Reduced Inequalities

This paper presents the results from using the Digital and Sustainable Regional Integration Index version 1 (DigiSRII 1.0) framework of ESCAP (2020b) to uncover digital economy integration trends across the Asia-Pacific region. The results show that Asia and the Pacific has made good progress with regard to conventional digital economy integration especially because of the significant improvements in the digital economy infrastructure and liberalization of trade of information and communications technology (ICT) goods. However capacity-building of the workforce and investment in infrastructure are required to bridge the digitalization gaps among the digitalized economies in the region. Moreover the fairly low regulatory uniformity among regional economies further highlights the importance of regional regulatory harmonization in order to foster regional trade in digitally enabled goods and services. From a sustainable development perspective inclusivity and equity of access to digitalization and required infrastructure remain key challenges. While Internet penetration in the region has been rising female participation in the digital economy has remained relatively low in general and extremely low in lowincome economies. In addition there is room to enhance cybersecurity in most Asia-Pacific economies. Regional digital policies should focus on harmonizing data protection protocols and building a safer network of servers that would promote economic activity and enable sensitive matters to be conducted online. Fostering a more inclusive digital transformation may considerably boost network-effects and accelerate the transition to a competitive and sustainable regional digital economy.

Traditionally sovereign debt problems of developing countries have been discussed mostly at institutions representing the creditors such as the Paris Club and at the International Monetary Fund but they have also been addressed by the United Nations mostly in the context of its international conferences on financing for development. Although the views of the United Nations on debt are not widely known they are highly relevant in the post-COVID-19 context as inflationary pressures could lead to tightened global financial conditions and exacerbate debt vulnerabilities in developing countries. The present paper provides an overview of sovereign debt restructurings from the 1980s a summary of the debt situation of Asia and the Pacific as a case study and a review of the views of United Nations on debt issues. It also offers suggestions to improve the global debt architecture based on such views by highlighting the importance of linking debt sustainability with sustainable development in debt restructuring workouts and through a hub-and-spoke institutional arrangement to disseminate prudential debt management practices and promote transparency.

The present paper contains a discussion on how central banks and financial supervisory authorities can foster green development in Asia and the Pacific. It is based on the argument that while fiscal policy has received much attention central banks and financial supervisory authorities can certainly play a complementary role in accelerating the transition towards low-carbon climate-resilient economies. Indeed these institutions are obliged to act as inaction could compromise their mandate to maintain economic and price stability given that climate change poses an emerging risk to the financial system. The first point made in the paper is that approximately half of the Asia-Pacific central banks either have sustainability-oriented mandates or have begun to integrate climate issues into their policy conduct. The following discussion points out that while the region remains at the early stage of implementing green monetary and financial policies some central banks and financial supervisory authorities are at the forefront in deploying monetary policy tools prudential measures and broader initiatives to support green finance. To further promote green central banking having clear guiding principles effective communication and adequate technical capacity to customize the green approach is critical. Moving forward these institutions should be mindful of possible unintended adverse impacts of sustainable central banking such as interfering with market neutrality supporting green washing and crowding out green private investments.

Two years of the COVID-19 pandemic have underlined the urgency of reducing the persisting and deep-rooted socioeconomic divides across Asia and the Pacific.

Economic growth in Asia and the Pacific has been the fastest in the world in the last decade. The region’s economic success however has not been enjoyed by all. The failure of individual countries and areas to grow together at all income and social levels as well as along urban-rural and gender lines has led to scarring effects – especially during the pandemic which brings the issue of inequality and fairness to the fore. These long-term scars are already setting the development agenda back. The pandemic has had adverse impacts on some 829 million informal workers across the region as a result of lockdowns; subsequently multidimensional poverty levels doubled affecting 71 million children who have not had access to online learning during school closures. Our estimates suggest that additional 85 million people have been pushed into extreme poverty since the start of the pandemic living on $1.90 per day or less. The number of people living in poverty would rise to 156 million and 160 million respectively if $3.20 and $5.50 per day thresholds are used. Hence building a fairer future – ensuring an inclusive recovery from the pandemic and building an inclusive development path – is an imperative.

Credit ratings play an important role providing information on sovereign borrowers. But financial markets including credit ratings often over-emphasize short-term economic concerns and underweight longer-term issues including environmental and social risks as well as investment in resilience and sustainability.

Social protection has become an increasingly important part of the social development agenda in sub-Saharan Africa. Comprehensive social protection systems can contribute to poverty eradication and reduced inequalities stimulate productive activity and economic growth and create resilience in the face of multiple and recurrent crises—particularly if they work in tandem with other social and labour market policies. Recently countries in the region have made extensive use of social protection instruments to confront the economic and social fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic. Against this backdrop this brief analyses the extent to and ways in which countries in the region integrate gender equality and women’s empowerment into their social protection efforts drawing on a unique data set of national social protection strategies from 30 countries in the region including 14 in West and Central Africa and 16 in East and Southern Africa. It finds that while a significant number of strategies acknowledge gendered risks and vulnerabilities few include specific actions to address them. The brief concludes with a set of recommendations for increased mainstreaming of gender equality concerns into efforts to build national social protection systems.

The findings of the study summarized in this paper show that a life-cycle approach can help to reveal meaningful differences in the way women men girls and boys experience poverty. A life-cycle approach examines the different stages individuals go through as they transition to adulthood and form their own households. It tracks the changes that take place from childhood to childbearing years and beyond. This is the first study to look at these dimensions systematically at the global level.

Rapid economic growth in Asia and the Pacific in the last three decades “lifted many boats” with consequent remarkable reductions in poverty rates. Structural transition from low-productivity agriculture to high-productivity manufacturing and modern services has been at the centre of this success contributing to the historical income convergence between developing Asia-Pacific countries and the developed world and to an overall reduction in between-country inequality worldwide (Chancel and others 2022; Gradín 2021).