UN EXAMINES HOW TO USE TECHNOLOGY TO MINIMIZE DISASTER DAMAGE IN ASIA-PACIFIC

Better utilizing information and communication technology (ICT) to prepare for and deal with catastrophic natural disasters in the Asia-Pacific region is the focus of a United Nations meeting in Bangkok, Thailand, today.

The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and last year's Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar have caused massive human and economic losses, partly due to inadequate national warning and response mechanisms, as well as the inability to address underlying risks, according to the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP).

In 2008, nearly 250,000 people died as a result of natural disasters in the Asia-Pacific, representing 97 per cent of fatalities worldwide.

With climate change increasing both the frequency and severity of disasters, setting up disaster resilience strategies is an urgent matter, said Hyeun-Suk Rhee, Director of the UN Asian and Pacific Training Centre for ICT for Development (APCICT), which organized today's session.

ICT spans radio, television and other traditional media, as well as new media and space-based technologies including satellite communications.

It can "play a major role in disaster management, from mapping risks, developing early warning systems, raising awareness to preparing communities for disasters," Ms. Rhee said. "ICT is also indispensable in response and recovery operations."

The APCICT gathering is bringing together experts to discuss gaps in disaster management and how to boost the use of ICT in response, recovery and risk reduction efforts.

Today's meeting is part of the three-day International Conference on Building a Local Government Alliance for Disaster Risk Reduction, set up by the UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR) and the Incheon Metropolitan City of the Republic of Korea.
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TOP UN OFFICIAL CALLS ON ASIA-PACIFIC NATIONS TO LEAD ON AIDS RESPONSE

The time has come for countries in Asia and the Pacific to translate their growing economic clout into positive political influence to help set the global AIDS agenda and the response to the epidemic, the head of the United Nations agency dealing with the disease has stated.

Michel Sidibé, Executive Director of the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) told the 9th International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific that the world looks to the region and sees what tremendous progress is possible.

"The region has been achieving breathtaking economic growth and social development, especially in the last decade," he noted in a statement delivered by J. V. R. Prasada Rao, Director of the UNAIDS Regional Support Team, to the week-long meeting, which began yesterday in Bali, Indonesia.

He added that the region's economic dynamism is also reflected in the leadership of the AIDS response in many countries, including on addressing the needs of the most marginalized and at-risk populations – men who have sex with men, injecting drug users, and sex workers and their clients.

However, he pointed out that "spectacular economic growth has not been matched by progress in creating the enabling environments and supportive social norms necessary to deliver a future generation free of HIV."

According to a report last year on the global AIDS epidemic, an estimated 5 million people in Asia, and 74,000 in the Pacific, were living with HIV in 2007. In addition, the Independent Commission on AIDS in Asia says that AIDS remains the most likely cause of death and loss of work days among people aged 15 to 44 in the region.

Mr. Sidibé said he continues to receive reports of "senseless, vicious and inhumane" harassment of people living with HIV in the region, as well as harassment of AIDS activists.

"UNAIDS will continue to advocate, both publicly and privately, to repeal laws that undermine our quest for universal access and root out HIV-related stigma and discrimination.

"But real transformation has to come in the hearts and minds of the people," he added. "Courts and parliaments can only create an enabling environment. Societies and communities have to change the social norms to end stigma and discrimination faced by transgender, men who have sex with men, sex workers and injecting drug users."

The Executive Director also stressed the need to reap the "prevention dividend," noting that it is possible today to virtually eliminate mother-to-child transmission just as has been done in Western Europe. "An AIDS-free generation is within our reach – it is a moral imperative."

There is also a strong business case for prevention, he told the gathering, as it generates economic benefits. As pointed out by the AIDS Commission, for every dollar spent on preventing HIV, eight dollars can be saved on treatment costs in the future.

"Prevention has been systematically under-invested," said Mr. Sidibé. "The time has come to boldly ramp up our prevention efforts and ensure investments are better focused on reaching marginalized groups in poor communities."

The Congress, which takes place every two years, has drawn thousands of people together for five days of discussion on issues ranging from mobility and migration, injecting drug use, human rights as well as gender.
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HELP WOMEN WEATHER ECONOMIC CRISIS, UN OFFICIAL TELLS ASIA-PACIFIC NATIONS

The top United Nations official in the Asia-Pacific region has called on countries to help women weather the ongoing economic crisis, including by promoting their interests as part of governmentstimulus packages.

Noeleen Heyzer urged members of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) bloc to seize the opportunity to build not just a new economic infrastructure but also a progressive one.

"We must make sure that growth is more inclusive and socially equitable," said Ms. Heyzer, the Executive Secretary of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP).

"This includes ensuring that women have access to opportunities to participate in national economic recovery and that they emerge from this crisis in a better position to participate in our region's bright economic future," she said in a keynote address to the 14th APEC Women Leaders Network (WLN) meeting in Bangkok.

The region's poor, particularly women, could face tough times ahead as countries in Asia and the Pacific seek to restart their economies in the aftermath of the global economic slowdown, she warned.

At the same time, she noted that the Asia-Pacific region has the second highest ratio of employed women of working age in the world at 49 per cent, even constituting the majority of low-skilled workers in labour-intensive manufacturing industries such as textiles and apparels, leather products and electronics.

However, the crisis has revealed a number of issues affecting women in the workplace, such as the trends toward outsourcing and subcontracting.

Research carried out by the Economic Commission shows that restricting women's access to work, education and health services comes at significant economic costs, totalling between $42 billion and $47 billion each year in losses to countries in Asia and the Pacific.

Ms. Heyzer noted that while fiscal stimulus packages containing large infrastructure and public works projects are one of the most effective ways to reach a wide range of unemployed workers without regard to skills, most of these jobs are in construction where 80 to 90 per cent of jobs are held by men.

One of the ways to create employment opportunities for women, she said, is to ensure funding for health, education and agricultural extension services, and investments in small- and medium-scale enterprises.

APEC members already had some of the most successful practices of social development and vibrant businesses in the world, she noted. "Let us build upon these successes. Releasing the full potential of women is not only good for women, it is also smart economics."
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BROADBAND INTERNET ACCESS CRITICAL CATALYST TO ASIA-PACIFIC DEVELOPMENT – UN FORUM

The importance of speedy Internet access to stimulate economic growth across Asia and the Pacific was underlined by participants of a regional United Nations information and communications technology (ICT) gathering that wrapped up in Indonesia today.

Policy-makers, regulators, academics and the private sector representatives attending the UN International Telecommunications Union (ITU) forum stressed the importance of broadband internet access in leveling the economic playing field for the region, as well as the necessity of global collaboration to ensure the widest possible availability of future services to all users.

"This Asia-Pacific Regional Development Forum underlines the role of broadband as a catalyst for bridging the digital divide and for turning the challenges of today's economic crisis into new opportunities," said Sami Al-Basheer, Director of ITU's Telecommunication Development Bureau (BDT).

"Broadband access, through both fixed and wireless infrastructures, will clearly be one of the key focus areas for ICT development in this fast-moving region," Mr. Al-Basheer told the three-day meeting in Yogyakarta.

ITU Regional Development Forum (RDF) heard that although Japan and the Republic of Korea have broadband penetration rates of 32 per cent and 23 per cent respectively, less developed nations within the region are still struggling to provide basic telephone and Internet access, with less than 1 per cent of the population in Bangladesh, Cambodia and Myanmar using the Internet.

ITU organized the Asia-Pacific RDF, which attracted 105 participants from 17 countries, in close collaboration with the Indonesian Ministry of Communication and Information Technology and the Special Province Area of Yogyakarta.
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CUT RED TAPE TO INCREASE EXPORTS IN ASIA-PACIFIC, UN-BACKED CONFERENCE CONCLUDES

CUT RED TAPE TO INCREASE EXPORTS IN ASIA-PACIFIC, UN-BACKED CONFERENCE CONCLUDES
New York, May 22 2009 2:00PM
A reduction of export red tape by Governments in the Asia-Pacific region will lead to an increase in exports from areas hard hit by the global financial crisis, said participants at a United Nations-backed trade conference today.

The 20-22 May meeting in Beijing on small and medium size enterprises, sponsored by the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia- Pacific (<"http://www.unescap.org/unis/press/2009/may/g37.asp">ESCAP), concluded that bureaucratic procedures are particularly hard for smaller companies.

"They simply do not have the capacity to deal with complex and opaque procedures," said Ravi Ratnayake, Director of the Trade and Investment Division for ESCAP.

"Recent research at ESCAP finds that a 5 per cent reduction in the cost associated with preparing export documents and moving goods from the factory to the ship may lead to increase in exports of 4 per cent or more," Mr. Ratnayake said.

"The hidden costs of trade are high – in some cases up to 15 per cent of the value of goods traded," he said.

John S. Wilson, Lead Economist at the World Bank's Research Department said that "trade facilitation reform matters a great deal to development," adding that "World Bank research estimates, for example, gains of over $400 billion in global GDP with increased transparency in trade in the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation bloc alone."

The forum also recommended speeding up the computerization and automation of trade documentation and procedures to slash the time, cost and uncertainties related to moving goods across borders.

Participants at the ESCAP gathering said small- and medium-size firms are typically not well represented in policy making forums.
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NEW UN SCHEME TO TACKLE COSTLY OBSTACLES TO TRADE IN THE ASIA-PACIFIC REGION

The Asia-Pacific arm of the United Nations has launched an initiative aimed at cutting through the red tape that is adding as much as 15 per cent to the cost of goods traded in the region.

The scheme will pool expertise and experience of countries in the region to remove hidden trade barriers, such as delays at border crossings, harbours and docks caused by cumbersome procedures and excessive paperwork.

The UN Network of Experts for Paperless Trade in Asia and the Pacific (UN NExT) initiative was launched at a high-level meeting this week in Bangkok, which was organized by the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) and the UN Economic Commission for Europe (ECE).

Ravi Ratnayake, Director of the Trade and Investment Division of ESCAP, said hidden trade barriers have resulted in the "higher cost of exports and lost opportunities in trade, which the countries in the Asia-Pacific region cannot afford at a time of great economic turmoil."

While commending the fiscal stimulus packages of the region in response to the on-going global economic turmoil and the emphasis they place on physical infrastructure, Mr. Ratnayake said, "we at ESCAP believe that the region should also take this opportunity to address its 'soft infrastructure' challenges – the many forms of institutional barriers to trade."

Capacity building, training, sharing experience on successful trade facilitation measures, and sensitizing policy makers on the importance of trade facilitation were among the elements of a work programme presented by UN NeXT at the end of the meeting.
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ASIA-PACIFIC NATIONS TO BOOST EFFORTS TO CURB DISASTER RISK – UN

Nations in Asia and the Pacific – the world's most disaster-prone region – will bolster their cooperation to share information on disaster risk reduction, a new United Nations-backed commission has agreed.

The Asia-Pacific region accounts for 42 per cent of the world's natural disasters and a disproportionate 65 per cent of global disaster victims.

More than 200 representatives from governments, international organizations, non-governmental groups and the private sector attended the first-ever meeting of the Committee on Disaster Risk Reduction (CDRR), set up last year by the 62 member nations of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP).

The participants noted that knowledge of disaster risk reduction is dispersed and out of reach from those who set policy.

The Committee asked that ESCAP promote partnerships with UN entities such as the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR), along with regional organizations, to better assist member countries.

Such cooperation "provides the opportunities to respond jointly to the needs of governments and communities to reduce the risks and vulnerability to extreme weather events, which is becoming more urgent with the impacts expected from climate change," said Salvano Briceño, UNISDR Director.

He added that the Committee will promote the implementation of the Hyogo Framework for Action, a 10-year plan to bolster the ability of nations and communities to respond to disasters agreed upon by 168 nations in 2005.
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ASIA-PACIFIC REGION FACES ‘TRIPLE THREAT’ TO ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, WARNS UN REPORT

ASIA-PACIFIC REGION FACES 'TRIPLE THREAT' TO ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, WARNS UN REPORT
New York, Mar 26 2009 12:00PM

The triple threat of the global economic recession, volatile food and fuel prices, and bearing the brunt of the world's natural disasters has hit countries in the Asia-Pacific region particularly hard, a new United Nations report warned today.

With almost two-thirds of the world's poor and half of its natural disasters, the region is at the epicentre of these crises, according to the report by the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP).

The report, entitled "Addressing Triple Threats to Development," noted that record high oil prices in 2008 of $147 dollars a barrel, in combination with hording and price speculation drove the price of rice – the region's staple – up by 150 per cent, hitting the poor the hardest.

At the same time, another ESCAP report showed that almost a quarter of a million people died in 2008 as a result of natural disasters in the region, representing 97 per cent of fatalities worldwide.

"The converging triple threat highlights the need for a more comprehensive, inclusive approach to development," stressed ESCAP Executive Secretary Noeleen Heyzer.

"Not only is there an urgent requirement to resume economic growth, but we have to re-think where that growth takes place and whom it benefits," added Ms. Heyzer.

Prudent macroeconomic policies, implemented in reaction to the previous economic crisis which swept the region in 1997, bolstered the Asia-Pacific at the beginning of the current slump. However, that resilience started to erode, when in the fourth quarter of 2008, trade – the region's engine of growth – moved from double digit growth to double digit declines.

Among the reasons for this reversal in trade is that the region's economy is more integrated with the rest of the world than with itself.

Ms. Heyzer noted that "intra-regional trade among developing countries accounts for only 37 per cent of exports in our region, compared with NAFTA [North American Free Trade Agreement] at 51 per cent and the EU [European Union] at 68 per cent.

"By strengthening our domestic markets, the region can provide a buffer to global market fluctuations and move from being crisis resilient to crisis resistant. A key component in this will be how governments use fiscal policy as a tool of development."

The Survey calls for more intra-regional trade and investment by accelerating the implementation of regional economic cooperation agreements, as well as improved basic social protection. Currently only an estimated 30 per cent of the elderly receive pensions and 20 per cent of the population have access to health-care assistance.
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COOPERATION AMONG ASIA-PACIFIC NATIONS CRITICAL TO REDUCE DISASTER RISK – UN

Collaboration between Governments in Asia and the Pacific is key to saving lives from natural disasters in the world's most prone region, a senior United Nations official stressed today at the first session of a new committee on disaster risk reduction.

The vulnerable Asia-Pacific region accounts for 42 per cent of the world's natural disasters, and a disproportionate 65 per cent of its victims.

In 2008 alone, almost a quarter of a million people died as a result of natural disasters in the region, representing 97 per cent of fatalities worldwide.

"Natural disasters pose a significant challenge to development in our region," said UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) Executive Secretary Noeleen Heyzer, in her opening address to the three-day meeting.

"A person living in our region is four times more likely to be affected by natural disasters than someone living in Africa and 25 times more likely then someone living in Europe or North America," Ms. Heyzer told participants of the Committee on Disaster Risk Reduction (CDRR), which was formed by ESCAP.

At a high-level round table, delegates exchanged knowledge and experience with disaster risk reduction, and discussed the implications of integrating it into economic and social development planning and policy.

The group concluded that as complex information regarding danger, vulnerability and resources is spread throughout the region and often out of reach of decision-makers, cooperation is critical to effectively reduce the loss of lives and the social, economic and environmental impact of disasters.

Ms. Heyzer said that ESCAP would establish a mechanism for sharing information among disaster risk management authorities in the region, as well as produce the Asia-Pacific Disaster Report, which brings together information from Member States, provides socio-economic analysis of disaster risk reduction trends, identifies good practices, evaluates the state of reduction efforts in the region and highlights future priorities and trends.

Participants at the round table included ministers and senior officials responsible for disaster management from China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, the Marshall Islands, Myanmar, Pakistan, Republic of Korea and Thailand.
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Dengue outbreaks on the rise in Asia-Pacific - WHO

Outbreaks of dengue fever have risen in the Asia Pacific region in the past year, killing three times more victims in 2008 than in recent years, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Wednesday.

Chusak Prasittisuk, a dengue specialist with the WHO, said 3,255 people died of the disease last year in the organisation's Southeast Asia countries grouping, which also includes South Asia and North Korea as well as Indonesia, Thailand and Timor Leste. This compared to 1,202 in 2003.

Dengue fever, an old enemy to the region, is gathering strength, with almost three times as many people in South-east Asia dying of the haemorrhagic form last year, compared with five years ago. It is fast spreading to newer areas in the Asia-Pacific region, and with more frequent outbreaks. Altogether, 1.8 billion people in the region are at risk of being infected.

According to latest statistics from the World Health Organisation (WHO), cases of dengue haemorrhagic fever - in which uncontrollable bleeding occurs - have increased by more than 70 per cent since 2003.

Singapore had seen a 26 per cent jump in dengue cases in the first nine weeks of this year, compared to the same period in 2008. And authorities are taking a more concerted approach in the fight against the mosquito-borne disease, which can be fatal in its severest form.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said the Aedes mosquito, which transmits dengue fever, was spreading to areas that were once unaffected.

Singapore and the World Health Organization (WHO) today kicked off the first capacity building Asia-Pacific dengue workshop in Singapore. According to a government statement, the eight-day workshop will provide program managers, laboratory personnel and other key program staff with important tools to be able to address dengue outbreak preparedness more effectively. It aims to equip Asia-Pacific countries with the skills to implement more effective integrated national dengue control programs.