By Haoliang Xu, Director, Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific, UNDP
We live in a dynamic world, where great progress has been made. Yet the gulf between rich and poor is widening, and the natural world is under ever greater threat. That’s why we need to make development more sustainable and inclusive, as set out in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its pledge to “leave no one behind”.
It means that our interventions have to be transformative. They need to reach large numbers of people and strengthen the institutions and services that underpin both human and environmental well-being.
UNDP is fully committed to this vision. Indeed, UNDP Asia-Pacific has been through its own transformation, from traditional donor to development advisor and service provider. Ideas and innovation are now intrinsic to the way we work.
We bring together in-house expertise and an extensive network of public and private partners. Thinking and working together allows us to identify solutions to unlock and scale up progress that work across countries at diverse stages of development.
UNDP tracks emerging trends in real time and the insights we gain make our support to countries flexible and highly responsive, enabling countries to grasp new opportunities for sustainable development as they arise.
Here is some of what we have been doing in the Asia-Pacific region:
- A pilot strategy to reduce poverty rates among slum dwellers in Bangladesh laid the foundation for a new National Urban Poverty Reduction Programme aimed at improving the lives of 6 million people.
- In China, UNDP helped link the government, the private sector and the Global Environment Facility to reduce carbon emissions from the lighting industry by ramping up the production and marketing of high-efficiency light bulbs.
- UNDP has helped hundreds of thousands of people in Myanmar and the Solomon Islands gain access to financial services for the first time, through traditional models such as microfinance as well as more recent innovations such as banking by mobile phone.
- Expanded legal services in Mongolia and Timor-Leste mean even people who live in poor and remote rural areas can realize legal rights and protections, often for the first time.
The 2030 Agenda challenges all countries. Yet, as the examples from our new collection of case studies show, solutions are within reach. A new era awaits: that of development benefitting everyone and the world we share.
This post was originally published by UNDP. Click here to read.