The World Meteorological Organization’s State of the Climate in Asia 2024 report warns that the region is warming nearly twice as fast as the global average, driving more extreme weather and posing serious threats to lives, ecosystems, and economies. In 2024, Asia experienced its warmest or second warmest year on …
The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered government lockdowns, collapsed consumer demand, and disrupted imports of raw materials, battering the Asia Pacific garment industry especially hard, according to a new report by the International Labour Organization (ILO). The UN labour agency highlighted that in the first half of 2020, Asian imports had …
Countries in Asia and the Pacific need to extend social protection coverage for all. Doing so would help them build back better after the COVID-19 pandemic. It would also help them tackle a range of compounding challenges arising from population ageing, migration, urbanization, technological advancements, disasters and climate change. Yet, …
The Status of Science and Technology report is an important step for monitoring the progress in the implementation of the Sendai Framework and an attempt to capture some of the progress across geographies, stakeholders, and disciplines towards the application of science and technology towards risk reduction in Asia-Pacific. Developed by …
The COVID-19 Pandemic calls for a multi-sectoral response in Asia and the Pacific to protect people and enhance resilience, support economic recovery and restore supply chains and support SMEs. Shipping and ports are a major part of such a response. For most countries in Asia and the Pacific, shipping represents …
This report includes an assessment of the extent to which progress towards the targets of the Sendai Framework has been gender-responsive and disability-inclusive. The guiding research question for the assessment is as follows: how do selected countries in the Asia-Pacific region identify and address diverse needs of disadvantaged groups, characterized …
Southeast Asia made considerable progress in building and strengthening its agricultural R&D; capacity during 2000–2017. All of the region’s countries reported higher numbers of agricultural researchers, improvements in their average qualification levels, and higher shares of women participating in agricultural R&D.; In contrast, regional agricultural research spending remained stagnant, despite …
The world has been put on a heightened famine alert with a new report by two United Nations agencies that contains a stark warning; four countries contain areas that could soon slip into famine if conditions there undergo "any further deterioration over the coming months". These are Burkina Faso in …
On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the first pandemic caused by a coronavirus (COVID). Countries around the world moved swiftly to declare states of emergency, closing ports of entry and activating crisis management systems. This technical note highlights the adaptive nature and flexible application of national …
Freight transport operations poses the risks during the pandemics, especially if it is not fully computerized. The first part of the technical note focuses on the international road transport of countries along the Asian Highway network in face of COVID-19 pandemic. It highlights the newly operational challenges due to the …
An estimated 500,000 more girls risk being forced into child marriage and as many as one million more are expected to become pregnant in 2020 as a result of the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, new analysis from Save the Children reveals—a year-over-year increase of four and three per …
The seventh edition of Renewable Energy and Jobs – Annual Review shows that jobs in the sector reached 11.5 million globally last year, led by solar PV with some 3.8 million jobs, or a third of the total. Last year, sixty-three per cent of all renewables jobs were recorded in …
COVID-19 pandemic has shaken the world to its core. Asia-Pacific leaders are simultaneously struggling to save lives and livelihoods. Working from home, online pedagogy and telemedicine are the new normal. This has exposed the region’s urban-rural digital fault line and fragility of its digital networks. Optical fiber cable (OFC) is …
As the pandemic persists, developing Asia is projected to contract by 0.7% in 2020—the first regional GDP contraction since the early 1960s. Developing Asia excluding the newly industrialized economies will also contract by 0.5%. Growth is forecast to rebound to 6.8% in 2021, but this will still leave GDP next …
The global Living Planet Index continues to decline. It shows an average 68% decrease in population sizes of mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles and fish between 1970 and 2016. A 94% decline in the LPI for the tropical sub regions of the Americas is the largest fall observed in any part …
This is the inaugural edition of the Ecological Threat Register (ETR), which covers 157 independent states and territories. The ETR is unique in that it combines measures of resilience with the most comprehensive ecological data available to shed light on the countries least likely to cope with extreme ecological shocks, …
The fisheries sector holds great importance for small island developing States (SIDS) of Asia and the Pacific. For many Governments, fisheries bring much-needed public revenues. Government income from the fisheries sector expanded significantly with the establishment of the 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in 1982, providing SIDS with greater …
COVID-19’s impact has gone far beyond its direct effect on morbidity and mortality. In addition to adversely impacting non-COVID health care utilization, the pandemic has resulted in a deep global economic contraction due to lockdown policies and declining demand and supply of goods and services. As a result, most countries …
The COVID-19 pandemic is continuing to disrupt both manufacturing and global supply chains. Governments in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region have responded quickly by restricting the movement of people in order to contain the virus. Despite a heterogenous health care system readiness across the region, MENA countries …
With 1.7 million new infections in 2019 and 38 million people living with HIV worldwide, we are living in a time of two parallel pandemics. The protection and promotion of human rights has been central to the approach and success of the HIV response. Rights in a Pandemic outlines 10 …
This Guide promotes a holistic and human rights-based approach to school food and nutrition. It also provides practical information and guidance to develop or strengthen national legislation to improve food security and nutrition in schools and presents a range of regulatory options and legislative examples of state practice that may …
