway, the Asian Highway i d the general improvement of land transport Facilitation. A significant milestone in the development of the network was the Intergovernmental Agreement on the Asian Highway Network which entered into force in July 2005 - the first international agreement developed under the auspices of ESCAP.

The Asian Highway map shows the road crossing high mountain passes, vast plains and deserts, bridges, wide rivers and retracing old caravan routes - 142,000 kilometres of roads criss-crossing 32 Asian countries - and with linkages to Europe. The real value of the highway, however, is not so much its overall scale but the standardization that enables traffic to move more easily across two or three neighbouring countries. Nowadays, much of ESCAPk activity in this sector involves identifying priority areas for future investment along with potential sources of finance. Concern over road safety issues has risen as, along with the expansion of roads and transport development, road crashes have escalated in the region with over 90% of road crash deaths occurring in low- and middle-income countries. Region-specific conditions such as high rates of death involving two- and three-wheelers warrant special consideration. Furthermore, "economic losses caused by road accidents are more than double the total development assistance to the ESCAP region from all sources." ESCAP has worked on road safety issues since 1992: it has conducted regional studies, developed the Asia-Pacific Road Safety Database, raised awareness, monitored changes in attitude and behaviour, ahd demonstrated the use of colour-coded maps for tracking levels of risk and road safety performance of the Asian Highway. In all these, ESCAP has worked with a wide range ofpartners, including the Asian Development Bank (ADB),the International Federation of Road Safety and the World Road Association. In 2004, ESCAP created the Asia-Pacific Network of Transport and Logistics Education and Research (ANTLER), a network of academic institutions expected to cover road safety issues in the future.'*

Figure 2 - The Asian Highway Route Map

Thc designations employed and the p m t a a o n of material on this map do not imply the q m i o n of any opinion hew on the parr of the S M P d a r of the United Nations wncuning the legal status of any wunrry, temwry, dry or area or of its authorities, or wnarning the delimitadon of its frontiers or boundaries. Dad line reprwnts approrimarely the Line of Conml in Jammu and Kashmir agreed upon by India and r'akhn. The 6nai status of Jammuand Kashmir has nor bcen agreed upon by the parties. Route aligMvllt bawrm Tokyo and Fukuo h in Japan is not qmccd.

Eking to the sea Though rail and road networks have been expanding, a high proportion of the region's goods still travel by sea. For bulk transport over great distances, especially of raw materials, shipping has always provided a cost-effective option. Around three-quarters of the global fleet consists of oil tankers and carriers of dry bulk cargo such as iron ore, grain, coal, bauxite and phosphate. Containerization has also been important: indeed the Asian economic miracle of the past two decades could not have happened without containerized shipping. -

-

-

ECAFEIESCAP has therefore also focussed on shipping and port development. One of its early concerns was the high level of freight rates being charged by international shipping lines which were affecting international competitiveness. In 1963, for example, an ad hoc Working Group established mechanisms for consultation and negotiation between shippers and shipping lines, and helped establish national and regional shippers' councils. One of the most significant contributions was the Ship Users' Cooperation Project (SUCOP) which started in the 1970s. This aimed to strengthen cooperation and coordination among shippers, shipowners and port authorities while developing suitable analytical tools and transferring technical knowledge. In 1978, for example, regional workshops were held on shippers' cooperation, focusing on ways of negotiating terms and conditions for cargo. The project also helped to implement a uniform system of collecting economic statistics on shipping. Then in l98 1 the ESCAP secretariat organized regional workshops on cargo consolidation, the calculation of ocean costs, and the economic, operational and legal implications for shippers of containerization. The Ship Users' Cooperation Project was phased out in 1988. Many people have regretted its absence.l 9 More recent ESCAP activities in the shipping area include work on the development of container ports - making long-term forecasts for demand and identifying private sources of investment finance. ESCAP has also been worlung with national associations of freight forwarders and logistics providers, and helping countries with training in logistics, for example, and in 'multi-modal' systems that move goods using combinations of different forms of transport.

Prototypes for Coastal Vessels prepared by ECAFE in l963 These drawings were on display at the Sala Santitham, headquarters of the United Nations Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East (ECAFE) in February 1963. They were made in Holland at the expense of the Government of the Netherlands in response to the demand by Asian Governments for a prototype design that could be used for coastal vessels in the region.

Photographic reproduction of a drawing showing a "shelter deckern, with a deadweight capacity of 614 tons, a service speed of 10 knots and a maximum speed of 12 knots. The vessel is designed to carry cargo as well as 150 deck passengers and 6 cabin passengers.

B o o s t i n g international trade Asia and the Pacific is now the world's most dynamic trading region. But 60 years ago the picture looked very different. In 1950 the region had just 14% of global exports and much of this consisted of raw materials - cotton from India, rubber from Malaya, jute from Pakistan. Even by the late 1950s the region was responsible for only about one sixteenth of the global output of manufactured goods, and almost half of this came from Japan. Nor was there much trade between Asian nations. During the period 1957-1959 intra-regional exchanges accounted for only around one third of the region's total trade and much of this was concentrated in very few countries; not surprising perhaps, since many of the countries had, at the behest of colonial administrations, been producing very similar goods. Indeed, the region's trading experience was to remain unimpressive for another 20 years or so - by 1963 Asia's share of global exports had slumped to 12%.20 Much of this decline was a deliberate choice. Sixty years ago, many developing countries in the region viewed trade with deep suspicion - seeing it as a vehicle that had distorted their economies towards the extraction and export of raw materials. Now that they were becoming independent they sought much greater self-reliance, in the manufacture not just of steel and heavy industrial products, but also of many other goods for local consumption. As a result they were less preoccupied with international trade. Eventually, however, some serious balance of payments problems arose as exports no longer generated the hard currency needed for imports whose levels were rising fast, particularly from the United States ofAmerica. ECAFE suggested that Asian countries might look more towards importing from Japan, which clearly had excess production capacity - though this would not really solve the problem since Japan too, then under the control of the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers, also demanded payment for most goods in dollars. The question of how ECAFE should engage in trade provoked some debate. In 1954 the Executive Secretary, PS. Lokanathan, proposed a permanent subcommittee on the issue. This was opposed by a few countries on the grounds that such matters were best discussed in the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs (GATT).

However, few ECAFE members were also members of GATT and even those that were regarded it with some suspicion. Eventually, in 1956, after two conferences on trade promotion, ECAFE agreed to establish a trade committee. But how exactly should the countries of the region cooperate on trade? Should they aim for overall regional agreements? Again, the non-regional members objected, arguing that bilateral or regional treaties would run counter to the need for multilateral agreements. But following the spirit of the Lahore Convention, they did not vote against the proposal and the first ECAFE talks were held in 1959 covering such issues as trade disputes, quality control and shipping services. At that point, few governments had trade promotion departments and only India had extensive trade offices abroad, so ECAFE offered training for officials. Another concern was the arbitration of trade disputes. This had not been an issue when trade was managed by foreign companies subject to legal systems in their home countries, but had become a more pressing matter now that trade was increasingly between Asian countries. ECAFE therefore in 1966 prepared a set of ECAFE Rules for International Commercial Arbitration. Between 1966 and 2001, ECAFE/ESCAP also worked with member States to organize a series of Asia-Pacific International Trade Fairs, which were of particular value to SMEs in the least developed countries. Over the years these fairs were to attract around 21,000 private firms and 9 million visitors - and generate around $1.3 billion-worth of business. ECAFE also helped to ensure smoother flows of payments for goods. A Ministerial conference in 1970 decided to establish an Asian Clearing Union (ACU) to allow members to settle payments between participating central banks on a multilateral basis. Based in Tehran, the ACU now includes the central banks of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Thanks to its strict but simple rules of operation that guarantee prompt settlements, the ACU has yet to experience a default and by 2004 had dealt with transactions worth $6.7 billion.

Barriers start to fall By the late 1970s the pattern of trade in the region had shifted. Through the 1950s and 1960s most of the developing countries had been aiming for import substitution behind high tariff walls. However some countries, particularly those in East and South-East Asia later turned to the opportunities afforded by export-led growth. At first they concentrated on fairly low-tech labour-intensive goods, such as garments, or footwear, or simple toys; then they graduated to higher-tech products. Through the 1980s this mainly involved the four 'tigers': Hong Kong, China; the Republic of Korea; Singapore; andTaiwan Province of China. These were then followed by the newly industrializingcountries - Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia - rapidly creating what came to be referred to as the 'Asian Mirade'. Many factors contributed to this success, induding redistribution of resources through land reform, high rates of savings that could be channelled into productive investment and higher levels of education - along with deliberate government direction of the economy. But another vital element was openness to international trade: by 2000 average import tariffs in these countries were already down to 20%.2' The situation was different in South Asia. Growth was slower and most countries did not start to liberalize until the 1990s. Even before that, however, countries l i e Bangladesh and Nepal had seen a rapid rise in exports as they took advantage of favourable quotas for garments and textiles. ESCAP has played its part in boosting both regional and global uade. The landmark event was to come in July 1975, with the signing of the First Agreement on Trade Negotiations among Developing Member Countries of ESCAP which came to be known as the Bangkok Agreement. In 2004 this evolved into the Asia-Pacific Trade Agreement (APTA), a preferential trading arrangement open to all ESCAP developing members and associate members. APTA currently includes Bangladesh, Chiia, India, the Lao People's Democratic Republic, the Republic of Korea, and Sri Lanka. A number of other members have also expressed an interest in joining. At the same time, ESCAP has also helped countries to engage more productively in multilateral uade negotiations. It has for example, offered policy advice and research during the negotiations for. the Uruguay Round of GATT, and later for the Doha Round of the World Trade Organization. In the Pacific, EPOC has undertaken a study for the Pacific Islands Fonun Secretariat on the potential costs of adjusting to a Pacific Economic PartnershipAgreement with the European Union. ESCAP has also been able to offer assistance during the process of accession to the WTO - to Armenia, for example, Cambodia, Nepal and Viet Nam - work that is likely to continue since this region accounts for about half the countries who are not yet WTO members.

One of the consequences of this intensification of trade, combined with the current suspension of trade negotiations at the WTO, has been a proliferation of agreements. By August 2006 there were 117 regional or bilateral preferential and free trade agreements - the strands of which form a bewildering complex that has been referred to as the 'Asian noodle bowl'. To keep track of these, and analyse their development ESCAP launched an onliie Asia-Pacific Trade and Investment Agreements Database (APTIAD).

Since 1980, ESCAF' has also been helping to reduce the costs of trading. It has, for example, encouraged the simplification of customs procedures. It also offers free access to accurate and timely information through its Trade and Investment Information Service. In addition it has started a Regional Trade and Investment Information Network, which in 2004 moved o d i e as E-TISNET. F i y , ESCAP has sought to promote a more business-friendly policy environment through its annual government-business dialogues.

Figure 3 -The Asian 'noodle bowl' of trade agreements

l

ilippines

APTIAD, June 2006, some

Note: = MEAN Free Trade Area AFIA APTA = Asia-Pdc T d Agreement BIMSTEC = Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation = European Free Trade Agreement EFTA = P d c Island CountriesTrade Agreement PICIA MSG = Melanesian Spearhead Gmup = European Union EU = South Asia Free Trade Agreement SAF'IA SPARTFCA = South F'acific Trade and Economic Coowntion APteunent

arc not shown

Creating a regional think tank From the outset, one of ECAFE's most important functions was to provide high quality economic research and analysis. In the !ate 1940s there were few such research facilities in the region; indeed the entire field of applied economics was in its infancy. The founders of ECAFE were determined to improve the situation and charged the secretariat with the responsibility of collecting the necessary statistical data, analysing the region's economic situation, and disseminating the information to a wide audience. The main vehicle was to be the Economic Survey of the Far East. The first Survey in 1948 described the economic conditions of a region that was just emerging from the havoc and dislocation of the Second World War - and provided many members and associate members with their first view of the rest of the region and their first experience of comparative cross-country analysis. Over the next 60 years the Survey was to become the secretariat's flagship puhlicafion - taking ESCAP's research to governments, central hanks, research institutesad universities across the region, and giving birth to a generation of development economists. From 1957, in addition to reviewing the current economic situation, the Suruey also selected a subject for in-depth study. The accumulated list of subjects can be used therefore to track the region's changing priorities and perceptions. In 1965, for example, the subject was 'Economic Development and Human Resources'; in 1969 it was 'Intraregional Trade as a Growth Strategy'; and in 1971 it was 'Economic Growth and Social Justice'. And within these subjects, many of the issues discussed, such as the need to invest in infrastructure, are clearly still matters of concern. The Survey has thus recorded how many development challenges have persisted - while also showing how the understanding of these issues, and the ways they have been tackled, have evolved over the years.

In 1974 when ECAFE became ESCAP, the Survey, too, was renamed, becoming the Economic and Social Survey ofAria and the Pacifi. From that point it would focus more sharply on the social aspects of development. Initially it did this by weaving social concerns into the economic analysis; later it focused more specifically on social problems. In 1988, for example, the Survey chose as its theme: 'Recent Economic and Social Developments', and in subsequent years covered such subjects as population dynamics, and the provision of social services and social security. From 2000, following the adoption of the United Nations Millennium Declaration, the main backdrop to the social analysis became the Millennium Development Goals. Over the years the Survey has provided a wealth of data and analysis on the economic and social history of the world's most dynamic region. Now its aim is to identify near- and mediumterm policy challenges, and provide early warning signals - using macroeconomic models to estimate the impact of key global and regional developments, and then presenting policy options and recommendations. Recent Surveys have dealt with such subjects as: rising oil prices; the revival of the Japanese economy; the softlanding of the Chinese economy; and the impact on regional economies of a sudden unwinding of global imbalances. In 2006, the Survey considered the impact on financial markets of the dramatic mid-year collapse in equity prices. It concluded that the region's economic fundamentalswere still strong, hut warned against complacency and suggested ways of building economies that would be sufficiently strong and flexible to weather global financial shocks. The 2007 Survey, recognizing the need to identify early danger signals, will showcase ESCAP's new Vulnerability Index - a simple way to monitor vulnerability to currency crises.

Countingon statistics Underpinning all these efforts has been ESCAP's unique contribution to regional statistics -gathering and analysing data from around the region and supporting and training national statistics offices. This was one of the first priorities. In 1949 ECAFE established a statistical section and started building basic data series on production, for example, trade, finance, prices and transport, which it would publish both in the Suwey and in the Economic Bulletinfor Asia and the Far Eart. At the same time it set out to raise statistical standards. In 1951, jointly with the UN Statistical Office and the IMF, the ECAFE secretariat convened in Rangoon the first Regional Conference of Statisticians of Asii and the Far East. It soon discovered that one of their main preoccupations was the critical shortage of personnel. Although it organized some ad hoc courses to help fill the gaps, dearly something more systematic was required. In 1967, at ECAFE's 22nd session the Government of Japan formally requested that it should enter into an agreement with UNDP to establish a statistical training and research institute. This was officially inaugurated in Tokyo in June 1970 as the Asian Statistical Institute - renamed in 1977 as the Statistical Institute for Asia and the Pacific (SIAP). In 1995 SIAP became a subsidiary body of ESCAP and since 1999 has been located in spacious and well-equipped premises in Chiba, Tokyo. SIAP is also fortunate in the degree of support it gets from Japan, which in addition to offering financial backing, provides in-kind contributions for administrative and infrastmctural support. SIAP has made a major contribution to the i m p r w e m t of statistics in the region. By October 2006, it had trained (precisely) 10,265 starisdcians - around one quarter of them in SIAP's premises and the rest in training acdvities organized at the wunuy, sub-regional, or regional levels. In the future it will be reaching out to an even wider dientele through distance learning.

k

I

a!

While SIAP serves as ESCAPS training arm, the tatisth Division within c secretariat works on promoting international statistical s t a d d - creating forums at which regional expem can exchange information and technIqua, as weU as offering promammes of technical assistance. 'Ihis work is critical for emuring that dm nroduced bv v each country are comparable across the region and the

Over the years, the focus of ESCAP's work on statistics has changed - in line with member governments' need for information on different subjects and the development of their national statistical systems. Thus the second regional conference in 1952 considered as main topics, industrial production and wholesale price statistics, while the 10th conference in 1972, for example, focused on national accounts. By the 1980s, many countries in the region had improved their capacity to produce economic indicators, while also wanting to gather better data on social and environmental issues. But by the 1990s, and especially following the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995 there was far greater demand for gender-disaggtegated data, looking for example, at women's position in the economy, with innovative statistical projects on paid and unpaid work and on women's employment in the informal sector. The previously fashionable 'gender statistics' also mutated into the current term: 'gender in statistics' Now, in the early years of the new millennium, the need to gather data on the Millennium Development Goals has revealed many shortcomings in national statistical systems - and encouraged efforts to strengthen them. Building - global - on this momenturn, and seizing the opportunity of the upcoming global round of population and hausing - - censuses, the Statistics Division has intensified its technical cooperation activities. These involve, for example, promoting international standards, helping with the coverage of emerging issues, such as disability and miption, and supporting application of information and communications technology. Along the way, the Division is also actively advocating for better coordination among data producers within national statistical systems, and between national and international data agencies. More recently the Statistics Division has also been changing the character and content of information that it produces itself. First it has been shifting the focus from simply collecting and publishing data to disseminating statistical information in a form that is accessible and easy to understand. For this purpose it can now make more intensive use of information technology. Thus, it has been able to reduce the number of printed publications from six to two, and is instead publishing most of the information on the web. Web technology has atso made it possible to build a massive archive of technical and methodological materials and offer online documents and reports from 1994 onwards.

Another change in recent years is that the Statistics Division is now concentrating more on data analysis. It is now responsible, for example, for analysing data and assessing progress towards achieving the Miennium Development Go& and targets - both the overall achievement of the region and the national

~ o b i l i z i development n~ finance L

From 1947 to 1951 under the Marshall Plan, the United States of America was to commit $13 billion in post-war economic aid to Europe. Unsurprisingly, the countries of Asia and the Pacific hoped for a corresponding commitment. At the second session of ECAFE in 1947 the Philippines requested a similar sum - with a view to channelling this through E W E . ?his was always rather a long shot because the countries of Asia were far more diverse and heterogeneous than those in Europe -which made it very difficult to plan how the funds could be used. And in any case the donor of choice, the United States of America, was not in favour.. be on a smaller scale. One of d in 1950, was the 'Colombo induded three developing n, which were joined by

r, have any a n d funds a source of information

ergence of many other channels donors had founded the ParisGroup of the OECD, for the less-developed countries. In Fund and the Expanded merged to form the United . By the 1970s there were

Ihe Asian Development Bank (ADB) For multilateral aid, however, one of the major sources of funds to Asiawas to emerge from an ECAFE initiative. In 1954 ECAFE proposed the establishment of a development bank that would do at the regional level what the World Bank was doing at the global level. At that time the World Bank was directing most of its Asii funds to India and Pakistan, leaving the region's other developing countries without the facilities of an intergovernmental hank Meanwhile regional banks were emergingelsewhere - the Inter-American Development Bank, for example, was established in 1959, and by 1963 plans were also well under way for an African Development Bank. The concept of a regional bank was formally mooted at an ECAFEorganized trade conference in 1963 by a young Tnai banker, Paul Sithi-Amnuai, for developing intra-regional trade. At about the same time agroup ofJapanese economists, including Takeshi Watanabe (who was later to bewme the founder President of the ADB) were also discussing the idea of a regional hank to finance infrastructure. At the request of ECAFE Director ofTrade, R Krishnamurthi,Tadao Chino, from the Ministry of Finance of Japan, who was to bewme a future President of the ADB (1999 to 2005), was seconded to E W E for two years to develop the proposal which was later endorsed by an E W E group of experts assembled to begin the task of translating the idea into reality. On 31 March 1966, ECAFE passed a resolution on the establishment of the Asian Development Bank For the first time, Japan, a regional E W E member, matched the of $200 million pledge ofthe United States of America to become a CO-primary contributor to a major international organization and began to play the role of a coordinator between Asian and Western members in the Bank. ?hen only members of ECAFE were allowed to become members of the ADB.

By December 1966,ADB had opened for business in Manila - a location chosen after intense lobbying by President Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines. Since then, the ADB has emerged as one ofAsia's most significant financial institutions with 66 member countries and over 2,000 staff members, lending around $6 billion per year. This is essentially an Asian institution: according to its charter the President has to be Asian - in fact so far always Japanese - and 60% of its capital must come from Asia.

unltea nanons aecretaq-benem U %ant, holding the United States' ratification papers of the Asian Development Bank Charter, shakes hands with Joseph W. Barr U.S. Under-Secretary of the Treasury, as Arthur J. Goldberg looks on. 16 August 1966

An Asim investment bdnk? One of the paradoxes of Asia's current financial system is that there is a surplus of funds but many countries suffer from a lack of investment. The surplus has arisen partly because, as a result of strong economic and export performance, many countries have accumulated huge financial reserves. By 2006, China, India, Japan, the Republic of Korea and Taiwan Province of China, along with Malaysia and Thailand and some other countries, had foreign exchange reserves that collectively were worth around $3 trillion - those of China alone were worth $1 trillion. However, they are investing most of these funds outside the region. O n the other hand, many countries in the region are critically short of investment funds, especially for infrastructure. ESCAP has recently estimated the financing gap at about $220 billion annually - equivalent to around 6% of the Asian funds invested outside of the region. This suggested the possibility for another regional financial mechanism which could be called an 'Asian investment bank' to mobilize these regional resources, mainly from capital markets, and invest them in infrastructure. This could be modelled on the successful European Investment Bank dedicated to the development of infrastructure. The idea was raised at the 2005 Commission session. This attracted the attention of both donors and developing countries, though for different reasons. Some major donors rejected the establishment of a new institution on the grounds that this would duplicate existing ones such as the Asian Development Bank or the World Bank - an objection similar to that made when the concept that led to the ADB was initially proposed. Many countries, however, including India; Kazakhstan and Thailand, welcomed the idea. And a number of developing countries recognized that financing large-scale infrastructure schemes would be beyond their capacity and would probably need innovative financial instruments.

As a follow-up to this, during the 2006 Commission session, India announced that it would conduct a study to examine all possible options for financing infrastructure. The study is expected to discuss a mechanism for recycling some of the region's surplus savings. The study, presented at a policy dialogue (New Delhi, 21-22 March 2007), attracted high-level interest among policies makers, academics and private sector experts. The outcome of that dialogue will be followed up during the 2007 Commission session in Almaty, Kazakhstan. It is worth mentioning that, using a similar line of thought, the Russian Federation and Kazakhstan already established the Eurasian Development Bank in 2006.

ESCAP'S

technical cooperation

Although initially envisaged more as a research and advisory body, over the years ECAFE would itself become increasingly involved in development activities on the ground - especially after 1974 when, at its 30th session ECAFE changed its name to E S W , the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, reflecting a greater international concern for sodal issues, such as health and education, as well as a more active interest in the Pacific. Previously most of the Commission's resources came from 'core funds' provided by the Economic and Social Council. But from then on the Executive Secretary, J.B.l? Maramis of Indonesia, was determined to expand the available resources for technical cooperation activities by attracting large quantities of extrabudgetary funding from donors. At the beginning of his term in 1974, E S W had a technical assistance programme amounting to only $8 million; by the end of it, in 1981, the value of extrabudgetary contributions had reached $21 million out of a total programme of $31 million, making it the largest extra-budgetary technical assistance programme among the United Nations regional commissions. In addition, over the years a number of countries, such as France, Germany, Japan, Norway, the Republic of Korea and Sweden, have given support in kind making available the services of technical specialists who have been attached to the secretariat. Contributions from donors in the mid-1970s enabled ESCAP to carry out programmes on the ground to raise awareness of gender equality. And in around a dozen countries ESCAP also carried out income-generating projects to promote women's economic empowerment. These ranged from fruit cultivation, forestry and fisheries, to food processing, microfinancing and weaving. In 1981 Maramis was succeeded as Executive Secretary by S.A.M.S. Kibria of Bangladesh who was also enthusiastic about technical assistance. Extra-budgetary voluntary funds continued to flow in, with Japan taking the lead, followed by the Netherlands, Sweden, France and other donors. Subsequent Executive Secretaries, including Adrianus Mooy of Indonesia and Kim Hak-Su of the Republic of Korea, maintained this momentum and China, the Republic of Korea and other emerging Asian countries, such as Thailand also joined as donors.

B e regional institutions Some of ESCAPb technical assistance is also provided through five regional institutions. Tne first, and probably the best known, and best financed, has been the Statistid Institute for Asia and the Pacific. The next to be established, in 1977, was the Asian and Pacific Centre for Transfer of Technology (APCTT). Originally located in Bangalore, since 1993 it has been based in New Delhi, and pmmotes the ttansfer of technology to and from small and medium-sized enterprises. An evaluation in 2003 found that while APCTT had a good record, and was particularly valued by the least developed countries because it focused on lower, and to them more useful, technologies, it was nevertheless facing severe financial constraints. Then in 1981 came what is now called the Centre for deviation of Poverty through Secondary Crops Development in Asia and the Pacific (CAPSA). Based in Bogor, Indonesia, CAPS& aim is to help improve the living conditions of the rural poor, particularly those who rely on the cultivation of secondary crops such as coarse grains, tubers and root crops. A 2003 assessment found CAPSA at a low ebb, however, with only one major donor, and with d n g and delivery much reduced. CAPSA was subsequently revitalized through a significant injection of funds by the Government of Indonesia and management effort. The fourth institution, the Asian and Pacific Centre for Agricultural Engineering and Machinery (APCAEM) is a more recent venture. Established in 2002, this is hosted by the Chinese Academy of Engineering, in Beijing, aiming to contribute to poverty reduction by applying harvest and food technology and management, including ago-based biotechnology. Its institutional and operational costs are being met by the Government of China. The most recent addition to the stable of regional institutions is the Asian and Pacific Training Centre for Information and Communication Technology for Development (APCICT), in Incheon, Republic of Korea. APCICT, inaugurated in June 2006, is supported by the Government of the Republic of Korea, together with the Incheon Metropolitan Municipality, and has a memorandum of understanding with Microsoft. It is expected to contribute to bridging the 'digital divide' by offering training to policy makers, as well as ICT professionals and trainers. In recent years, ESCAP's technical cooperation programme has come under question - both within ESCAP and exrernallv. There are concerns that the programme is too diverse and scattered over too many small activities. When Kim Hak-Su became Executive Secretary in 2000 he asked how many projects ESCAP actually had; it took two weeks to provide the figure - over 300. He concluded that by now ESCAP "must focus on impact-making key areas with better screening mechanisms." This resulted in the introduction of a project acceptance committee that selected projects based on the analyses and recommendations of a quality assurance team. Furthermore, ESCAP is moving towards linking its technical cooperation programme more closely with its analytical and normative work. A monitoring and evaluation strategy has been launched with continuous efforts on strengthening results-based management. A

he ~aciFicdimension The island states of the Pacific face huge development challenges. A dozen or more countries are scattered across millions of square kilometres of ocean: the Federated States of Micronesia alone consists of 600 islands. Decolonization was to come later in the Pacific: the largest country, Papua New Guinea, with 6 million people, only achieved independencefrom Australia in 1975.And populations are typically small: when in 2000 Tuvalu became the 189th member of the United Nations it did so with a population of just 11,000. Most people in the Pacific make their living from subsistence agriculture, or fishing or, in recent years, from tourism. Since the early 1970s. ESCAR contribution to the Pacific has primarily been through technical advisory services - typically short assignments that experts undertake at short notice at the request of governments to advise on issues related to economic and social development. Examples included a survey of public administration in the Cook Islands in 1971 and a proposd for the Solomon Isktnds currency in 1972. Activities were then stepped up after 1980 when E S W established a more continuous presence through the 'Pacific Liaison Office'. Four years later this merged with the Fiji-based United Nations Development Advisory Team to form the ESCAP Pacific Operations Centre (EPOC) which from 1984 to 2005 was based in Port Vila, Vanuatu.

I

In the 1980s, EPOC was often concerned with national development planning as in Tonga, or state-level development plans as in the Federated States of Micronesia. Activities in social development included a regional conference on disability services. On the statistical front, EPOC develop the consumer price index for

Towards the end of the 1980s EPOC was doing more work on gender - for example a report on the Department of Women and Culture in Fiji, the Development Strategy for Women in Palau, and a project on the National Council of Women in the Solomon Islands. Then in the 1990s EPOC became closely involved with the development of the financial sector - assisting in the establishment of national provident funds, financial services commissions, development funds and microcredit schemes - and even, as in Tonga, national reserve banks. EPOC has also been active in the prevention of &id sexual abuse. With UNICEF and ECPAT, an NGO, it coordinated the Pacific contribution to a regional review of national plans on this issue. Given what for the Pacific was a ground-breaking approach and the sensitive issues involved, this research attracted considerable attention. In this and other work ESCAP has offered the Pacific island developing wunuies the opportunity for links with counuies in Asia. Moreover, the ESCAP presence in the Pacific has contributedto its workon intergovernmental meetings, especially since 1988 with the establishment of the Special Body on Pacific Eland Developing Countries - a forum that addresses the particular concerns of the Pacific. Over the years this body has considered issues in relation to urbanization and transport, for example, persons with disabilities, and employment generation for vulnerable groups. In 2003 ESCAP commissioned an independent evaluation of EPOC. Wis led to the EPOC Revidition Plan that, among other things, required EPOC to adopt a more stmcnued approach, rather than simply responding to individual requests from governments. Another was the establishment of an advisory council consisting of Pacific island governments and Australia and New Zealand. But probably the most visible outcome of the Revidition Plan was to relocate EPOC in 2005 to SUMin Fiji where most of its key partners are based.

A

cross Asia and the pacific, millic

16children

are p i n g up healthrer, taller and better educated than their parents or grandparents could have imagjned benefiting notjust from economic development but from decades of profound

t has political and social change. ~ oeveryone gained; some countries have progressed more rapidly than others, and millions of families are still stricken by poverty. ~ umost, t especially in recent years, have been able to offer their citizens of all ages many more opportunities to live healthier and more fulfilling lives.

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Before they could take responsibility for their people, however, the countries of the region had to become states. Prior to colonialism, many had never formed single political entities and from the mid-1940s

Many of these new nations were aiming for Western-

found themselves having to build nation States.

style democracy; even countries like nailand that

%is was a complex undertaking - fusing diverse

were never colonized adopted the Western forms

ethnic and social groups into single nations

of government that they considered essential for

with COmm~nlanguages, ideologies and

the construction of a modern state. Others

even mythologies- In many respects,

made a more deliberate effort to break with

this is still an on-going process.

the colonial past by creating socialist societies.

The proliferation of states can be tracked in the

But, in many of these countries, the capital-intensive

Commission's growing membership. In March

economic development of the 1950s and the 1960s

1947 ECAFE started with just four full regional members plus Pakistan which joined six months later. As indicated in Figure 4,

left a sizeable proportion of their people in desperate poverty. At the founding of ECAFE the region it covered was one of the world's

following a spurt in 1954 which corresponded

poorest. Even in the richest economy, Japan,

to full membership for Japan, Cambodia, the

the per capita GDP was only $2,000 while in

Republic of Korea and Sri Lanka - the process

many other economies of the region they

continued steadily for the next three decades,

were less than $500 - at a time when per

before another jump in the early 1990s which signalled the arrival of the republics of Central Asia.

capita incomes in Western Europe were around $4,500, and in the United States $9,500.23

F

-

i 4 Membership of E W E and ESCAP

Life expectancy was short, averaging 41 years, around 10 years lower than in Latin America. And close to one child in five would die before reaching his or her first birthday.24 Half of these deaths were due to infectious disease. In Hong Kong in 1946, for example, the major causes of death were pneumonia, tuberculosis, beri-beri, smallpox and diarrhoea. Similarly, in the 1950s in the Cook Islands the major causes of death were tuberculosis, diarrhoea and dy~entery.~5

rapidly started to make social progress, with huge gains in life expectancy. The true scale of these advances is not dear because few Asian countries had maintained reliable systems of vital registration. But over a period of two decades, it is known that Japan and Sri Lanka saw gains in life expectancy of 10 years or more. And there was probably similar progress elsewhere, as suggested by the demographic record-keeping system in the Punjab in India.z6

Those in power saw this poverty all around them. And many were concerned. But in those days there was a tendency to see the solution more in terms of charity than empowerment. And the settlements of the poor were often viewed as disease-ridden eyesores or menacing dens of crime.

This leap forward may simply have been the result of catching up with the lag caused by years of war. With the arrival of peace, many countries were in a position to deploy more fully some of the advances first introduced in the 19305, such as antibiotics and powerful pesticides. The colonial administrations may also have felt that, as independence approached, it would be politically wise to place health and social welfare higher up the agenda.

Over the years, however, these attitudes came under challenge

- faced with urgent demands for redistribution of wealth and power. This led, among other things, to a number of armed revolutions. The most dramatic resulted in 1949 in the founding of the People's Republic of China. This was followed by a number of other liberation movements particularly in South-East Asia, which saw regimes change in what are now Cambodia, the Lao People's Democratic Republic and Viet Nam. But regardless of the political system, and particularly in the years immediately after the Second World War, most countries

After independence and, especially in the 1950s and 1960s, the new governments were able to subdue, if only partially, many infectious diseases such as malaria, cholera and tuberculosis -thanks to better promotion of knowledge and practices associated with good health. These advances were also underpinned by economic development, as richer communities could afford more nutritious diets and practise better standards of hygiene.

ill ions

more people

This rapid reduction in death rates was a considerable achievement. But since it was not immediately matched by a corresponding reduction in birth rates it provoked a rapid growth in population. By the end of the 1940s Asia was already home to more than half the world's people, and with populations growing at over 2% annually that proportion was likely to rise. As the implications emerged, some governments started to act. In 1952, India was the first to respond with a national family planning programme, followed after a couple of years by a number of other countries, and a decade later by China. ECAFE had also become concerned about this issue around the same time, having sponsored a population seminar in Bandung, Indonesia in 1955.But the united Nations as a whole did not becomc activcly involved in population until the 1960s. Under the auspices of ECAFE one of the first major activities was the organization of the first Asian Population Conference in New Delhi in 1963. At that conference, over 200 experts, including government representatives, discussed the population situation in the region. At that point only five administrationshad official population policies. But by the time of the second conference in 1972, owing partly to the work of what is now the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), ECAFE and others, 15 countries had adopted relevant policies and 10 others were actively supporting family planning programmes. The conferences are still held every 10 years, the most recent in 2002. Countries like India, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand were among the first to indude family planning as part of integrated health services. In some cases this involved distributing modern contraceptives free of charge or at greatly subsidized prices through community-based projects run by local volunteers, particularly in rural areas and urban squatrer settlemenrs. The results were impressive. Contraceptive use soared and several countries succeeded in bringing total fertility levels down significantly.Notable among these were Bangladesh, China, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, India, Indonesia, the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Thailand, Sri Lanka and Viet Nam. Meanwhile, to help policy makers become more aware of the issues, ECAFE had established a 'Regional Population Centre' which, among other things, provided research and information along with training and advisory and technical services. This and other aspects of population work were initially funded from various sources, but followingthecreation in 1969 ofwhat is now

Couple with their grandchildren in the Banjara community near Hydcrabad, India, 1981

called the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), most of the funds were to come from UNFPA. Throughout this period these population activities have focused on education and on empowering women and fulfilling their rights to family planning services. In 1969 ECAFE established the Population Division, which organized collaborative research and a series of wo&shops and seminars. Since 1979, it also fostered information exchange through the Asia-Pacific Population Information Network. In addition the secretariat produces two important publications: the bimonthly newsletter: PopAtion Headliners and the quarterly Asia-Pa@c Population Journal, a peer-reviewed ~ublicationin which leading population experts share opinions and research findings. Together, E S W and UNFPA have contributed to improvihg capability in the region to monitor population trends and their impact on development, promote advocacy and knowledge sharing, and provide technical support. Over the years, ESCAPUNFPA collaboration has covered a wide range of issues, induding fertility, mortaliry, migration, population ageing and the indusion in development plans of emerging population issues. E S W , with the support of UNFPA country technical sewices teams, organizes and conducts inter-country research and analyses whose results are used by policy makers in population and development.

All these and other activities have allowed ESCAP to play its part in a remarkable demographic transition: in the half century since 1950, many countries in Asia and the Pacific have moved from high to low fertility rates in a remarkably short period of time. Fifty years ago, women were generally marrying very young and having an average of six births during their lifetime. By the early 1970s, the total fertility rate was still five children; today it is down to 2.3. These falls in fertility have been reflected in a steady decline in population growth rates. As Figure 5 indicates, the rates continued to rise until the late 1960s when the new population policies started to take effect. The first country to achieve a demographic transition from high to low rates for both births and deaths was Japan in the early 1960s, followed by Hong Kong, China; Singapore; the Republic of Korea; Thailand; and Taiwan Province of China. By the 1970s the region's overall demographic wansition was well under way, and most countries in East and South-East Asia had virtually completed it by the mid-1980s. Progress in South Asia, apart from Sri Lanka, was slower, though even here most countries are still steadily reducing their fertility rates. By 2005, for Asia as a whole, the population growth rate was 1.2%. But this masks considerable variation, between China, for example, where it was 0.6% and Pakistan where it was still quite high at 2.1%.27

Figure 5- Population growth rates in Asia 1950-2005

Source: United Nations. 2004.

Generation gaps Demographic change on this sale, has of course, had many other repercussions. In the early years, one of the major concerns was a rising proportion of young people. In the 1970s and 1980s especially, given the slow growth in employment many governments were apprehensive at the prospect of millions more young people who could not find work and who would be vulnerable to exploitation, or resort to crime or drugs. ESCAP responded with an innovative youth programme that brought together youth workers and young people from across the region to discuss their problems and their ideas. By the 1990s the demographic transition was tipping the balance in the other direction. By then populations were growing older. Today, across the region there are now 400 million people over 60 years of age - 10% of the population; and the process will continue: by 2050 the proportion will be around 25%. ESCAP has been addressing this issue too. In 1999, for example, it launched the Macao Plan of Action on Ageing in Asia and the Pacific. The Commission has also been concerned with older persons' rights - in an era when their traditional means of support have been eroded. 7hus in 2002, ESCAP organized a conference that resulted in the Shanghai Implementation Strategy which aimed to involve older people in decision-making and ensure they had access to essential social services. By creating a new cross-national consensus, this plan made it easier for governments across a culturally diverse region to coordinate their activities - and to work with experts, civil society, and older persons themselves.

B e move to towns and cities Another critical demographic change has been the explosive growth of cities. As economies evolve from agriculture to industry people inexorably &ft to the more industrialized urban areas. Between the late 1950s and 2005 the proportion of the Asian population living in urban areas grew from 17% to 45% -though this is still asmaller proportion than in many other pans of the world, including Latin America. The fastest urban growth was in East and South-East Asia where some capitals such as Jakarta grew at a phenomenal speed: between 1975 and 2005 its population grew from 5 to 13 million. In Oceania, urban proportions were always higher, but here too they continued to grow from the 1950s to 2005 from 62% to 72%.28 Cities expand because of natud increase or as a result of migration from the rural areas. In recent years, migration has become an increasingly important factor: between the 1960s and the 1980s the proportion of growth resulting from n d to-urban migration rose from 40% to 64% -though most of this increase is accounted for by China." Some countries in the region have already reached a high level of urbanizafon. In the case of the Republic of Korea, for example, by 2005 the proportion of people living in urban areas exceeded SO%, and by 2010 it is expected to reach 92% - one of the highest levels in the world. By 2005,ll of the world's 20 largest urban agglomerations,all with populations above 10 million, were in the E S W region, and in descending order: Tokyo, Mumbai, Delhi, Shanghai, KoIkata, Jakarta, Dh&, Karachi, Osaka-Kobe, Beijing and Manila. And even this will underestimate the true size of some of these cities given that statistical data are generally based on a city's administrative boundaries than its actual physical size. Moreover, many of these, including Seoul, Dhaka and Manila, are 'primate cities', urban centres whose populations are many times greater than the next largest cities in their countries. Urbanization has also been accompanied by a huge increase in economic activity. Among Asian cities, the most impressive gains were made by Tokyo and Seoul which, in the period 1970-1990, saw their GDPs grow more than 20 times.30 However, the gains from city growth can be distributed very unevenly. In the poorer countries only a small proportion of the urban labour force work in the formal economy. The rest reson to the informal sector, starting their own small service or manufacturing ventures, and many of them settle in slum areas. As a result of this and a genera shortage of housing, most Asian cities are now marked not just by gleaming skyscrapersbut bya rapid spread ofslums, squattersettlementsand illegal subdivisions. In Indonesia and Bangladesh,for example, around half the urban population live in slums.

Over the years, governments have changed their attitudes to urbanization. In the 1970s they tended to have a marked anti-urban bias - accepting that urbanization was unavoidable, but regarding it as generally undesirable. China in particular made great efforts to slow the growth of its great cities - with measures that were seen as models for other countries. Nowadays governments are more likely to regard cities as 'catalysts for modernization' or 'poles for development'.31 Nevertheless, providing facilities such as housing, water supply or sanitation remains very difficult, given the limited budgets of city governments and burgeoning populations - especially in the mega-cities, where demand for basic services almost always outstrips supply. ESCAP has long played a pivotal role in the discussion of these and other urban issues. One of the most significant developments was the creation of CITYNET -- a network through which local authorities, NGOs and others across the region can exchange expertise and experience. CITYNET emerged in 1987 at a congress of local authorities in Nagoya, Japan, and in 1992 established a base in Yokohama, Japan. In 1995, ESCAP handed the management of CITYNET over to an independent secretariat. With 101 members in 21 countries CITYNET aims to create 'people-friendly cities' that are socially just, ecologically sustainable, politically participatory, economically productive, culturally vibrant and globally connected. Every year, it organizes dozens of events, including seminars and training programmes, which address crucial issues in urban planning and development. Over the years CITYNET has also organized four congresses, the most recent in 2005 in Hanoi - impressive gatherings that illustrate ESCAP's remarkable power for convening different groups across the region. Since 1993 ESCAP has also periodically convened the Asia-Pacific Urban Forum. Here representatives of national and local governments can meet with non-governmental and community-based organizations, as well as with research and training institutes and the private sector. The second Forum, in 1995, highlighted the importance of good urban governance - and eventually resulted in two ESCAP regional initiatives: the Network of Local Government Training and Research Institutes and the multi-year ESCAP project 'Advancement of Women in Urban Local Governments'. 'The Forum also contributed to the development of a UNDP regional project, the Urban Governance Initiative. The third Forum was held in 2000 to discuss issues related to the U N Habitat agenda on housing and other urban issues. It prepared an action plan on urbanization in the Pacific island countries and formed a Regional Consultative Meeting on Good Urban Governance, which is chaired by ESCAP and comprises key international and regional organizations. The Fourth Forum was held in Hanoi in October 2005 focused on the need to 'localize' the Millennium Development Goals by taking into account the specific needs and conditions of the region's cities and towns. There have also been activities specifically related to the Pacific island developing countries. In December 2003 EPOC convened a workshop in Fiji, with government officials from Pacific island developing countries, other U N agencies and the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat. This developed the Pacific Urban Agenda - a framework for addressing key urbanization issues, including services and shelter for the urban poor, focusing among other things on housing policy, land tenure, the urban environment and urban security.

Empowering women Women in the Asian and Pacific region have made enormous gains over the past Go years. This is evident in education: previously, relatively few girls would have gone to school, while today in many countries girls' enrolment rates are now dose to those of boys; indeed at the secondary level some countries have more girls enrolled than boys. Reforms such as making primary education compulsory by law, special grants and scholarships for girls, establishing special bodies to monitor compliance with policy directives, and public awareness campaigns, are beginning to bridge the gender gap in education. Women in the Asian and Pacific region are increasingly mobilizing and organizing to reduce gender disparities. Women's groups and community-based organizations are growing in urban and in rural areas, as women increasingly act in concert to shape policy and penetrate diverse sectors of the economy. There is rising participation of women in local government and in parliament. Four South &an countries - Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka - have had women at the top of the political ladder as prime minister or president. New Zealand, the Philippines and the Republic of Korea are three regional ESCAP members with women heads of government and state who are currently in office.

Nevertheless millions of women across the region continue to face serious discrimination. In health this emerges in life expectancy. Women have a biological advantage that should on average enable them to live four or five years longer than men. Yet in around half the countries of the region their advantage over men is less than this and in three countries their lives are shorter. Women also suffer discrimination in the workplace, where they typically work longer hours for less pay: in most Asian countries women working in the non-agricultural sector earn only around two thirds of men's incomes and in some cases less than M . 3 2 Women are also vulnerable at home where they can face both physical and sexual violence. Particularly exposed to such abuse and exploitation are the millions of women migrant workers who travel across the region and beyond. Women constitute a h i proportion of migrants, mainly engaged in domestic work and health care, with smaller numbers in factory work and entertainment. Even discounting remittances through unofficial channels, remittances through official channels are substantial and frequently exceed foreign direct investment or official development assistance. The remittances are a critical source of support for the survival and well-being of families and communities. ESCAP's work on gender dates from the mid-1970s. including the establishment in Tehran in 1975 of a regional research and trainiing institute, the Asian and Pacific Centre for Women and Development. As with many other international organizations, ESCAPS gender activities d e r a t e d during the United Nations Decade for Women (1976-1985), when it established a Women in Development Unit which carried out a wide range of activities: for example, establishing the Women's Information Network for Asii and the Pacific ro strengthen women's information systems, improve the indicators on women's status and achieve a more systematic exchange of information. Halfway through the Decade, in 1980, the Second World Conference on Women was held in Copenhagen, for which ESCAP organized a regional preparatory conference in New Delhi attended by those in the forefront of the nascent regional movement for women's rights. During the Decade the United Nations also produced the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Dirimination against Women which came into force in 1981. Nearly all ESCAP members have now ratified thii and over the years ESGAP has supported their efforts to fulfil the Convention and produce the necessary reports. In the late 1990s ESCAP stepped up its work on the Convention in the Pacific - supporting NGOs from some of the islands in their efforts to promote the use of the Convention and encouraging other Pacific island States to ratify it. The next major event was the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995, for which ESCAP had also organized the regional preparatory meeting. This heralded a new era in which the rights of women were to be based on principles of social justice and gender eqdity - erasing some of the traditional obstacles posed by deeply entrenched patriarchal values. E S W s Gender and Development Section now focuses on measures to promote gender equality - increasing women's access to education and to decision-making, while protecting their rights. The Section also works with the Statistics Division on the collection and analysis of gender disaggregated data.

Most member States in the Asian and Pacific region now have comprehensive legal and policy frameworks to support gender equality and protect women's human rights. As a result of the efforts of the women's movement in the re~ion, " - manv countries have taken action to integrate the principles of gender equality and non-discrimination in their national constitutions, national development plans and lenislative frameworks. The development of tools such as gender-sensitive budgeting, coupled with improved indicators and systematic sex-disaggregated data, are increasingly being used for evidence-based advocacy. In recent years continuing advocacy and effort on the part of ESCAP and other UN partners have yielded significant progress in assuring women of equal access to land, to land ownership and, titles and other assets, as well as to opportunities for employment and self-employment in non-traditional fields. Work is ongoing to inuoduce new laws such as domestic violence acts and statutes against the tracking of women and girls. Across the region are thousands of adolescents, especially girls, who are being subjected to child labour, to sexual abuse, violence and trafficking. ESCAP has also been working on these issues. In 1998, for example, the Commission organized a major conference on human trafficking, following this up with several sub-regional activities, and in 2003 publishing a resource guide. In 2004, ESCAP's activities, along with those of other agencies, contributed to the signing of an historical memorandum of understanding on traffcking by the six countries of the Mekong subregion: Cambodia, China, the Lao People's Democratic Republic, Myanmar, Thailand and Viet Nam. ESCAP has also been active in efforts to protect children from commercial sexual exploitation. Following the world conference on this issue in Stockholm in 1997, ESCAP member States adopted a resolution to combat the sexual abuse and sexual exploitation of children and youth. ESCAP played a strong regional role in preparations for and follow-up to a subsequent world conference held in Yokohama, Japan, in 2000. In 2006 ESCAP produced a toolkit to help member States implement the commitment made at Yokohama. New technologies, especially ICT, are an important factor in empowedng women. ICT use provides women with an alternative and more flexible mode of learning and skills upgrading, as well as managing work and life, and generating and disseminating information. Thus another ESCAP priority is to close the gender divide in ICT use so that many more women may enter the ICT field as hardware and s o b a r e producers and users. Since 2000, in collaboration with the Asian Women's Resource Exchange, ESCAP has organized an annual wqrkshop to train women from all over Asii and the Pacific and has produced a number of studies on gender and ICT policy. ESCAP has also promoted sustainable e-businesses, as well as a network to encourage rural women entrepreneurs and enable them to use ICT tools.

~romotingthe rights of persons with disabilities

*

In the Asian and Pacific region, as elsewhere in the world, persons with disabilities,physical, sensory, intellectd or mental, have always been among the most marginaid social groups suffering from discriminationand deeply rooted prejudice. lhose with physical disabilities have not been able to move around freely, due to poor roads or inaccessible transportation. ?hose with visual and hearing impairment have often been unable to acquire basic information and education. And in some countries persons with disabilities are prevented by legislation from taking up certain professions, such as teaching or pharmacy. They can also suffer from public attitudes that damage their self-esteem and exclude them from participation in society: in many societies in the region a belief prevails that disability is retribution for wrongs committed in a past life. Global estimates indicate that the Asian and Pacific region has 400 million of the world's 600 million persons with disabilities. As a result of multiple forms of discrimination, they are more likely to be poor. For example, in China, while persons with 5% of the entire population, they are 30% of ose below the poverty line? In general, of all people with und 40% are estimated to live below the poverty d disability also combine together to exdude persons with disabilities from public services: less than 10% of children and youth with disabilities have access to any form of

-S..

The lads of attention m their rights is also reflected in weakness in disability data.35 Many countries still do not regularly collect information on disability, or only ask a couple of questions in decennial censuses that fail to capture the prevalence of disability or the needs of this population group. Methodologies and definitions also vary widely from one country to another and so can produce very different results. In 2004, for example, an ESCAP survey found rates of 'disability' that ranged from 20% in Australia to 1% in Indonesia.36

Changing causes of disability

Evolving attitudes

Over the past 60 years, the proportion ofpersons with disabilities should have fallen. This is because governments had been able to prevent some causes of physical disability. One is polio. The Salk anti-polio vaccine was first produced in 1955. From 1988, following a worldwide campaign by WHO, it was used to eradicate polio in many countries in Asia and the Pacific - though there have been some disturbing outbreaks in recent years, notably in India and Indonesia.

Just as there have been changes in the patterns of disability, there have also been changes in both official and public attitudes and in the availability of services. Following the legacy of the colonial period, governments that paid attention to this issue typically placed a small number of persons with disabilities in institutions. Meanwhile most actual services were provided by religious groups, or later by NGOs, which provided limited opportunities for education, rehabilitation, training, employment and participation in everyday life.

It is also hoped that with the coming of peace to many parts of the region there will be fewer people disabled by conflicts or their aftermath. In South-East Asia, in particular, one of the most devastating and persistent sources of physical disability has been the legacy of landmines. Cambodia has been the hardest hit. From the 1960s when it was increasingly drawn into war, the country was sown with millions of landmines. Although the war is long over, the maiming goes on: in 2005, there were 875 new casualties from landmines and unexploded ordnance; 168 people were killed and 707 were injured, of whom 267 were children.37 Viet Nam too continues to suffer from the aftermath of conflict. War and war-related injuries account for about one-fifth of all relatively extensive disabiities. Some of the most serious damage resulted from the use ofthe fiery defoliant, Agent Orange, which has caused one million children to grow up with disabilities. Tragically the residues persist in many former battlefields and the number of people affected continues to increase.38 Another type of disability that should diminish is that resulting from iodine deficiency. In the most severe cases iodine deficiency can lead to cretinism, but even less severe deprivation can diminish a child's capacity to learn. Governments can address this by ensuring that salt is iodized, but some still have a long way to go: in 2003, the rate for Tajikistan, for example, was only 28% and for the Philippines 56%.39 One of the region's most recent success stories is Kazakhstan: between 1999 and 2006 the proportion of households using iodized salt rose from 29% to 94% and by 2007 the country could be certified as free of iodine deficiency disorders.40 On the other hand, some sources of disability could become more prevalent. One of the main threats is road crashes. Recent reports imply that 20 to 30 million road crash-related injuries occur in the region4' and 235,000 people are killed. In Thailand, for example, road crashes were the thiihighest cause ofdisabiity." Today, among those aged 5 to 29, young men are neatly three times more likely to be injured or killed on the road than young women.43

In India, for example, during the first three Five-Yeat Plans (1951-1966) the Government provided support largely through grants to NGOs, as well as by establishing national training institutes.44 Later, however, it recognized the need to &e greater responsibility. Voluntary organizations have also changed their philosophies, transforming themselves from charitable bodies, run by non-disabled persons, to advocacy organizations run by persons with disabilities themselves. Perspectives on disability have thus evolved. Previously societies regarded persons with disabilities as unfortunate and deserving of pity and care. Then came the medical approach which assumed that they needed to be 'cured'. More recently, however, societies have begun to understand disability not as an individual pathology but rather as an outcome of interactions between impairment and multiple social barriers. In thii view, the priority should be to legislate against such barriers so as to protect people's civil, political, economic and social rights.

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International and regional action Along with these developments, particularly over the past 20 years, there has also been a greater recognition of the rights of persons with disabilities at the international level. The first sustained effort to raise awareness was during the first United Nations Decade of Disabled Persons, 1983-1992. 'Then, during the 1990s there were regional initiatives. In 1991, at the Fourth Asian and Pacific Ministerial Conference on Social Welfare and Social Development, India's delegate persuaded the Conference on the need for further action - including the declaration of a second UN Decade. Since that was not feasible, the Governments of China and Japan took the lead in mobilizing support for the declaration of a regional decade. At its 48th session the Commission adopted its first resolution on the rights of a disadvantaged social group and declared the period 1993 to 2002 as the Asian and Pacific Decade of Disabled Persons. 'The ESCAP region was the first in the world to declare a regional decade, followed some time later by West Asia, Africa and Latin America. 'This resulted in significant progress with countries in Asia India, Indonesia, Mongolia, the Philippines and the Republic of Korea - among others introducing comprehensive legislation to provide equal opportunities and protect the rights of persons with disabilities. In the first decade a major ESCAP priority was to address physical barriers. Persons with disabilities needed far better access to schools, for example, training institutions and workplaces, as well as to government offices and community centres. 'Through technical guidelines, case studies, demonstration projects and training workshops, ESCAP promoted ways of improving access. To give further impetus to fulfilling the rights of persons with disabilities, the governments of the region declared a second decade, from 2003 to 2012, based on the Biwako Millennium Framework which calls for an 'inclusive, barrier-free and rightsbased society.' The first decade had initiated the paradigm shift from charity to rights; the second decade reinforced that shift with clear policy guidelines.

'Throughout both decades, ESCAP carried out a wide range of activities to encourage and support regional and national action. As a result, countries such as the Philippines and the Republic of Korea have adopted their own national decades of disabled persons. As of now, at least 14 countries have comprehensive legislation on disability and 12 have national plans of action. Australia; Hong Kong, China; and New Zealand also have anti-discrimination laws to protect the rights of persons with disabilities45

The Pacific Islands Forum endorsed the Biwako Millennium Framework and six Pacific island developing countries have requested assistance from EPOC to develop national disability policies and implementation plans. EPOC has also collaborated with the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat, ILO and the Pacific Disability Forum in 2005 to convene the first sub-regional workshop on disability. 'This new momentum has also been reflected in the attendance at ESCAP meetings on disability, which representatives of disability groups and NGOs have made great efforts to attend another example of ESCAP's unique 'convening power', offering government and civil society groups the opportunity to meet not just their peers in other countries, but also representatives of their own governments on equal terms. With ESCAP's pioneering experience in the disability field, it played a vital role in developing the United Nations Draft Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The adoption of the Convention on 13 October 2006 marked the beginning of a new era for persons with disabilities in the world and in the region. With the Biwako Millennium Framework and the Convention, ESCAP will be strengthening its efforts to facilitate improved data collection and promotion of the civil, political, economic and social rights of persons with disabilities.

racingthe HIV pandemic What would later be identified as the the human immuno-deficiency virus (HIV) was first discovered in the United States and in parts of Europe in the early 1980s. Its progress in Asia was to be slower, but given the large populations at risk, even the lower prevalence rates would soon correspond to huge numbers of people infected. The first Asian country to suffer a major epidemicwas Thailand. The initial cases appeared in the mid-1980s but by the early 1990s it was dear that thc country was facing a crisis, with an estimated 143,000 new infections annually. The Government responded quickly with a frank and effective programme, targeting sex workers and injecting drug users that eventually brought the epidemic under control. By 2003 the number of new infections each year had fallen to about 19,000 - making Thailand one of a handful of countries to have reversed a serious HIV epidemic.46 Cambodia too made remarkable progress over a similar period: after peaking at 3% in 1997, by 2003 adult HIV prevalence had fallen by one third, to 1.9%. In the more populous countries the epidemic appears to have started more slowly but has soon encompassed large numbers of people. In China, where official figures put the number of people living with HIV at around 650,000, half the new infections occur as a result of unprotected sex, and most of the rest through injecting drug use. In India the picture is more mixed, with the epidemic stabilizing or dedining in the south but growing modestly in the north.47 Across Asia and the Pacific by 2006 mote than 9 million people were estimated to be

~ornprehensivehealth susterns ESCAP recognizes that, like HIV,standards of health generally depend on many factors beyond the performance of the health system. 7hu within the hcalth sysnm it addresses such issues as health promotion, universal coverage of health care and health-care financing. Over the past two years it has also looked more broadly at the risk factors for non-communicable diseases, such as diabetes and heart disease, as well as economic factors such as the impact of trade agreements. Member states have acknowledged the role that ESCAP can play and adopted two resolutions highlighting the need for capacity building in public health. Two of ESCAP's partners, WHO and ADB, have also recognized ESCAPH multidisciplinary strength in addressing heath and development issues. -. :

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Paths from povertu In the early years of ECAFE, indeed through the 1960s, many governmentsin the region focused primarily on economicgrowth on the assumption that the new wealth thus created would inevitably 'tridde-down' to the poorest. In fact,the experience of the most successful countries in the region demonstrated somethingrather different. Thus Japan and the Republic of Korea, prior to rapid economic growth had embarked on radical processes of land reform combined with support for small and medium-sized farms: redistribution first; growth later. ESCAP in the 1970s and in the 1980s through its Integrated Rural Development Programme, recognizing the inter-relationships between distribution and growth, had been among the pioneers of poverty analysis. In the early 1980s, it issued a series of reports that looked at the increasingly desperate plight of the rural poor, particularly in South Asia; even during a period of economic growth they were suffering from a decline in real wages.49 These reports were pointing out that the answer to poverty did not lie only in growth - or in a few special anti-poverty programmes, or in building infrastructure, though all of these were important. Instead the poorest countries would need a comprehensive strategy to combat poverty in all its dimensions. Elaborating on this strategy the reports argued for land reform, for boosting agricultural productivity and for generating jobs through the kind of rural industrial enterprises then being introduced in CI1ina.5~The reports also underlined the multi-

dimensional nature of poverty and the value of investing in health and education, while anticipating the need for decentralization and for participatory planning. By the early 199Os, many of the same ideas that ESCAP had espoused were being incorporated into a new global paradigm: human development. Seen in this light it was clear that countries that had invested in health and education had, judging by the human development index, been the more successful even if, like Sri Lanka, they were not front runners in economic growth (Figure 6). By the end of the 1990s and particularly with the focus on the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, poverty was again in the spotlight. The first of the MDGs is to halve between 1990 and 2015 the proportion of people whose income is less than one dollar per day. A Furare within Reach, a 2005 report which ESCAP produced in partnership with UNDP and ADB, pointed out that by this measure the Asian and Pacific region had made dramatic progress. Between 1990 and 2001, in the 23 countries for which data were available, the proportion of people living in income poverty fell from 31% to 20%, though much of this reflects the achievement in China. 'Ihe good news was also tempered by the sobering reality that 60 years after the Commission was founded, around 680 million people still lived in poverty

Figure 6 - Human Development Index 1975-2004 PwNewGuku

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D

ramatic economic p w t h has allowed millions of

people in Asia and the pacific t o climb

out o f poverty. b u t the rapid increases in industrial and agricultural production, combined with commensurate levels o f consumption, are exerting intense pressure on the environmental carryingcapacity o f a re9on that has over

60% only

o f the world3 population but o f its land area.

he results

have been all too stark: across Asia and the pacific images abound o f environmental crisis - o f burning forests, p l l u t e d rivers, and cities choking on vehicle fumes and industrial poisons.

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The new guardians of the environment would be Much of the destruction is relatively recent, but the seeds of environmental deterioration were sown many decades ago. A hundred years ago most

departments of forestry or agriculture which were often more interested in exploiting forest and other natural resources for the benefit of foreign companies

people in rural areas lived by what they themselves

and local elites. From Indonesia, for example, the

produced. They induced some environmental

initial exports included sugar, co&e, pepper and

degradation, largely due to poor farming methods, but they generally had a strong interest in preserving

tobacco, followed by more profitable exports, such as petroleum, rubber, copra and palm oil. Across the

a productive natural environment. With the arrival

region during the colonial period, vast areas were

of outsiders came new patterns of political control

cleared for new plantations or to grow more food

and ownership that started to shift the balance. ?he new arrivals were more interested in exporting

to feed expanding popularions. In Malaya, between 1900 and 1950 the area of arable land

natural resources. For this they needed to extend

increased five-fold in order to accommodate

their administrative and political control further

rubber and oil-palm plantations.51

and further inland, where necessary using military force to control resource-rich areas. As a result,

By the time ECAFE was established 60 years ago,

areas that over centuries had developed largely

the new parameters had been set and the rulers of

autonomous and self-regulating systems of

independent countries persisted with many of

environmental governance soon found

the same policies, in particular shifting from

themselves subservient to less sensitive

common to private ownership - allowing

external forces.

commercial enterprises free rein to take over lands formerly held by indigenous communities.

rlood control and integrated water resources management -

ECAFE$ first environmental preoccupation, however, was not land but water. l h e glaciers of the Himalayas and theTibetan plateau alone feed seven of the world's greatest rivers - the Brahmaputra, the Ganges, the Indus, the Irrawady, the Mekong, the Salween and the Yangtze. &e mighty watenvays are vital arteries, essential for agriculture and water supplies for millions of pe0~le.5~ But they can also be destructive, with regular cycles of inundation that at times destroy life - human and animal - and cause serious damage to crops. lhis was an issue of particular concern to China, so its delegate to ECOSOC was determined that ECAFE should have a bureau of flood control. He got his wish and the bureau was eventually established in May 1949 - though ironically, following the revolution six months later, China would be excluded from its support. ?he Bureau set out to assess the scale of the flooding problems - seeking ways to save lives and minimize the socio-economic damage, while identifying opportunities for harnessing the rivers' huge potential. They produced a series of policy studies on such subjects as multi-purpose dams and reservoirs, several ofwhich were adopted as the basis of pilot projects. Over the years the Bureau also engaged the participation and support of ECAFE members for the cooperative development of river-basins and for managing water-related disasters.

Ihe Mekong Project One of the most significant outcomes of this work was the Mekong Project and what is now the Mekong Rwer Commission. The Mekong is one of the region's most international rivers. It arises in the plateau of Tibet in south-western China and then flows in a broad southerly direction for about 4,200 kilometres to the South China Sea, passing through six countries: China, Myanmar, the Lao People's Democratic Republic, Thailand, Cambodia and Viet Nam. One-fifth of the Mekong basin lies within China, although there it represents less than 2% of the territory. Farther downstream, the smaller countries are much more dependent: more than four fifths of the Lao People's Democratic Republic and nearly 90% of Cambodia lie within the basin.53 In 1952, ECAFE's Bureau of Flood Control argued that the lower Mekong basin offered attractive development opportunities for Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Viet Nam - an area then inhabited by about 17 million people. Despite the annual flooding across the delta, these countries had no large flood measures nor did they have a cooperative flood warning system. At the same time they were not using the basin to its h11 potential, having irrigated less than 3% of the area and built scarcely any bridges or dams? In 1957, after several years of study, the governments of the four countries established the Mekong Committee which, with the support of ECAFE, launched the Mekong Project. Until the mid-1960s, the Mekong Committee conducted hundreds of surveys and studies: tireless teams of experts traversed the complex of tributaries - in boats, in jeeps, on foot and on elephants - to map and catalogue the basin's resources. And in their reports, they also offered options for flood control and for generating hydropower. Ultimately few of their proposals would be realized, not least because of the violent conflicts that swept across the region. But their early surveys and data collection and the knowledge gained from the initial efforts to 'control' floods were to serve as the basis for future cooperation and lead to much greater understanding of flood management and mitigation. After achieving peace, the four countries were in a better position to cooperate and in 1995 formed the Mekong k v e r Commission to ensure 'reasonable and equitable use' of the river system. The Commission, now based in Vientiane, is involved in fisheries management, the promotion of safe navigation, irrigated agriculture, environmental monitoring and flood and watershed management. It has, for example, suggested ways in which member countries could maintain acceptable minimum monthly flows in the dry season and prevent excessive flows in the wet season. And for hydropower, it is also exploring strategies that recognize the needs and rights of niultiple users and the value of public participation in planning.55 The Mekong Project is, however, just one case of water cooperation among ESCAP members. Another, recent example has emerged among Central Asian States through the UN Special Programme for the Economies of Central Asia (SPECA). This programme was launched in 1998 by ESCAP and the Economic Commission for Europe, with the participation of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, later joined by Turkrnenistan, Azerbaijan and Afghanistan. In 2006, under the auspices of SPECA, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan established the Chu-Talas Rivers Commission to share the water infrastructure that is used by both countries.

'The Mekong river in the Lao PDR

One of earliest concerns of ECAFE members was to ensure adequate supplies of energy. To support their efforts, from the 1950s to the early 1970s ECAFE focused largely on electrical power, including rural electrification. Then after the first oil crisis in October 1973, the countries of the region became more concerned about their dependence on oil - and issues of supply and demand. ESCAP therefore turned its attention more to energy efficiency and conservation. At the same time it looked at the possibilities for other sources of energy such as hydroelectric power, coal and lignite.?his also meant making use of natural gas, which until then had been considered a marginal resource and had been neglected.

Through the 1980s and 1990s, with the funding support of UNDP, ESCAP undertook a series of regional projects, including some in the Pacific, on energy and the environment, and on energy planning. The next decade ushered in a new era of high and volatile prices for oil and other forms of energy. Governments in the 2 1 s Century have therefore become increasingly concerned about energy security. One way of addressing this is through uans-boundary cooperation. ESCAP is therefore investigating the possibility of a trans-Asian energy system. Similar initiatives have also been takenfor subregional energy cooperation in North-East Asia and Central Asia.

In the 1980s the cncrgy net was to be cast even wider. Following the Nairobi Conference in 1981, governments started to explore the potential of renewable sources. In 1983 E S W initiated a biomass, solar and wind network, which promoted ways of using these resources for electricity generation, hot water supplies and solar drying. During the mid-1980s and early 1990s, the oil price crashed and for many years was to remain low. Nevertheless, and especially following the 1992 Earth Summit, governments remained concerned about the consumption of fossil fuels -coal, oil and gas - because of the environmental implications. Since the mid-1990s, the focus has shifted therefore to 'energy for sustainable development'. This involves incorporating social and environmental concerns in energy planning and policies - while ensuring a participatory approach that involves all stakeholders, induding NGOs and the private sector. As energy infrastructure has become increasingly complex and capital intensive, many energy projects now need greater private sector participation.

ir-

In future the countries of the region will be looking more at the potential for sustainable forms of energy - shifting to lowcarbon or carbon-free energy resources, such as natural gas, and making more use of new and renewable resources, while emphasizing energy efficiency and conservation. Nevertheless, the predominant source of energy will continue to be fossil fuel, so ESCAP will also focus on clean fuel technologies. All these efforts will, however, need to incorporate measures to provide equitable access - ensuring that everyone can use sources of energy that are adequate, reliable and affordable. As the region has no agency dedicated to dealing with energy matters, ESCAP should be able to play a catalytic role in regional energy cooperation.

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~ i n e r aresources l ECAFE has also been involved in the search for oil. In 1957, for example, it organized a seminar in New Delhi on the development of petroleum resources. By the mid-1960s ECAFE was also helping countries with offshore prospecting for oil, gas and metals. As a result of one E W E meeting in 1966, four countries in East Asia established the Committee for Coordination of Joint Prospecting for Mineral Resources in Asian Offshore Areas (CCOP). The Committee's basic function was to find ways of reducing the costs of mineral surveying and prospecting by pooling expertise and resources such as ships, aircraft and sophisticated scientific equipment that were too expensive for individual member nations. In 1987 CCOP became an independent intergovernmental organization, based in Bangkok, and in 1994 changed its name to the Coordinating Committee for Geoscience Programmes in East and South-East Asia. By 2004 it had 11 members: Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, Thailand andViet Nam- and the support of 14 donor countries. In 2004 its activities included a wide-ranging series of seminars, technical meetings and training programmes, on such issues as petroleum policies and management, digital geoscientific maps, and techniques for landslide hazards assessment.

l h e need for the provision of assistance to Pacific island developing countries was first brought to the attention of ECAFE in 1970 by the representative of Fiji at a meeting of the ECAFE Working Party of Senior Geologists and Subcommittee on Mineral Resources Development held in Bandung, Indonesia. In 1971 ECAFE convened a preparatory meeting for the establishment of the Committee for Coordination of Joint Prospecting for Mineral Resources in South Pacific Offshore Areas (CCOPISOPAC). CCOPISOPAC was established for the Pacific islands in 1972 under UNDPIECAFE sponsorship, to assist in investigating the mineral potential of coastal and offshore areas of its members. Subsequently, it has served as the regional mechanism for coordinating and stimulating the research and development of non-living marine resources in the Pacific. In December ZOO6 its name was changed to the South Pacific Applied Geoscience Commission (SOPAC).

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A new environmental awareness From the 1970s, with heightening global awareness about environment issues, the countries of the region were increasingly using ESCAP as a forum in which to discuss the most pressing problems which, in addition to flooding and energy supplies, induded deforestation, pollution and shortages of water.

Deforestation In the period 1850 to 1980 the region lost neatly one quarter of its forest area. Today about 30% of its total land is forested. Despite accelerated planting, the forests are still in retreat.56 Much of this is due to expanding demand from consumers, both within the region and abroad, along with the growth of the wood industry, coupled with illegal or unsustainable extraction practices. As a result of the demand for palm oil, for example, aericultural enterorises continue to burn forest to establish new plantations - throwing up a health-threatening haze that can blanket Singapore, Malaysia and southern Thailand for week at a time - despite inter-g&ernmental agreements to combat this phenomenon.57 Shrinking and degraded ap'nrltural land Since the 1950s there has also been a dramatic acceleration in the conversion of natural and agricultural areas to urban and industrial infrastructure, particularly in the faster growing countries like Japan and the Republic of Korea. The intensification of agriculture has meant that, in other areas, agricultural land has been carved out of less-suited soil. The high demand for industrialized crops, together with poor management practices, has reduced the quality of agricultural land: over 28% of the region's land is degraded to some degree, particularly in dryland zones used for agriculture.

Economic policy has encouraged the growth of pollution-intensive industry without being able to assure appropriate levels of pollution control. In Indonesia, for example, accumulations of heavy metals increased more than tenfold during the 1980s and there were similar rises in the Philippines and Thailand. Over the same period there have also been disturbing increases in a whole range of pollutants, including oxides of sulphur and other toxic chemicals.58

Piling up wmte Few countries have adequate facilities for the safe disposal, recycling or recovery of toxic or hazardous waste. China, for example, reportedly produces annually some 10 million metric tons of hazardous waste, including 115,300 tons of radioactive waste.

Less than one quarter of this is disposed of (mostly by landfill or burning), whiie one third is held in makeshift storage areas.59

Gmpetitionfbr water High demand for water is putting pressure on the environment, as well as limiting the future potential of agriculture and industry. Between 1900 and the mid-l %OS, the volume of water being taken from rivers, lakes, reservoirs, underground aquifers and other sources increased from 600 cubic kilometres to approximately 5,000 cubic kilometre~.~OAs a result, many Asian and Pacific countries ate seriously overexuacting: at least 16 are now suffering 'water stress' - with ecosystems less able to replenish themselves and facing intermittent or chronic water scarcity.61 Loss of bwdivern'y

The expansion of industrial and agricultural activity has also impoverished biodiversity. In South Asia, the Mekong basin and South-East Asia, 70% of the major vegetation types have been lost. Wetlands, marsh and mangroves have been more than halved.62 The region has also seen dramatic declines in fishery resources, and continued degradation of coastal ecosystems: around 60% of the region's coral reefs are at r i ~ k . ~ 3

Man-made environmena under stnrin Urban populations continue to grow while consumption patterns and lifestyles are changing rapidly. Because the infrastructure has been unable to keep pace, the region is struggling to maintain and improve the quality of life of urban residents. To address some of these issues, ESCAP has prepared guidelines for environmental, energy and water resources management. The application of the guidelines on water resources management has now led, among other things, to a joint FAOIESCAP website wwwspm-water-ap.net. Since 1985 these and other issues have also been covered in the five-yearly State of the Environment report. Produced with support from the Government of Japan and in partnership with several agencies the report provides an up-to-date assessment on the region's ever-degrading environmental resource base, along with in-depth analysis on the mounting environmental and economic pressures.

To discuss these issues at a regional level, one of the most important forums has been ESCAP. Since 1985, in cooperation with other agencies, including UNEP, UNDP and ADB, and with the support of host governments, ESCAP has convened a five-yearly Ministerial Conference on Environment and Development that allows ministers and senior government officials to renew their commitments, discuss key policies and identify achievable targets. The Conference has, for example, developed Asia-Pacific inputs to the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development and adopted a Regional Strategy for Sound and Sustainable Development. With the endorsement of such meetings, ESCAP has been working with member governments to address environmental degradation as an issue for economic policy and demand-side management. These efforts can benefit greatly from regional cooperation. The ESCAP-initiated North-East Asia Programme for Environmental Cooperation, for example, the subregion's only intergovernmental forum, is now fostering cooperation on developing more eco-efficient economies and protecting biodiversiry. Similarly, the Kitakyushu Initiative Network, established by ESCAP as a result of the Ministerial Conference on Environment and Development in 2000, will help members develop policies that can achieve multiple economic, social and environmental benefits.

~ e a l i nwith e disaster Environmental degradation has in some cases been associated with natural disasters. ?he Asian and Pacific region is the most disaster-prone in the world. Over the past century it has accounted fbr 91% of the world's total deaths by natural disasters and 49% of the damage.64 The region's 10 most disaster-prone countries are Australia, Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Japan, New Zealand, the Philippines and Viet Nam. Over the period 1900-1991 these countries together averaged 25 disasters a year; but during the period 1966-1990 they suffered 53 disasters per year that in total killed 2 million people and affected more than 2 billion others. Vulnerability to disaster is also being heightened by climate change. Based on cumulative emissions of carbon dioxide since 1900, five of the top 20 emitters are from Asia and the Pacific, including China and India which contribute 7% and 2% of global output, respectively. And the problem is escalating. The same two countries are also responsible for much of the emissions growth: between 1990 and 2000 their emissions increased by almost 30% -and between 2010 and 2025 they are expected to grow 4% annually. ?he countries most vulnerable to dimate change are the small island developing states. Tuvalu and the Carteret Islands off the coast of Papua New Guinea have already suffered from sea-level rise and have prepared evacuation plans. Other countries in South and South-East Asia also stand to lose agricultural land as a result of dimate change - although both China and parts of Cenual Asia could gain from temperature change, perhaps able to grow crops they could not grow before.

The T~rphoonCommittee Many parts of the region, particularly heavily populated, lowlying delta areas in Bangladesh and Viet Nam, are vulnerable to tropical storms and typhoons. ?he Commission has been assisting the countries of the region in addressing such risks for six decades. In 1968, for example, ECAFE joined with the World Meteorological O'ganization in setting up a Typhoon Committee, initially with seven members, located in Bangkok. Over the years, the Typhoon Committee, which is now located in Quezon City in the Philippines, has become recognized for its strong spirit of cooperation and the way it has applied meteorological and hydrological sciences to disaster prevention and preparedness. At the end of 2006, the Committee adopted its first Strateeic " Plan for 2007-2011 - aiming " to become the world's best intergovernmental, regional organization for mitigating the impact and risk of typhoon-related disasters.

Z e Panel on Tropical Cyclones Subsequent to the establishment of the Typhoon Committee and in response to the tragic loss of over 300,000 people by a tropical cyclone in Bangladesh in 1970, ESCAP joined W M O in 1971 to esrablish the Panel on Tropical Cyclones in the Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea. Since then the eight members of the Panel have expanded their cooperation to flood and storm surge forecasting. They have also regularly been exchanging hydrological information for more accurate forecasting of floods. Responding to the tsunami One of the worst disasters to hit the region recently was the tsunami of 26 December 2004. Following a massive earthquake off the coast of Sumatra in Indonesia, the deadliest tsunami in recorded history struck low-lying coastal areas throughout the Indian Ocean. At least 176,000 people died and 500 more were listed as missing.65

Countries across the region are determined to prevent such tragedies in the future - and are setting up systems that will give vulnerable coastal communities sufficient warning of a tsunami so they can move to a safer location. To support national and regional efforts to help build functioning early-warning systems ESCAP has therefore set up a multi-donor voluntary trust fund with $12.5 million in seed capital. Community and nationalaction ESCAP has also been working on community-based disaster risk management (CBDRM). Over the past two decades it has become clear that top-down approaches have failed to address the needs of the most vulnerable communities. CBDRM acknowledges the important role that communities themselves can play in disaster management and takes into consideration local capacities and resources. A number of NGOs have done important work in this area but they lack the necessary funds. In partnership with the Asian Disaster Preparedness Centre, ESCAP has therefore been implementing a new programme, Partnerships for Disaster Reduction in South-East Asia, to help countries integrarr CBDRM into development planning. In Sri Lanka for example, ESCAP has initiated a pilot project on community-based tsunami and multi-hazard early warning systems.

At the same time however, ESCAP has also been making full use of the latest tools of information, communication and space technology that will give communities timely information on impending threats. And drawing upon its advocacy, policy analysis, and technical cooperation expertise, ESCAP has therefore been helping governments to ensure that national development processes incorporate effective systems of risk management.

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Tsunami Anniversary: Launching an early warning system

~ o i nfor g green growth At the same time it will also be vital to improve the eco-efficiency of consumption. This could involve, for example: green levies and charges; education for sustainable development, and promoting the '3Rs'.

Rapid economic growth in the Asian and Pacific region has already provoked widespread environmental damage. But if the region is to continue to reduce poverty, wen more growth will be vital in the years ahead. Around 680 million people . are still living on less than $1 a day. Is it possible to reconcile the twin imperatives of economic growth and environmental sustainability? In the past, governments have conventionally attempted to manage the environment by controlling and regulating pollution discharges and taking measures to conserve habitats. 'Ihey have had some successes - improving air quality in some cities, slowing rates of deforestation and establishing institutional and legislative frameworks for environmental protection. But this will not be enough. The region needs fundamental changes in the way it produces and consumes.

REUSE and

RECYCLE.

In response, in March 2005, the Fifth Ministerial Conference on Environment and Development in Asia and the Pacific embraced the concept of environmentally sustainable economic growth - known as 'Green Growth'. And in the same year the Commission at its 6lst session confirmed its commitment to Green Growth, requesting the secretariat to develop the necessary conceptual and analytical framework and provide governments with appropriate support.

Green Growth will also require more effective decision-making and changing the ground rules of economic development. Just as rapid economic growth is not a chance occurrence, so environmental sustainability requires deliberate, integrated policies. Among other things this will mean adopting methods of accounting that reflect the true value and costs of environmental goods and services - allowing for computations of the eco-efficiency of the economic system as a whole, as well as new means of measuring the economic performance of the society, such as 'Green GDP'.

What is Green Growth and how does this differ from previous approaches to environmental management? The Green Growth philosophy says that it should be possible to pursue economic growth while guiding it in a way that will minimize environmental destruction. One of the principal changes is that it envisages environmental protection not as a constraint to economic growth, but rather as a driver of growth - indeed essential for long-term economic sustainability. It also looks afresh at both production and consumption, seeing these not as linear sequences but rather as circular processes that need to be deliberately designed to be compatible components of integrated life cycles. On the production side, Green Growth will require improvements in eco-efficiency. X i s means going beyond pollution control to bring in a wide range of economic and regulatory instruments: green taxes and budget reforms, for example; better environmental governance; lively markets for environmentally friendly goods; and applying concepts of industrial ecology.

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ESCAP has enthusiastically undertaken a number of activities to assist its members in five tracks: green tax and budget reform; developing sustainable infrastructure; promoting sustainable consumption patterns; 'greening the market and green business, induding pro-poor green growth; and developing and applying eco-efficiency indicators. It has, for example, organized Regional Green Growth Policy Dialogues and Forums, carried out an extensive research and outreach programme through a Green Growth portal, and established a regional e-help desk on sustainable consumption and production. Though only future generations will be able to judge the outcome, for the present Green Growth offers a way of reconciling economic growth for poverty reduction with the conscrvation of environmental resources.

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Asia were linked to some extent but certainly not as closely as those of Europe, say, or Latin America. ~ o sremained t preoccupied

with their own national concerns or their relations with the colonial power. ~ u r i n ~ t h e second world War, however, some of their isolation started to be dispelled: devastation and warfare across the region had made them far more aware of their shared experience and interdependence.

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Successive Executive Secretaries of ECAFE were also fond of referring to it as the 'Parliament of Asia'. And in the early days it did indeed offer virtually the only forum at which leaders from Asian countries

- large or small, developed or developing - could meet on equal terms. Here they could work together not only for the development of the region but also to promote regional interests In this new environment ECAFE offered Asia's leaders

at the global level.

an opportunity to come face to face with their peers from neighbouring countries. This was evident in the

In an era when international conferences were few and

second session of the Commission in 1947, held in

far between, E W E also became a forum at which

Baguio in the Philippines. Cheered no doubt by the

Asia's diplomats could prepare themselves for a world

generous hospitality of the host country, and the

of multilateral action and negotiation. Indeed it has

invigora~ingair and scenery of that mountain resort,

been argued that had ECAFE not been created, the

their meeting had an optimistic atmosphere.

A contemporary observer, Victor Purcd, reported on the sceneF6

he countries o f ~ s i and a the rar East have for the first time in history

nations of the region would have formed their own body outside the United Nations - as happened, for example, in Africa and Latin America. ECAFE was not of course a parliament in a political sense. It was after all a regional offshoot not of the

met round a council board

United Nations General Assembly, but of its Economic

t o debate about their most vital

and Social Council - with a mandate initially to promote

common poblems. €CAF€

... is,

in a real way, the first parliament o f Asia.

he countries

economic development - later extended, with an interpolated 'S' to highlight the importance of social issues and a final 'P' to highlight the Pacific.

have established for themselves a forum

Nevertheless, geo-politics would inevitably intrude.

in which they can thrash out their deepest

During the earliest sessions, for example, the Soviet

differences, they have inaugurated

representative would reguiarly attempt to insert

an exchange for economic ideas and information,

ideological points into every motion - an intransigence

and, more than this, they have created an organ

which, as Purcell also reported, was concealed

if nourishedwith sincerity and directed .vith skill, may feed to this half of the human

somewhat by his debating skills and 'sunny

race the knowledge, the techniques,

progressed, debates on many subjects within

which,

and the physical means that their native

urbanity'. In subsequent decades, as the Cold War

the Commission would also be shaped,

~ntell~ence, their thewy* arms and

directly or indirectly, by political

their dexterous hands are yearning

and ideological preoccupations.

to employ.

*Having strong or large 'thews' or muscles

7 A crowded institutional environment East Asia, helped reduce some of of the constraints to regional coopre e&ctive - better able to promote region integrad the Trans-Asian Railway Network ushered in a new and more complex r ESCAI? How does it slot into an has many more regional organiza...

.

..

.

These bodies widen the opportunities for regional dialogue. But rather than serving as substitutes for ESCAP they complement it. And since 1994, at the level of Executive Heads,%CAP has convened regular consultative meetings with many of these organizations.

own body, the South Asii

7, Banp;lodesh, India, Myanmar, ined t@hutan and Nepal, estab g a l Initiative for Mult Bay of k o n o ~ ~ o p e r a t i o(BIMSTEC' n

the Russian Federation, Uzbekistan have formed

On a number of occasions member governments have commented on the coordinating value of ESCX At the 50th Session of the Commission in 1994, for example, the then Prime Minister of India, Mr l? V. Narasimha Rao, said that ESCAP should play the role of coordinator for "saengthening economicties between. subregional groupings". And in 1997 the then Vice-Foreign Minister of China, Mr. Li Zhaoxing, said at a symposium held in Shanghai m commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the Commission, that ESCAP was "irreplaccable".67 Furthermore, the then Member of Parliament, Mr. Manmohan Singh, envisioned the 2 1 s Century as the "Asian Century" in which ESCAP was "well-equipped" to play the role of 'expanding the scope for international cooperation, including strong regional cooperation", in "the g l o b a i d world that was on the horizon".

ESCAP has also helped to expand the number of regional organizations. Over the years, and especially during the 1970s and 1980s, it spun off a slew of regional institutions that took over some of its work The earliest, established in 1957, was what became the Mekong River Commission. But institutionbuilding accelerated after a ministerial conference in 1963 which adopted the 'Manila Resolution', encouraging ECAFE to pmmote institutional arrangements for trade &erabation, export promotion, primaty-commodity price stabilization, and development finance.

'The response was rapid. Within a few years ESCAP had created a series of economic and social development institutions which were merged in 1981 to create the Asian and Pacific Development Centre, located in Kuala Lumpur - an autonomous institution engaged in policy research, training and advocacy. Other organizations, some mentioned in earlier chapters, include the Asian Statistical Institute in Tokyo in 1970, the Asian Clearing Union in 1973, the Bangkok Agreement on Trade in 1975, and the Asian Re-Insurance Corporation in 1979, as well as a whole series of organizations in the 1960s and 1970s to support producers of primary commodities. Most successful of all has been the Asian Development Bank. In the early years this precocious child worked in close cooperation with its parent: ADB would often seek ECAFE's assistance in preparing proposals for financing, and until the early 1970s ADB reported to the annual sessions of ECAFE. Subsequently, however, the two organizations inevitably followed their own directions. In recent years there has been closer collaboration - as with recent reports on the Millennium Development Goals and the State of the Environment.

United Nations agencies regionalize ESCAP is also working in a more crowded UN environment. ILO and FAO have long had regional offices in Bangkok. Over the years they have been joined, and in the same building as ESCAP, by UNIFEM, UNFPA, and UNEP and more recently by an expanded regional presence for UNDE which has regional centres in Bangkok, Colombo and Suva. Also in Bangkok, and only a short distance away on the banks of the Chao Phraya River, is the UNICEF regional office for East Asia and the Pacific, near to which is also the regional office of UNIDO. Further away, on a busy Bangkok thoroughfare, is the regional office of UNESCO. In principle there need be no great overlap. Afier all, compared with other UN regional offices ESCAP has a distinctive structure and different functions. It is a 'charter body': a subsidiary of the Economic and Social Council to which it reports. Its secretariat works under the supervision of the UN Secretary-General and its funding comes from the regular budget of the UN. ESCAP is also unique in that it brings together all the region's governments - which meet in an annual Commission session to set its agenda. Moreover, as a legacy of the region's colonial history, ESCAP is the only regional commission whose members include all five permanent members of the UN Security Council.

'The other specialized agencies, funds and programmes are in a different position. First they are directed not by the Governments of countries in Asia and the Pacific but by their governing boards formed at the global level and not at the regional level. And though they have established a regional presence, this is intended mainly to feed additional expertise into their country offices. In fact, of course, these lines have become increasingly blurred - and have been crossed many times, in both directions. ESCAP, for example, has also become more donor driven. From the late 1970s it evolved into an operational agency, executing a wide range of projects, initially for UNDP and later for a whole range of bilateral donors. Reliance on these 'extra-budgetary resources' has inevitably steered ESCAP's priorities. On the other hand, the UN funds and programmes increasingly take on what might be seen as 'regional' projects. According to UNDP its regional centres are "...geared to engage in global advocacy and analysis to generate knowledge, alliance building and promotion of enabling frameworks on key issues, policy advice and support for national capacity building.. ."G8 which to the untutored eye seems not very different from the functions of ESCAI! 'These potential overlaps and conflicts were evident even at ECAFE's birth. And over the years have been resolved, or more likely, accommodated in a fairly pragmatic fashion. This is evident in the extent of ESCAP's cooperation with other UN agencies, whichvariesfrom one to another. Before the 1990~, there had been an ESCAP-FAO programme of cooperation: a joint FAO-ESCAP Division of Agriculture, and a joint programme on the Regional. Network for Agricultural Machinery. More recently, ESCAP-FAO cooperation covers a joint study in natural resource management and projects on remote sensing and GIS applications, as well as poverty eradication and food insecurity. 'There is also extensive collaboration with UNCTAD, W O , ILO, UNESCO and UNICEF. ESCAP's technical cooperation programme has also been fairly pragmatic. Although its projects appear heterogeneous, they follow a default logic since they largely occupy niches not filled by other UN agencies - water-basin management and transport from the 1960s, youth development in the 1980s and 1990s, and over the past 20 years the rights of persons with disabilities - offering the people of the region opportunities and support unavailable elsewhere.

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ESCAPb working environment has also changed in that the region has become steadily more heterogeneous. E W E was founded to promote economic development across the region. And the region has made dramatic progress. Even since 1990, more than 200 million people have been lifted out of poverty. But as this development accelerated, its benefits were inevitably distributed unevenly, heightening the economic disparities within and between countries. Previously poverty had been more uniform. At the end of the Second World War, most parts of Asia and the Pacific were still very poor - largely agrarian economies operating at low levels of technology and at similar levels of development with the exception of Japan and Singapore as well as Australia and New Zealand. Since then however, a number of Asian countries have leapt to developed country status, while others are still struggling, or have millions of people living in poverty. Initially, the fastest progress was in Japan - the country that grew most rapidly during the 1950s and 1960s. Indeed even duringhia's long years of stagnation Japan had been something of an exception: from the 17th Century Japan had been growing steadily, and by the beginning of the 19th Century in terms of per capita income, had overtaken China. 'Ihe Second World War caused major destruction, but the country recovered rapidly, and berween 1950 and 1973 grew economically at an astonishing 8% - twice as fast as Western Europe.

But other economies were also stirring. Japan's example was to be followed in the 1970s by the four Asian 'tigers': Singapore; Hong Kong, China; the Republic of Korea; and Taiwan Province of China, and in the 1980s by the newly industrializing economies of Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. Then in the 1990s in the full flush of globalization, the region's two giant economies started to come up to speed; first China, and more recently India. There were of course serious setbacks en route, notably the first oil shock in the mid-1970s, and the Asian financial crisis in the late 1990s, but for most of these countries growth has proved remarkably resilient. However, as Figure 7 illustrates, this growth has also widened disparities. In 1950 the per capita income of Thailand, for example, was similar to that of Afghanistan; today it is 14 times greater. A number of other countries in the region remain very poor, including the Commission's most recent member, Timor-Led. Indeed the region has 14 of the world's 50 least developed countries - though some, notably Samoa and the Maldives, are candidates for graduation from least developed country status. At both regional and global levels, ESCAP has continuously striven to articulate the concerns of its least developed members. Sixty years ago many countries, from India to Korea and Laos, had similar per capita incomes and could benefit from the advice of ECAFE$ working groups and technical committees for their own development. Today many countries that were early beneficiaries of the Commission's work may not require the same kind of assistance. On the other hand, they are now in a position to share their own experience and even provide funding support to others as part of South-South cooperation, especially to the least developed countries.

rigure 7 -Average annual rise in per capita GDP, selected countries in Asia and the Pacific, 1950-2001

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An era ot retorm One former ESCAP staff member, Kazi Rahman, recently summed up the achievement of the Commission:

until the establishment of ECAIT and well into its ~nitial years, that part o f the world existed only in different consciousness, i.e., '~ritishindia', 'rrench indochina',

instrumental in bringjngabout a transformation in our awareness as a re 'on, laid a foundation for cele ratingunity in diversity and propelledthe countries to forge evernewer Forms of redonal cooperation.

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members, he embarked on a radical exercise of re-engineering. His message to staffwas that (almost) nothing was sacred:

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Over the next few years this would involve cutting a number of activities, rotating many of the senior staff, and inculcating prinuples of results-based management, on which secretariat staff received mandatory training. And overall there were systematic efforts to change the work culture.

But can ESCAP continue to perform this function? L i e other organizations that constantly have to renew themselves in a dynamic international environment, ESCAP has over the years struggled to accommodate new circumstances and demands. In the early yean its focus on economic issues chimed well with regional and global priorities. Then from the 1970s, as the international agenda shifted more towards social and environmental issues - the Commission was reborn as ESCAP, shouldering many of these tasks, not just in terms of analysis but also through its own technical cooperation projects.

Kim Hak-Su was also determined to break down sectoral barriers within the secretariat and foster a multi-disciplinary approach. There was thus a fresh emphasis on participatory approaches to the planning and monitoring of activities. And ESCAP would make greater efforts to work in partnership with UN Country Teams. ESCAP also chairs and serves as the secretariat to the UN inter-agency Regional Coordination Meeting which nurtures joint programming on issues such as health, poverty and hunger, environment and disaster management, education for all, and international migration and human trafficking

Nevertheless, by the end of the 1990s it had become dear that for all its achievements ESCAP would have to change. A pioneering regional forum had become one among many. A unique source of information on regional development was competing not just with many other better-funded organizations but also in the Internet Age with a global deluge of data. And the Secretariat's involvement in a large number of projects was claiming considerable staff time and detracting from its primary responsibility for normative and analytical work.

In 2002, recognizing the iniuatives taken by Kim H&-Su to revitalize and restructure the programme of work of ESCAP, the Commission decided to revise its conference structure, induding its thematic and sectoral priorities and subsidiaty structure, to be re-aligned into three thematic areas: boverty reduction'; inanaging globalization'; and 'emerging social issues'. In addition, the Commission would retain two special bodies: one on Pacific island developing countries, the other on least developed and landlocked developing countries.

This was the environment that faced Executive Secretary Kim Hak-Su, when he took office in 2000. In an effort to m& ESCAP more effective and more responsive to the demands of its

Kim H&-Su wanted to rejuvenate the staff body - increasing staff mobility and empowering managers. would mean, for example, improving processes of staff development and aligning them more closely with the secretariat's mission. In 2005,

for example, this included expanding a 'Learning Centre' with a well-equipped IT learning lab, and renovating the library for ESCAP staff and other UN colleagues. All these efforts were part of the Executive Secretary's efforts to create a mobile, versatile and multi-skilled staff body within a 'learning organization'. ESCAP is also returning to its roots as a regional think tank: it is putting greater emphasis on analytical and normative work. This thrust is reflected in a shift in ESCAPb technical cooperation programme. ESCAP is now pursuing only those operational activities that support its analytical and normative work. One effect of this has been to move towards a much more focused technical cooperation programme: small-scale activities have been phased out and the number of projects has been reduced, even as donor contributions have increased. ESCAP's on-going reform efforts were encapsulated in the publication ESCAP towards 2020, which was issued in 2004 on the occasion of the 60th session of the Commission - which was three years ahead of the Commission's 60th anniversary because in the early years (1947,1948 and 1949) there had been two sessions a year.6' At this session, through the Shanghai Declaration, member Governments resolved to support efforts for the revitalization of ESCAP, underlining its unique role as the "most representative body for the Asian and Pacitic region" and "its mandate as the main general economic and social dwelopment centre within the United Nations system for the Asian and Pacific region."70 Some idea of how far ESCAP has moved in these directions can be gleaned from an external evaluation carried out in 2006 by three senior figures in the region.71 They gathered responses from 27 member States, as well as United Nations regional entities and country teams, other regional intergovernmental organizations, non-governmental organizations and the ESCAP secretariat. In their report they identified ESCAP's particular strengths and contributions. They pointed first to its undoubted convening power' which allows it to assemble regional forums for high-level discussions. This gives Asian and Pacific countries the opportunity, for example, to negotiate a joint 'regional position in global UN bodies and conferences - as in the preparations for the global UN women's conferences, for example, and the world summits

on the environment, social development, and the information society. For these, ESCAP also promoted regional follow-up action. But they also saw weaknesses. Much of ESCAP's operational work was valuable and had the merit of being multidisciplinary and cross-sectoral, but it was still to some extent piecemeal and not well coordinated with the work of other UN bodies. There were also doubts about the three themes, which many considered too broad - making it difficult for member countries to relate to them. In addition there was dearly a problem with ESCAPg profile: it was not sufficiently well known, even among staff of some United Nations agencies. The need for ESCAP to reconsider its role was given a further impulse later in 2006 by the High-level Panel on UN Systemwide Coherence, appointed by the then Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, to examine how to reduce the overlap among various UN bodies in development, humanitarian assistance, and the enviornment. In the report, Deliveringas One, the Panel put forward a series of recommendations aimed at overcoming fragmentation of the United Nations. One of the main conclusions for the UN regional entities was that they should focus on analytical and normative work, as well as on activities of a trans-boundary nature. "The regional commissions would act as a catalyst for these functions, using, inter alia, their convening power at both the intergovernmental and secretariat levelsn. Centred on the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, this would mean embarking on high quality analysis, providing advice, engaging in advocacy and coordination, and establishing international standards on critical regional issues. In fact this is not too diierent from the mandate which the Commission started to fulfil 60 years ago; this suggests that in many ways ESCAP could renew itself by returning to its roots.

studythe past if

would divine the futu~

It is in this spirit that ESCAP, learning from its ever-evolving history narrated above, and envisioning the future of the region, is charting its own course for the coming decades.

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Movinetowards 2020 What role should ESCAP play in 2020 and beyond? The ESCAP region of 2020 is likely to be vastly different from what it is today - the contours of that difference will depend on how the region's Governments, civil society and the private sector manage emerging issues.

Sources of change

Building an Asia-Pacijic century: economic dimensions

The first source of change lies in new technologies - the nanobio-space-fusion-and dimatefriendly energy technologies which will witness significant advances in the next decade or so. Already it is clear that knowledge is pre-eminent. This process of dynamic technological change will continue towards 2020, shifting the key driver of economic growth from ICT to a new technology revolution. Thii will require better understanding of new production factors, the role of knowledge and its contributions to economic growth and social progress.

By 2020 the Asian and Pacific region will be well established as the "powerhouse" of global economic growth. It will have experienced sustained high levels of growth, fuelled by increasing flows of intraregional trade and investment. However, market forces by themselves are unlikely to spread growth evenly across the region and asymmetries will continue to exist and could even grow. This will also remain a major challenge, especially for the least developed countries, the Pacific island developing countries and the economies in transition. It will require effective interventions to strengthen regional cooperation, to mainstream into the growth process the economies which have hitherto been lagging behind.

The second source of change will be the emergence of so-called new economic players in the world economy. The new world wading system will exhibit three distinct features previously unseen. The focus of new trade negotiations will shift from issues of market access to market presence; the current trade rules laid down by WTO agreements do not fully reflect emerging issues and will require forward-looking revisions, especially in the area of new technologies. Newly emerging market economies such as China, India and Brazil are significantly shifting the negotiations to reflect their concerns causing rebalancing revisions of the trade rules. The Asian and Pacific region already has the world's most dynamic economies. In addition, intraregional trade, investment and financial flows are complementing and supplementing the interregional ones, creating a synergy between globalization and regional integration. This will require a new approach to trade, investment and financial issues at the regional and international levels. A third set of issues springs from the first two. The gap between the richest and poorest countries in the region is likely to increase further. The absolute number of people living in poverty will decrease. However, reaching the Millennium Development Goals will remain a major challenge, especially in the case of the social goals. Accelerated urbanization, migration in search of employment opportunities, together with insdicient provision for health, sanitation, education and social safety nets will engender a new reality.

Globalization will continue to accelerate. The Asian and Pacific region, already demonstrating the dynamism evident before the 1997 financial crisis, will be among the major contributors and beneficiaries. The region will continue to be the world's pacesetter for economic growth. China and India will increasingly become a focus of world economic attention, joining Japan and other developed countries as key drivers of regional growth. Higher levels of prosperity will see some Asian and Pacific countries such as Malaysia and Thailand graduate to the ranks of developed countries. At the other end of the spectrum, many others will dimb out of the ranks of the least developed. This trend will be supported by a reformed financial architecture, improved international transport infrastructure and services and rapid advances in the use of information and communication technology. The primacy of the multilateral trading system is expected to be re-established, but wider integration at the global level would have to build on deeper integration through regional and sub-regiona! trade and investment agreements in a mutually supportive manner. Yet rapid economic growth will carry a price. Weaknesses in governance will continue to haunt several economies and their needs for institutional capacity-building and technical assistance will require priority attention. The sharper focus on social development in recent years will be further enhanced, but effective implementation will continue to be constrained in these countries by the lack of effective national institutions.

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Countries will continue to subordinate the environment to the chase for short-term gains in living standards. And environmental degradation threatens to continue at a pace that reflects that of the growth of regional economies. Trans-boundary air and water pollution will intensify. 'Threats to biodiversity and the remaining terrestrial and marine resources will remain a challenge. Demand for the region's increasingly scarce water resources will rise dramatically, challenging their availability to meet the competing requirements of population, industry and agriculture. Fossil fuel consumption - the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions - will continue to increase as countries struggle to fuel their economic development. Global warming, resulting from those emissions, will have severe consequences and these will be unequally and unfairly distributed.

By 2020, broadband deployment will be nearly complete and mobile and satellite communications will take the lion's share of the communications sector. With the use of such technologies, regional countries could have better prospects for leapfrogging the industrial age. Regional cooperation will be an effective tool for achieving this.

By 2020 it is entirely feasible that the present ASEAN bilateral FTAs with China, Japan and the Republic of Korea, could merge into a bigger East Asia Economic CommunityIFTA. Or ASEAN Plus3 combined with India and Australia and New Zealand FTAs could merge into one single Asian Economic CommunitylFTA. 'The contribution of business to environmentally sustainable and socially equitable development would need to be maximized. Engaging business through corporate social responsibility would be an important instrument for achieving that goal. Organizing region-wide dialogue between government, business and civil society would be another. By facilitating the integration of region-wide trade, investment and financial flows, ESCAP would help Asia and the Pacific to continue as a world leader in economic growth and increasing prosperity. At the same time, the region would point the way to how regionalism could be meanin&lly multilateralized: an issue that is rising to the top of the international agenda, as many policymakers, business and civil society groups around the world grapple with these difficulties.

While respecting national sovereignty, ESCAP will facilitate a common approach to applying principles, practices and operational procedures for trade, investment and financial liberalization across the region. This common framework will help to pull together the present, fragmented initiatives into a more cohesive arrangement that at the same time will promote W O principles and be compliant with its rules. Its core contribution will be the strengthening of APTA, as the region's only truly region-wide agreement open to all members and associate members, as well as the establishment of a set of general common principles for a regional economic integration that goes beyond the traditional confines of trade liberalization. 'This could include cooperation in such areas as trade facilitation reforms, mutual recognition or harmonization of standards to be applied to goods, services; education and other areas. Coordination and possible harmonization of investment and financial rules would have to be a central part of the new framework.

ESCAP will continue to facilitate development of the Asian Highway and Trans-Asian Railway. There will be particular emphasis on integrated spatial planning and creating and operating connections between different modes of transport, including inland container depots, dry ports and consolidationldistribution centres. To meet increases in traffic, roads and railways will be substantially expanded, with a switch to more environmentally-friendly and safer modes of transport (notably from road to rail, inland waterways and coastal shipping). ESCAP will also work with member States and the private sector to upgrade logistics services and supply-chain methodologies to international standards, streamline transport and reduce non-tariff barriers. Its key activities will be institutional-capacity-building in areas related to the regulatory environment, achieving regional good practices and full ICT application to reduce the costs of transport, promote road and rail safety, and improve regional product competitiveness in all markets.

The February 2007 landmark report of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change will dramatically focus attention on the environmental challenges that this region will face both in the short term and in the long term. The very nature of the common threat will require a collective response in which ESCAP could play a critical harmonizing role.

Building an Asia-Pac$c century: social dimensions The region's demographic profile is likely to change considerably. The proportion of persons over 60 years of age is expected to rise from its current level of 8% of the population to 15% by 2025 and 20% by 2050. At the same time a population that has hitherto been largely rural is projected to become predominantly urban. The number of persons with disabilities will also increase owing to population ageing, armed conflict, inadequate health care and natural disasters. With rapid motorization in many developing countries, including populous ones, by 2020, road crashes may significantly increase. Since the 1990s ESCAP has promoted universal design for creating built environments that everyone can use without the need for special adaptation for persons with disabilities and senior citizens. To help the region prepare for ageing societies, E S W will need to strengthen its support for the adoption of universal design principles in all aspects - not only with regard to the built environment, but also to products and processes in society, to facilitate the incorporation of safety and social equity concerns for the full inclusion of users with diverse levels of ability at various stages of life. This need will be all the greater as more children and adults survive with advancements in medical and health care technology by 2020. Improvements in transport and communication will facilitate a substantial increase in population movement across national borders. As income, demographic and economic disparities continue to widen, they will stimulate migration on a n even greater scale than now. The fall in fertility and the ageing Edctor may lead to a distortion of supply and demand for labour in diierent parts of the region. l h e Asian and Pacific region is unique in that all its subregions shoulder a double burden of communicable and non-communicable diseases. Health issues will impose themselves increasingly on public concerns and government budgets. If national responses remain as they are today, it is conservatively estimated that around 12 million new HIV infections could occur in Asia and the Pacific between 2005 and 2010. In contrast, achieving optimal levels of prevention coverage could prevent nearly 50% -about six million - of these infecti0ns.7~HIV is frequently associated with other communicable diseases such as tuberculosis which is resurging after a 40-year decline. These, together with emerging infections such as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and avian influenza (bird flu), require strengthened broad efforts in surveillance and control. Already over 60% of all deaths in the region are associated with non-communicable

diseases such as obesity and hypertension caused by changes associated with rapid urbanization, changes in living and working conditions, lifestyles and diets. This, as yet silent pandemic, is expected to further worsen in the next 20 years and is expected to account for 7 out of every 10 deaths in developing countries. The ESCAP region would need to pay increased attention to comprehensive strengthening of health systems to deal with these multiple burdens which threaten to o h e t the hard-fought economic gains achieved by the region. The region would need to accord increased priority to health issues such as sustainable financing of equitable and efficient health systems for delivering essential interventions to all population groups. The Asian and Pacific region entered the 21st Century with three decades of efforts rallying around preparations for and followup to four world conferences on women, the last held in Beijing in 1995. Women's representation among professional and technical workers in most countries of the region will further improve. With gains in access to education and affirmative action policies, many more countries than now will see women make inroads among the ranks of administrators and managers. The proportion of women among income-earners and the proportion of income going to women, important indicators of gender equity and empowerment, will in general rise. Nevertheless, there is a need to continue efforts to significantly reduce gender gaps in education and skills training, as well as employment and income in all sectors. In economies in transition, it is critical that timely interventions focus on improving and maintaining high levels of education, health care and employment which had earlier prevailed. For all countries, there would remain a need to protect women's ability to balance productive and reproductive activities.

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Innovative lawmaking and amendments to existing laws for the protection of women will be a major preoccupation leading up to the 2020s. More systematic effort is required in the coming years to enforce constitutional provisions and laws so that women may in practice have equality and human rights on equal terms with men. Increasingly, countries are moving towards a rights-based approach to promoting gender equality and women's participation in decision-making within the family, community and state, as well as eliminating gender-based violence. Affirmative policies and interventions such as the quota system in political participation and gender budget initiatives to achieve gender equality are some of the strategies being pursued. Towards 2020, ESCAP will need to further promote the sharing of good practices in affirmative intenrentions for greater equality in society between women and men in public life, in the work place, in care-giving and in household roles. ESCAP's engagement with civil society on regional social issues is entering its fourth decade. The expanding role of civil society in the politics and cultures of this vast and diverse region shows an optimistic trend and is perhaps the most significant social change towards 2020. Profoundly new and complex governance challenges are emerging, with the need to find new balance between the roles of the State and other public, private and civil society actors. Changes in governance will be needed to help societies achieve economic securiry, social cohesion and political stability. Increasingly, individuals and communities will be better informed, linking their concern for social and environmental issues with their consumption choices and their votes, while the corporate sector will be compelled to respond by moving towards balancing profit with broader concerns of social good. The emerging social issues have major ramifications, as many developing countries of the region still do not have adequate systems of social protection in place, particularly old age security, health insurance and disability benefits. ESCAP would continue to have an important role to play in providing a regional forum for governments, civil society and the private sector to discuss frameworks for norms and standards grounded in actual experiences.

conclusions In moving towards 2020, ESCAP is continuing its revitalization in order to discharge more effectively its role as the primary regional organization assisting Asian and Pacific countries in promoting regional cooperation. As the forces of globalization intensify and new and more complex challenges emerge, continuous policy dialogue will be required among all Governments of the region. The Asian and Pacific region includes some of the world's most rapidly developing economies. The growth trajectory that they have already achieved will see in the coming decades an expansion of their role in shaping international economic debate and policymaking. But in this process there could be a risk of least developed countries becoming marginalized. Through regional partnership and cooperation, ESCAP will need to leverage the experiences and successes of the region's more robust economies to the benefit of its vulnerable economies. In this context, ESCAP will continue to provide its member States with a politically neutral and democratic forum in fostering regional consensus on issues of common concern and in articulating the region's voice in global forums. ESCAP, true to its original mandate, will continue to serve as the first parliament of the Asian and Pacific region. Starting as the parliament of Asia with just four Asian members, today it is the Parliament of the entire Asian and Pacific region in the economic and social domain with unique universal membership. Its 60th anniversary is an appropriate occasion for ESCAP to rededicate itself to building an Asian and Pacific century.

"Unity in Diversity" Created by the Heads of the Regional Offices of the United Nations system in Asia and the Pacific, to commemorate the sixtieth anniversary of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific on 28 March 2007.

ESCAP MEMBERS AND ASSOCIATE MEMBERS Members (53)

11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16.

Count Australia China France India I Netherlands Philippines Russian Federation ** Thailand I United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland United States of America Palustan New Zealand Myanmar * I Indonesia Afghanistan * Japan

20. 2 1. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30.

Re~ublicof Korea I Sri Lanka Lao People's Democratic Republic * Nepal * / Malaysia Islamic Republic of Iran ( Mongolia Samoa * Singapore 1Nauru Tonga Bhutan *

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34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40. 41. 42. 43. 44. 45. 46. 47. 48.

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Date of admission 28 March 1947 28 March 1947 28 March 1947 28 March 1947 28 March 1947 1 28 March 1947 28 March 1947 28 March 1947 28 March 1947 1 28 March 1947 1 30 September 1947 8 March 1948 19 April 1948 28Seotember19501

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1 Solomon Islands *

Vanuatu * Brunei Darussalam ITuvalu* ] Kiribati * Azerbaijan Democratic People's Republic of Korea Kazakhstan Kyrgyzstan Marshal1 Islands Micronesia (Federated States of) Tajikistan Turkmenistan I Uzbekistan

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Turke

24 June 1954 20 August 1954 23 August 1954 20 October 1954 10 December 1954 I 16 February 1955 6 June 1955 17 September 1957 10 July 1958 21 December 1961 5 July 1963 21 September 1965 20 July 1971 20 July 1971 6 Tanuarv 1972 17 April 1973 5 August 1976 27 August 1976 3 August 1979 3 August 1979 27 July 1984 26 July 1985 26 July 1985 26 July 1991 31 July 1992 31 July 1992 31 July 1992 31 July 1992 31 July 1992 31 July 1992 3 1 July 1992 31 July 1992 31 Tulv 1992 1 26 July 1994 18 July 1996 18 July 1996 25 July 2000 18 Tulv 2003

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Associate members* (9) Date of odmirsion

Notes:

*

Least Developed Country

Continuation of membership of former USSR Change of name to Hong Kong, China (1 July 1997)

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Change of name to Macau, China (20 December 1999) and further changed to Macao, China (4 February 2000)

EXECUTIVE SECRETARIES

Mr. KIM Hak-Su is the current and eighth Executive Secretary of ESCAP, where he is associated with leading its reform. Mr. Kim has rich experience in the public and private sectors, as well as in the international civil service. Mr. Kim's career in government service includes serving as the Republic of Korea's Ambassador for International Economic Affairs, and as Secretary to the Minister of Commerce and Industry, and as Senior Research Fellow with the Korea Institute for International Economic Policy. Mr. Km's background in government banking was as the London Representative of the Bank of Korea (the Republic of Korea's central bank), and as an economist with the Bank. Highlights of Mr. Kim's private sector experience indude achievements as Executive Drector and President of Daewoo International Steel Corporation in New York, and as President of the Hanil Banking Institute in Seoul. Mr. Kim has a special affinity for the Pacific, having served in the 1980s as United Nations Chief Planning Officer and Chief Technical Adviser attached to two Pacific island developing countries, Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands. As Secretary-General of the Colombo Plan, based in Colombo, Sri Lanka (19951999), Mr. Kim revitalized the 24-member intergovernmental Colombo Plan for Cooperative Economic and Social Development in Asia and the Pacific, stressing human resources development and focusing on South-South cooperation. Mr. Kim has a first degree from Yonsei University, Republic of Korea, a master's degree from Edinburgh University, United Kingdom, and a Ph.D. in economics from the University of South Carolina, United States ofAmerica.

Mr. Adrianus MOOY assumed the post of Executive Secretary of ESCAP on 1 April 1995. Prior to his. appointment, Mr. Mooy was Ambassador of Indonesia to the Eumpean Communities in Brussels since 1993. Hewas Governor of Indonesia's Central Bank, as well as the Governor for Indonesia of the International Monetary Fund, since 1988. In addition, he was the Asian Development Bank's Alternate Governor for Indonesia, as well as for the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency in Washington, D.C., during the same five-year period. Mr. Mooy began his professional career in 1958 in the Faculty ofEconomics, Gajah Mada University, Yogyatarta, Indonesia, as a Teaching Assistant before continuing his graduate studies at the University of Wisconsin, United States of America, from 1959 to 1965. In 1967, he was appointed Head of the Bureau of Statistics, State Minisuy for Economic, Financial and Developmental Affairs, Indonesia. Fmm 1968 to 1969, he served as Head of the Bureau of Domestic Finance, National Development Planning Agency (BAPPENAS). Fmm 1969 to 1973, Mr. Mooy worked as Economic Affairs Officer at ECAFE, Bangkok, before returning to Indonesia to serve as Deputy Chairman for Fiscal and Monetary Affairs, National Development Planning Agency until 1988. Concurrently, Mr. Mooy served as Assistant for Monetary Affairs to the Minister Coordinator for Economic, Financial and Industrial Affairs (EKUIN) from 1978 to 1983; as Executive Secretary of the Monetary Council fmm 1983 to 1988; and as Assistant for Development Finance to the State Minister for National Development Planning, Indonesia, from 1985 to 1988. Mr. Mooy served as a member of the Indonesian People's Consultative Assembly from 1982 to 1987 and from 1987 to 1992. From 1987 to 1993, Mr. Mooy was a Professor of Economics at the University of Indonesia in Jakarta. He was a member of the Indonesian delegation to many international conferences, among them, those within the framework of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Economic Cooperation, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD),the Non-Aligned Movement, and the Intergovernmental Group for Indonesia. Mr. Mooy holds a Master of Science and a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Wisconsin, United States ofAmerica. He received hi Bachelor of Science in Economics from Gajah Mada University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia.

Mr. Rafeeuddin AHMED retired as Associate Administrator of UNDP after serving as the sixth Executive Secretary of ESCAP from 1992 to 1994. He previously held the post of Under-Secretary-General for International Economic and Social Affairs, while also serving as Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs in South-East Asia. Prior to that, from 1 January 1983, he was Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Trusteeship and Decolonization. M t Ahmed joined the United Nations Secretariat in May 1970 as Secretary of the Economic and Social Council, and from February 1973 served as Director of the Resources and Programme Planning Office in the Department of Economic and Social Affairs. From May 1975, he held the post of Executive Assistant to the Secretary-General until September 1978, when he became Chef de Cabinet. Mr. Ahmed entered the Foreign Service of Pakistan in October 1955 and held diplomatic posts in Beijing, Cairo and Ottawa. He served as Director for United Nations Affairs and Economic Coordination in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from February 1968 until joining the Secretariat. While a member of the Permanent Mission of Pakistan to the United Nations from 1965 to 1968, Mr. Ahmed was his country's representative in the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) during the twentieth to the twenty-fourth sessions of the General Assembly.

Mr. S.A.M.S. Kibria became the fifth Executive Secretary of ESCAP in 1981. Before coming to ESCAP, Mr. Kibria had spent more than a quarter of a century as a diplomat. He joined the Pakistan Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1953 and subsequently held a number of posts in the Pakistan Foreign Service. Following the independence of Bangladesh, and starting as Director-General of the Political Affairs Department in the Bangladeshi Ministry of Foreign Atfairs, Mr. Kibria became Secretary of the Ministry in charge of administration. In 1973, the Government appointed him as the Bangladesh High Commissioner to Australia, New Zealand and Fiji, based in Canberra. In 1976, he became the Bangladesh Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva, an assignment which lasted until 1978. Mr. Kibria returned to Bangladesh in 1978 as Foreign Secretary, serving wncurrently in 1979 as the elected Chairman of the Group of 77 Preparatory Committee for UNCTAD V, which was held in Manila. He remained as Foreign Secretary of Bangladesh until joining ESCAl? Mr. Kibria was educated at the University of Dacca, Bangladesh, the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in Boston, United States of America, and at the British Foreign Office in London, United Kingdom.

Mr. J.B.P. Maramis became the fourth Executive Secretary of ECAFE on 1 August

1973. Previously, he had served with the Government of ~ndohesiafor 22 years in different capacities and, at the time of his appointment to ECAFE, was Indonesia's ambassador to Belgium and Luxembourg and Head of the Indonesian Mission to the European Economic Community (EEC).

As an Indonesian delegate, Mr. Maramis took part in the work of numerous United Nations groups concerned with development issues. In 1970, he became President of the Economic and Social Council (ESCAP's parent body) at a time when the International Development Strategy for the Second United Nations Development Decade (1971-1980) was being drawn up. Mr. Maramis, who was born in Limbung, Indonesia, in 1922, graduated from the University of Leyden, Netherlands, in March 1951. He entered the service of his Government the same year in the Directorate of Economic Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and subsequently held a number of posts in the Indonesian Foreign Service. From 1960 to 1965, Mr. Maramis served as Counsellor in the Permanent Mission of Indonesia to the United Nations and, during that period, was chairman of the Ad Hoc Committee on Co-ordination and Technical Assistance in the United Nations, which recommended action that brought about the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). In 1969, Mr. Maramis was appointed as Deputy Representative of the Indonesian Mission t o the United Nations, and served as the Indonesian representative on the Economic and Social Council. He was Vice-President of the Council in 1969 and President in 1970. In October 1969, he was the Chairman of the 'Group of 77' developing countries,

ECAFE's third Executive Secretary, U NYUN, was born in Thaton, Burma in 1910. U Nyun joined the United Nations in 1951 as Chief of ECAFE's Industry and Trade Division and was appointed Deputy Executive Secretary in 1957. He was appointed Executive Secretary in April 1959. In 1931, he joined the then British colonial civil service in IndialBurma, and had a distinguished career in the administrative service of the Government of Burma before joining the United Nations. Among the various posts he held were those of Under-Secretary and Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. He was leader of Burmese trade missions which concluded trade agreements between Burma and a number of other countries. He also represented Burma at a number of international economic conferences. He was educated at Rangoon University, Burma, the London School of Economics and Political Science and the School of OrientaJ Studies of London University, the United Kingdom.

Mr. Chkavarthi V Narasimhan of India, became the second Executive Secretary of ECAFE from 1956 to 1959. Mr. Narasimhan entered the Indian Civil Service in 1936. After 13 years of service with the Provincial Government of Madras, he joined the Government of India in 1950, and until his appointment to the post of Executive Secretary of ECAFE, he held several important posts in the Indian Ministries of Agriculture and Finance. At the time of his appointment to ECAFE in 1956, he was serving as Joint Secretary in the Economic Affairs Department of the Ministry of Finance. From January 1959 to March 1961, Mr. Narasimhan was Under-Secretary for Special Political a i r s . Part of this period, he also served concurrently as Associate Managing Director of the United Nations Special Fund (now merged with UNDP). He was appointed to the post of Chef de Cabinet of the United Nations SecretaryGeneral by the late Dag Harnmarskjold in 1961 and continued in that capacity under two more Secretaries-General, U 'Ihant and Kurt Waldheim, until 15 September 1973. In addition to heading the Executive Office of rhe Secretary-General, MI. Narasimhan took over the responsibility for General Assembly AtFdirs in March 1962. On 1 August 1969, he became Deputy Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). He became Under-SecretaryGeneral for Inter-agency Affairs and Coordination at the United Nations in October 1973. Mr. Narasimhan was educated at Madras University, India, and at Oxford University, the United Kingdom.

E W E ' S first Executive Secretary, Palamadai S. Lokanathan of India, was an economist who had made a distinguished career in teaching, government service, and private enterprise, before coming to Shanghai in 1947 to head the office of the United Nations Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East (ECAFE). Mr. Lokanathan was a member of the Senate of Madras and a member of the Academic Council of Madras University, where he was Professor of Economics. He was also a member of the Board of Studies in Economics for the Universities of Madras, Travancore, Annamali and Andhra, and Chairman of the Commerce College, Delhi University, Delhi. While he was still at Madras University, he became a member of the consultative Committee of Economists to the Government of India; he was also appointed a member of the Labour Advisory Board of the Madras Government, and he was a president of the Economic Association of India. To a large section of the Indian public Mr. Lokanathan became known as editor of the Eastem Economist, which he joined after he worked as editor of the Hindwtani Ernes, also in New Delhi.

ABBREVIATIONS Asian Clearing Union Asian Development Bank Advisory Committee of Permanent Representatives and Other Representatives Designated by Members of the Commission ASEAN Free Trade Area AFTA Asian Land Transport Infrastructure Development ALTID Asian and Pacific Centre for Agricultural Engineering and Machinery APCAEM Asian and Pacific Training Centre for Information and Communication Technology APCICT Asian and Pacific Centre for Transfer of Technology APCTT Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation APEC Asia-Pacific Trade Agreement APTA Association of Southeast Asian Nations ASEAN Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) BIMSTEC Centre for Alleviation of Poverty through Secondary Crops Development in Asia and the Pacific CAPSA Community-based disaster risk management CBDRM CCOP Committee for Co-ordination of Joint Prospecting for Mineral Resources in Asian Offshore Areas Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East ECAFE Economic Commission for Europe ECE Economic and Social Council ECOSOC End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes ECPAT European Free Trade Agreement EFTA ESCAP Pacific Operations Centre EPOC United Nations Expanded Programme on Technical Assistance EPTA United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific ESCAP Eurasian Economic Community EurAsEC Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations FAO Free Trade Agreements FTAs GATT General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs Gross domestic product GDP Human Immunodeficiency virus1 acquired immune deficiency syndrome HIVIAIDS Information and communications technology ICT International Labour Organization ILO Information technology IT Millennium Development Goal MDG Melanesian Spearhead Group MSG Non-governmental organization NGO Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development OECD Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries OPEC Pacific Island Countries Trade Agreement PICTA Pacific Islands Forum PIF South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation SAARC South Asia Free Trade Agreement SAFTA Shanghai Cooperation Organization Southeast Asia Treaty Organization SEATO Statistical Institute for Asia and the Pacific SLAP Small and medium-sized enterprises SMEs South Pacific Applied Geoscience Commission SOPAC South Pacific Trade and Economic Co-operation Agreement SPARTECA Special Programme for the Economies of Central Asia SPECA Ship Users' Cooperation Project SUCOP

ACU ADB ACPR

sco

UNCTAD UNDP UNEP UNESCO UNFPA UNICEF UNIFEM UNRRA WHO

m0

United Nations Conference on Trade and Development United Nations Development Programme United Nations Environment Programme United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization United Nations Population Fund United Nations Children's Fund United Nations Development Fund for Women United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration World Health Organization World Trade Organization

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12

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Maddison, up.cit. 7he Economist (2005). "Forging a new shape", 8 December.

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l6

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l7

ESCAP (1987). ESCAP 1947-1987: Regional Co-operationfor Development, Bangkok, United Nations ESCAP

l8

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19

Sanyal, S. (2006). "Has the shippers' movement sprung a leak?", in Business Line, India, August 14.

20

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tion of the Biwako Millennium Framework for Action", paper presented at ESCAP Workshop on Self-help Organizations of Persons with Disabilities, Related Family and Parental Associations and Women with Disabilities towards Biwako Plus 5, 18-20 October 2006, Bangkok. 34 ESCAP (2002). Biwako Millennium Framework for Action: towards an Inclusive, Barrier-free and Rights-based Society for Persons with

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ment (STIESCAP/1887), New York, United Nations. 36 ESCAP (2004). Disability at a Glance:A Profile of 28 Countries andArem in Asia and the Pacijic, (STIESCAPl2421),New York, United

Nations. 37 ICBL (2006). Landmine Monitor, International Campaign to Ban Landmines, Ottawa.

>>>

39 UNICEF (2006). UNICEF Global Database, www.childinfo.org/areas/idd/database.php.Updated May 2006, accessed on 12 January

2007. 40

McNeil, D. (2006).'Xctivists savor success in iodization fight", in International Herald Tribune Asia-Pacific, 12 December. ESCAP (2006).Road Safety in Aria and the Pacif;, (ElESCAPlMCT/SGO/9),Bangkok.

42

ESCAP ( 1998). Review of Road Safety in Asia and the PacrJSc,New York, United Nations.

43 ESCAP (2006).Road Safety in Asia and the PacrJSc,(E/ESCAP/MCT/SGO/9),Bangkok. 44 Mohit, A. (2002)."fights o f the disabled", in Journal of the National Human Rights Commission, vol. l , 2002, pp. 160-197, New Delhi. 45 ESCAP (2004). Disability at a Glance: A Profle of28 Countries and Areas in Asia and the PacrJSc, (STIESCAP/2421), New York, United

Nations. 46 ESCAP (2003).Economic and Social Progress in Jeopardy: HIVIAIDS in the Asian and Pacific Region, New York, United Nations. 47 UNAIDS (2006).Report on the Global AIDS Epidemic, Joint United Nations Programme on HIVIAIDS, Geneva, UNAIDS. 48

ESCAP (1985). 7he Role of Participatory Organizations in Agrarian Reform, Bangkok, ESCAI?

49 ES CAP ( 1 9 85). Poverty, Productivity and Participation: Contours of an Alternative Strategy for Poverty Eradication, Bangkok, ES CAP 5O UNEP (1999). GEO-2000: Global Environment Outlook. Asia and the Pacific. Accessed on 19 January 2007 at www.grida.nolgeo2000/

english/0062.htm. UNDP (2OO6b).Human Development Report. Beyond Scarcity: Power, Poverty and the Global Water Crisis, New York, Macmillan. 52

Ibid.

53 Narasimhan, C. ( 1996). 7he United Nations at 50, Delhi, Konark Publishers. 54 MRC (2006).Annual Report 2005, Vientiane, Mekong River Commission.

55 ESCAP (2006).Green Growth at a Glance: 7he Way Forwardfor Asia and the Pacifi, Bangkok, ESCAI? 56 ESCAP (2006).State ofthe Environment in Asia and the Paclfic, 2005, Bangkok, ESCAI?

Ibid. Ibid. 59 UNEP (1999). GEO-2000: Global Environment Outlook. Asia and the Paclfic. Accessed on 19 January 2007 at www.grida.nolgeo2OO0/

english/0062.htm. 60

ESCAP (2006).State of the Environment in Asia and the Pacific, 2005, Bangkok, ESCAI?

61

Ibid.

62 Ibid.. 63

Ibid.

64 ESCAP (2006). Technical Cooperation Earbook, Bangkok, ESCAl?

ESCAP (2006). Road Safety in Asia and the Pacijic (EIESCAPIMCTISGOI9), Bangkok. 66 Purcell, op. cit. 67 ESCAP (1997). Report of the Shanghai Symposium to Commemorate the Fzfieth Anniversary @CAR

Bangkok, ESCAl?

68 UNDP (2007). Sub-Regional Resource Facilities (SURFS)website. Accessed on 15 January 2007 at www.undp.org/policy/surf.htm. 69 ESCAP (2004). ESCAP towards 2020, New York, United Nations. 70

United Nations (2004). Annual Report, 5 September 2003 - 28 April 2004. Economic and Social Council, Official Records, 200. Supplement No. 19, New York, United Nations.

R. Hirono and P. Mankad (2006). External Evaluation: United Nations Economic and Social CommissionforAsia and the Pacijic, Bangkok, ESCAl?

7l Djumla, D.,

72 UNAIDS (2005). A Scaled-up Response to AIDS in Aria and the Pacifc, UNAIDS Regional Support Team for Asia and the Pacific,

Bangkok, UNAIDS.

Flowers in the Fields Love in the Human Hearts Sbinzan Kamijo Art Collection, United Nations Conference Centre, Bangkok

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