Transformation Towards Sustainable and Resilient Societies in Asia and the Pacific

Date

26 Mar 2018

Publisher

Asia-Pacific SDG Partnership

Serial Number

Transformation towards sustainable and resilient societies in Asia and the Pacific addresses the theme of the 5th Asia-Pacific Forum on Sustainable Development and the 2018 session of the high-level political forum on sustainable development and supports national and regional implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

This report takes stock of the changing nature of increasingly complex risks in Asia and the Pacific, and the stresses, shocks that are affecting a diverse region’s prospects for achieving the SDGs. It highlights the effects of selected natural hazards, commodity shocks and pollution shocks on the region’s fundamental human systems and describes efforts being made by citizens, civil society, government and the private sector to build resilience capacities. It urges attention on the need to strengthen our ability to transform our societies through converting risks into opportunities if we are to achieve the SDGs.

Advocacy Resources

Bouncing back better: Resilience and transformation

26 Mar 2017

The relevance of the concept of resilience is illustrated in theoretical terms, which compares the development pathways of country A and country B....

Applying a resilience-thinking approach to food systems - Food system vulnerability and economic development

26 Mar 2018

Depicts the vulnerability of food systems in Asia-Pacific countries to climate change, alongside gross domestic product (GDP) per capita. This shows...

Air pollution shuts down New Delhi

26 Mar 2018

Air pollution is becoming increasingly serious in India, and debilitating smog in New Delhi during the winter months (November–February) is a...

The continuum of resilience capacities

26 Mar 2018

The actions needed to strengthen the resilience of human systems can be understood in terms of resilience capacities, which include Anticipatory...

Resilience and the SDGs in the Asia-Pacific region - Several SDG targets have indicators related to disaster risk reduction

26 Mar 2018

Several SDGs make explicit links to resilience, while numerous goals have targets and indicators that capture dimensions of resilience, even if the...

Risk interconnection map

26 Mar 2018

While the effects of climate change will be felt globally, the Asia-Pacific region will be especially affected, particularly by hydro-meteorological...

Annual damage from floods in South Asia, 1970–2016

26 Mar 2018

South Asia has suffered greatly: between 1970 and 2016, 35 percent of floods in the region occurred here, with devastating effects on people across...

The human cost of the 2017 floods in South Asia

26 Mar 2018

As figure shows, the monsoon rains in 2017 claimed an estimated 1,200 lives in South Asia, and affected 40 million people across Bangladesh, India...

Crude oil price fluctuations and exports in subregions of the Asia-Pacific region, 2004–2017

26 Mar 2017

This figure charts the fluctuation of oil prices and merchandise exports across the region between 2004 and 2017, highlighting the substantial...

Energy prices and GDP growth in oil-exporting Central Asian countries , 1992–2016

26 Mar 2018

This figure shows the effects of energy price fluctuations on the GDP of the four most oil dependent countries in Central Asia. While not all Central...

Forest cover loss in South-East Asia and Indonesia, 2001–2016

26 Mar 2018

Deforestation and forest degradation are major issues for countries across the Asia-Pacific region, but the problem is particularly alarming in...

Forest fire hotspots in Indonesia

26 Mar 2018

Fire hotspots peak when this burning coincides with the dry season (June to September). In very dry years – for example, during droughts, El Niño...

ASEAN Specialized Meteorological Center

26 Mar 2018

This figure shows that as the region has developed economically, and GDP has grown, economic assets at risk have increased substantially. The...

Annual per capita consumption and labour income in Japan and Thailand

26 Mar 2018

Social protection programmes for children and older people can tackle these life-cycle vulnerabilities. The pace at which income deficits and...

Responding to the MERS outbreak in the Republic of Korea

26 Mar 2018

In health systems, for example, shocks such as disease outbreaks lead to a series of major policy shifts. As was the case with the Republic of...

Changes in Investment in Social Protection, 2003-2016

26 Mar 2018

Effective social protection systems can help strengthen the resilience of individuals and households to stresses and shocks in several ways. First,...

Groups identified as being extremely vulnerable to risk

26 Mar 2018

Some groups or communities are disproportionately exposed to risks and are more vulnerable to the changing risk profile of the Asia-Pacific region....

Government policies and programmes for building resilience in the Asia-Pacific region

26 Mar 2018

This table outlines some of the policies, programmes and projects implemented for building the four interrelated forms of resilience capacity –...