No Poverty

This study covers perceived and prioritized barriers to access climate funds, using Nepal as a case for least developed countries. A comprehensive picture of the climate finance flow in Nepal is presented and barriers to access international climate finance are identified. These barriers are prioritized based on their importance and potentials to be removed. Out of the 63 identified barriers, most prominent ones are inadequate ministerial coordination, limited evidence-based research and limited understanding of public–private partnerships. Despite some successes in accessing climate finance, key challenges remain. Among them are low disbursement, inadequate information-base and limited choice of financial instruments.

Using annual data for the period 2000−2019, the paper reviews economic progress in Asia-Pacific countries and assesses whether the China-led Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) contributes to this trend. Based on selected development indicators and their trends before and after the announcement of the Initiative, the findings confirm significant trade expansion associated with growing connectivity achieved through infrastructure finance from China to BRI economies vis-à-vis their non-BRI counterparts. The rising trade ties are associated with output growth, contributing to the development trajectories of BRI countries and bringing some modest positive spillover effects to non-BRI members. Policy implications are proposed accordingly.

How can a rapidly growing country, such as Bangladesh, overcome the barriers to realizing Sustainable Development Goal 7? The present study includes an analysis of the barriers to achieving 24x7 access to modern energy and the required improvements to make energy more efficient to overcome them in Bangladesh. Interpretive structural modeling (ISM) is applied to identify the interactions among the barriers as laid out in context-relevant scientific literature. The Cross-impact matrix multiplication applied to classification (MICMAC) is applied to classify the barriers. The results indicate that the barriers can be addressed through a systematic packaging and prioritization approach.

The Paris Agreement requires each participating country to prepare its nationally determined contributions (NDCs). In 2020, Japan submitted a 26 per cent emissions reduction target for 2030, and resubmitted a 46 per cent target (relative to 2013) in 2021. This paper provides an assessment of the Japanese emissions reduction efforts vis-à-vis other NDCs and international comparisons among countries using several different indicators. The carbon dioxide marginal abatement costs in Japan are expected to be approximately $450/tCO2 eq in 2030, which is consistent with the 1.5°C pathways. Costs in the European and North American countries are at similar levels.

The Republic of Korea has made a net-zero pledge and submitted enhanced nationally determined contributions (NDCs), targeting a 40 per cent reduction in gashouse emissions by 2030 compared to 2018 levels. This article provides a review of the country’s mitigation progress by evaluating its NDCs and 2050 net-zero commitments. Three key challenges are identified: limited time window to meet the targets; energy transition difficulties; transforming carbon-intensive industries. A SWOT analysis informs strategic directions in four areas: accelerating low-carbon transitions in key sectors; enhancing mitigation policy effectiveness in building stakeholder consensus on transition costs; bolstering international cooperation for carbon neutrality.

The Guidelines are a practical reference document on approaches to evidence-based policy-making for policy-makers involved in development and implementation of policies on housing and urban development at all levels of governance. The Guidelines can be used at all stages of the policy making – from agenda setting and policy formulation to the implementation/review and evaluation. Application of these Guidelines is an important resource for the analysis of the approaches to review the progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), especially SDG 11.

The Investment Policy Review of Armenia makes concrete policy recommendations on how Armenia can improve its investment climate, attract higher inflows of foreign direct investment and derive more benefits from them.

Effective and efficient housing management is important to support the implementation of key UN agreements, including the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the New Urban Agenda and the Geneva UN Charter on Sustainable Housing. Efficient housing management results in economic benefits and decent housing conditions for inhabitants of condominiums. Housing management, through housing refurbishment programmes, protects the environment and contributes to decrease in greenhouse gas emissions, which supports the efforts of governments and stakeholders to address climate change.

This report by UNICEF reveals that not all children in cities benefit from the so-called ‘urban advantage’—the notion that higher incomes, better infrastructure, and proximity to services grant urban children advantages over rural children. In fact, urban inequality and exclusion among children in cities can make many of the most disadvantaged children in urban areas worse off than children in rural areas. Hence, the ‘urban paradox.’

Issue no. 35 of the National Accounts Studies of the Arab Region includes available data and ESCWA estimates of GDP at both current and constant prices, in addition to the consolidated national accounts for each ESCWA member country during the period 2011-2015, and the estimated real GDP growth for 2016. Data was compiled from national statistical sources and by using questionnaires prepared by ESCWA. This publication is intended for economists, social researchers and planners.

The present report, prepared in accordance with resolution 1996/2 of the ECOSOC, provides an overview of demographic trends for the world, its geographic regions and selected countries, and for various development and income groups. It focuses on major demographic changes during recent decades, as well as projected changes during the time frame for implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and beyond. The report includes population size and change, fertility and family planning, mortality, changing population age structures, urbanization and city growth, and international migration, including recent trends in the number of refugees and asylum seekers.

In line with recommendations of the Fifth Session of the FAO Conference, this report brings together information on the general economic outlook; the outlook for individual farm, forestry, and fisheries commodities; the changing patterns of world trade; the changes in international investment; and the general state of food and agriculture.

The Recommendations clarify the role of national statistical offices and other members of national statistical systems in providing information related to hazardous events and disasters, and identify practical steps needed for these organisations, in coordination with national agencies responsible for disaster risk management, to better support disaster risk management efforts. The Recommendations have been prepared by the UNECE Task Force on Measuring Extreme Events and Disasters, composed of Armenia, Italy (Chair), New Zealand, Republic of Moldova, Mexico, South Africa and Turkey, and the following international organisations: UN ECLAC; European Space Agency (ESA), Eurostat, FAO, Joint Research Centre of the European Commission, UNECE, UN ESCAP, UNISDR, WHO and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). Furthermore, the Group on Earth Observations (GEO) participated in the work of the Task Force.

Le rapport offre de nouvelles informations sur la nature et l’ampleur des problèmes sociaux urgents et sur les politiques nationales et internationales nécessaires pour y faire face. Il examine les principaux problèmes sociaux que sont l’atténuation de la pauvreté, l’emploi productif et l’intégration sociale, ainsi que les concepts et les indicateurs quantitatifs, ainsi que les politiques et les stratégies.

The Assessment of the Conflict Prevention Capabilities of African Regional Economic Communities (RECs) is an outcome of a six-month-long study that was commissioned by the Office of the Special Adviser on Africa (OSAA) to map out existing institutional capabilities and gaps, as well as entry points and opportunities, within the RECs in preventing conflicts and addressing the structural or root causes. The study is consistent with the renewed global and continental focus on conflict prevention, which the United Nations and the African Union have respectively identified as a priority for their individual and shared efforts to prevent violent conflicts, promote inclusive sustainable development, and sustain peace on the continent. Seven of the eight African RECs participated in the study, which mapped out their respective geopolitical context necessitating conflict prevention, their organizational or institutional structure, mandate, existing policies and framework documents on conflict prevention, tools and resources for conflict prevention, partnerships and collaboration on conflict prevention, their support to Member States in developing national and local conflict prevention capacities, and lessons learned in institutionalizing conflict prevention. The study covers both the operational and structural dimensions of conflict prevention and concludes with recommendations on key areas for bolstering the conflict prevention capabilities of the RECs.

There is mounting empirical evidence that the responsible provision and use of formal financial services have a positive impact on household well-being and enterprise performance. At the individual level, financial inclusion benefits rural households and small producers by facilitating the safe accumulation of assets, enabling them to leverage those assets in order to invest in human and physical capital, and supporting better risk management. The positive effects at the aggregate level are associated with better allocation of scarce resources among different activities. Despite recent progress on different aspects of financial inclusion in Latin America and the Caribbean, large gaps remain, especially in rural areas, which have been historically neglected by traditional providers of financial services. This book describes how these gaps have evolved recently in five countries —Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Honduras and Mexico— that are at different stages of designing and implementing comprehensive financial inclusion strategies. Then, on the basis of a comparative analysis of the institutional architecture available, it identifies the main barriers preventing small rural producers from accessing and making effective use of the various financial services on offer, with a view to making policy recommendations for overcoming these limitations.

This year’s edition of The State of Food and Agriculture was not published in its traditional format. Instead, a document (The State of Food and Agriculture, C99/2) and a set of graphs and figures summarizing the main features of the current world food and agriculture situation were presented at the 30th session of the FAO Conference in November 1999.

In addition to the usual review of the recent world food and agriculture situation, each issue of The State of Food and Agriculture has included one or more special studies of problems of longer-term interest. This year’s edition features a review of the existing evidence on the link between nutrition and productivity and economic growth.

New evidence in SOFI 2018 confirms a rise in world hunger: the number of people who suffer from hunger has been growing over the past three years, returning to levels from almost a decade ago. Multiple forms of malnutrition are evident in many countries: adult obesity is growing even as forms of undernutrition persist. The report says that climate variability and extremes are key drivers behind this rise, together with conflict and economic downturns, and are threatening to erode and reverse gains made in ending hunger and malnutrition. SOFI 2018 reveals new challenges on the road to Zero Hunger, while setting out urgent actions needed to achieve the goal by 2030.

Migration is an expanding global reality, one that allows millions of people to seek new opportunities. But it also involves challenges for migrants and for societies, both in areas of origin and of destination. This report analyses migratory flows – internal and international – and how they are linked to processes of economic development, demographic change, and natural-resource pressure. The focus is on rural migration, the many forms it takes and the important role it plays in both developing and developed countries. The report investigates the drivers and impacts of rural migration and highlights how related policy priorities depend on country contexts that are in continuous evolution.