Regional Cooperation, key to making poverty history in Asia

by Anuradha Rajivan

On the eve of the World Summit 2005, we must ensure that better-off and developing Asia-Pacific countries use their dynamism to ensure that the poorest nations of the region overcome extreme poverty and hunger, on which they are falling significantly behind.

The Summit, set for today (till 16) in New York, will renew the world's determination to achieve the global anti-poverty objectives, or Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Some of the region's developing countries - particularly China and India - are making good, even dramatic, progress in reducing income poverty by 2015.

But others, including Bangladesh and Lao PDR, are slipping backward. Even worse, for several high-priority poverty indicators, including infant and under-5 mortality, malnutrition and rural water supply, four countries - Afghanistan, Timor-Leste, Mongolia and Papua New Guinea - are not expected to achieve any target.

Almost all of these nations are among the 14 Least Developed Countries (LDCs) of Asia and the Pacific.

These LDCs have a per-capita income only one-fourth that in the region overall, and almost half of their population lives below national poverty line. Clearly, their needs are urgent.

Several developed and developing countries in the region already are sharing their experiences, mainly in the form of technical assistance. "Voices of the Least Developed Countries of Asia and the Pacific," a recent report by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP), lauds India, China, Singapore, Malaysia and others for efforts at "South-South cooperation" that extend into billions of US dollars.

At the same time, the most dynamic economies of the region have built their success on trade, a development that must be extended to the Asia-Pacific LDCs.

A large number of regional trading arrangements have emerged in which these LDCs are members, which indicates an increasing interest in fostering closer intra-regional cooperation on these issues.

Now, we must commit to making cooperation with Asia-Pacific countries most in need of aid a fundamental part of regional policy and practice - just as affluence in the industrialised world is built largely on strong, interactive webs of cooperation.

To accelerate progress toward the Goals, the Asia-Pacific region will not only need to invest greater resources in these poor countries, however. It also must reform institutions and initiate concerted regional action on a host of issues, from development assistance to trade, labour migration and corruption.

Indeed, opportunities for Asia-Pacific countries to work together for their mutual benefit are not limited to trade or training. Other trans-border issues that require immediate attention include HIV/AIDS, governance and the environment.

Here cooperation can take the form of developing pro-poor regional compacts for HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment; regularising immigrant workforces; holding a regional convention on the elimination of corruption; and establishing a "green growth" network for environmental policy. Many of these suggestions are included in "A Future Within Reach," a report being launched today by UNDP/UNESCAP in concert with the Asian Development Bank.

All this must be part of a broader partnership for global development, as envisioned under the MDGs.

As the 2003 Marrakech Declaration on South-South Cooperation states: "No single country, even the most advanced among developing countries, has much hope of ... influencing outcomes of the international agenda. But collectively, our countries can play a more effective role in achieving development objectives and shaping international relations."

When even the poorest nations of Asia and the Pacific can take on that role as well, we will be much closer to the world we want.

The author is Programme Coordinator for Millennium Development Goals and Regional Human Development Reports at the UNDP Asia and Pacific Regional Centre in Colombo.