Kathmandu, Dec. 19
Climate migration in Asia-Pacific surpasses the global
average, with over half of new disaster-induced displacements, concluded the
Regional Human Development Report 2024 (Making Our Future: New Directions for
Human Development in Asia and the Pacific) published by the United Nations
Development Programme (UNDP).
The report published on Tuesday informed that in 2022, about
32.6 million people were internally displaced due to climate-related hazards
such as storms and floods, a 41 per cent increase compared to the previous
decade's average.
Likewise, climate change, coupled with the 50 per cent
likelihood of another pandemic within the next 25 years, poses significant
existential threats, amplified by human-nature interactions and rapid
urbanization in a region that is home to six of the world's largest coastal
mega-cities.
Speaking at the programme organised to launch the report and
interact on the contemporary development issues, Minister for Foreign Affairs,
NP Saud urged the international and global bodies to take the climate change
impacts on mountain countries seriously.
"When we talk about the menace of climate change,
general trend is to think of island countries and coastal areas. However, fact
is that mountain countries are equally vulnerable, if not more," he said,
"Any upset on mountain ecology has cascading impacts downward. In the
recently concluded COP28 as well, this was our key message."
The report revealed that the region is not on track to
achieve any of the SDGs by 2030, but by 2065.
While people in the region face multiple existential threats
to their security from climate change and pandemics, new patterns in
globalisation amidst intense demographic and technological changes are
challenging the established drivers of economic growth and job creation across
the region.
The report urged the countries here to have their
development strategies focused more on improving the lives of both current and
future generations in order to catch up on the human development backlog and
confront turbulent times that lie ahead.
"Deep-seated inequality remains, with the wealthiest 10
per cent controlling over half of total income, and has been worsening
particularly in South Asia. An estimated 185 million people region-wide live in
extreme poverty, earning below $2.15 a day, and 1 billion are classified as
'societally poor', living on less than half the median income," read the
report.
The region hosts half of the world's multidimensionally
deprived, about 500 million, based on the multidimensional poverty index of
education, health, and living standards. Likewise, Asia-Pacific struggles with
stark gender biases, recently seeing its worst gender equality slump in two
decades. Approximately 800 million women are not in the workforce, illustrated
by nations like Iran, with a female labor force participation of 14 per cent,
and Pakistan with 25 per cent, despite high educational enrollment, compared to
Viet Nam's 69 per cent.
About 40 per cent of the region's people are digitally
excluded, with notable gender and urban-rural inequities.
The report noted that integrated national social protection
systems can provide cash support along with skills training and job
opportunities particularly for the 'missing middle' – those in the informal
sector or marginally above the poverty line. Nepal has shown how merging cash
transfers with livelihood support, and better financial access and health
benefits, can help enhance resilience among vulnerable women, it said.
But because of several factors both external and internal, Nepal’s
progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) has not been as steady as
the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). "We are still facing significant
resource gap. However, our commitment is strong; our efforts sincere,"
said FM Saud.
According to him, the periodic development plans have consistently
emphasised the need for enhancing human capabilities with significant
investments in education and health. This is the reason behind Nepal’s
relatively better performance in social sectors. The Minister said that the Human
Development Index is one of the three criteria for graduation from least
developed country and this was the first criteria that Nepal met years back.
Former Foreign Secretary of Nepal and Ambassador Designate for Canada, Bharat
Raj Paudyal, stressed on the need of enhancing human capabilities by investing
in relevant education.
Stating that every policy requires constant assessment and reforms, he
said that capacity to respond disasters and public health emergency should be
enhanced in Nepal.
Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 20 December 2023.
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