Expert Opinions & Stories

Food system risk is increasing across most countries in the Asia-Pacific region in recent years according to the recently launched INFER Framework
INFER uses 95 indicators to produce food system…

As we celebrate the World Environment Day this year, it bears repeating that the world is in the midst of an extinction crisis. Asia and the Pacific sees the most rapid and serious decline in…

A defining feature of the post-pandemic world is the digital transformation that has permeated every aspect of our lives. In the words of UN Secretary-General António Guterres, “…as we recover and…

As countries gathered at the United Nations’ biodiversity conference, or COP15, to agree on the post-2020 global biodiversity framework, policymakers, scientists, and rights advocates reaffirmed…

To meet the ambitions of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, we will need a vibrant and innovative private sector able to seize opportunities to solving the problems that hamper progress and…

Infrastructure is a critical component that connects all the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, investment in infrastructure was well below the levels…

At ESCAP’s latest Regional Conversation, Promoting Regional Cooperation for Enhancing Access to Essential Health Products, Dr. Mariângela Simão of the World Health Organization (WHO) gave a telling…

The world has seen tremendous development and production in vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics in the two years since COVID-19 was declared a pandemic. However, gross inequities in accessing…

It is widely believed that the biggest contribution of trade to climate change is from transport-related greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Indeed, as reported in the Asia-Pacific Trade and Investment…

The world’s topmost decision-making body on trade will meet in Geneva on 30 November, having only four days at the World Trade Organization 12th Ministerial Conference (MC12) to deliver a…

Throughout history, zoonotic diseases (diseases transmitted from animals to humans) have made their marks in human history. For example, the bubonic plague, which was transmitted from rodents, is…

Air pollution has become a serious environmental and health issue in Thailand. The pollution levels in the country follow predictable patterns, which highlight the presence of a peak pollution season…

Participation in global and regional supply chains has been one of the most reliable economic growth strategies, especially for developing countries in Asia and the Pacific. Smooth and efficient…

Technology often has inherent limitations

All sorts of frontier technologies have been widely used to fight against COVID-19. A good lesson learned by using various technologies during the…

As the world is struggling with the rapid-onset COVID-19 crisis, and while it is early to conclude which response strategies were the most successful, we can already start drawing some lessons to…

Many estimates are being thrown around about the potential impact of COVID-19 on global and national economies. Perhaps the only thing they agree on at this stage is that it will be bad – the main…

A common saying has it that when America sneezes, the rest of the world catches a cold. However, with China’s economic rise, this phrase is yet to gain another spin.

In the face of a new virus …

Imagine going through the day without consuming or using some product, service, data, technology, personal contact, or payment which has not – at least in some part – crossed one or more national…

Meet the gravity defiers - the group of countries which have managed to decouple their SDG trajectories from the gravitational pull of national incomes.

The annual Sustainable Development Goals …

The smog that chokes Bangkok and Delhi, the recurring haze in Southeast Asia due to forest fires, and global episodes of heat wave are manifestations of man-made environmental degradation to which…