Last March 28 to 31, the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) held its annual Asia-Pacific Forum on Sustainable Development. The theme, “Building back better from COVID-19 while advancing the full implementation of the 2030 Agenda in Asia and the Pacific”, focused on the region’s recovery from the pandemic and the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) amid worsening development and climate crises. Echoing the messages from the

          Escazu Agreement: An Opportunity for the Peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean in the Face of Environmental Crises Georgina Muñoz, RENICC, Nicaragua Perhaps the greatest challenge in our world today is the need to identify and implement solutions to our planet’s latent environmental crises. Many international conferences have been convened to discuss these issues, but these meetings have often had disappointing results. While our whole planet is experiencing the impact

                                           Canada’s International Assistance: Underfunded Feminist Ambitions  Gloria Novovic, Cooperation Canada Canada’s Feminist International Assistance Policy (FIAP) established the country’s donor profile as one that is strongly supportive of human rights and trans formative gender equality efforts. However, persistently low budgets—with Canada’s current ODA is at a near historically low levels—have seriously hindered the effectiveness

The COVID-19 pandemic has shown opportunities for strengthening multi-stakeholder partnerships, especially among development partners, as they mitigate the economic, environmental and social impacts for the most vulnerable. Pandemic response efforts have often left women and children, farmers, fisherfolk, Indigenous Peoples, and urban poor, among other sectors, behind. Despite the trend of shrinking civic spaces and the threats they face, civil society organizations (CSOs) have served as ‘first responders’ to the threats of the pandemic, as

Despite making progress in addressing the pandemic, 2022 saw a surge of new cases, caused by Omicron, the latest  COVID-19 variant. Governments were expected to urgently respond by re-opening COVID-19 wards, expediting distribution of booster shots, implementing containment measures and providing social assistance to vulnerable households.  The continued mutation of the virus could have been prevented if  developed countries only prioritize global public health and welfare over profit. As COVID-19 vaccines are still patented and

As Asia-Pacific struggles to cope with COVID-19, a global recession, and existing development challenges, it is imperative that aid must be used effectively and efficiently. Initiatives for monitoring and analyzing the quantity and quality of aid in the region must be scaled up in order to ensure the transparency and accountability of donors and development institutions. Impacts of development projects that serve to worsen existing inequalities must also be exposed, as the vulnerable and marginalized