With uneven progress toward the Millennium Development Goals, its succeeding framework should be focused on people, equality and the environment to better fight poverty and achieve sustainable growth, UNESCAP chief Noeleen Heyzer told The Korea Herald.

Heyzer is executive secretary of the Bangkok-based United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, which oversees the development process in its 62 member countries.

A group of top officials, scholars and activists from around the world are working to craft a new global development agenda to come after the eight MDGs, which range from halving extreme poverty rates to stopping the spread of HIV to providing universal primary education, all by 2015. 

“The development agenda beyond 2015 has to be a transformative agenda that is people-centered, development-centered, cares for our planet, and generates shared and sustained prosperity for all,” Heyzer said in a recent email interview.

“To realize this vision, we need a new development model based on equality, inclusiveness, resilience and sustainable development.”

The Singaporean-born Heyzer took the helm of the regional agency in 2007 as its first female executive secretary. Prior to the post, she headed the United Nations Development Fund for Women between 1994 and 2007.

She praised Asia Pacific’s “tremendous progress” such as in curbing poverty and diseases and promoting girls’ education but called for greater efforts to address maternal health, climate change and other daunting challenges.

Poverty reduction and equitable growth should be the top priority for the region, Heyzer stressed, in particular for vulnerable countries such as the least developed countries, landlocked developing countries and small island developing states.

While lagging in achieving the MDGs, the countries continue to face persistent and emerging vulnerabilities to global shocks such as food, fuel, financial and economic crises, as well as to natural disasters and the impact of climate change, she said.

“Many MDGs remain unfinished business. None of our countries are likely to achieve all the goals by 2015,” Heyzer said.

“Maternal health, child mortality and malnutrition remain challenges in many of the countries in the region. Recent food, fuel and financial crises have also undermined the progress made in many countries.”

UNESCAP has recently moved its East and Northeast Asia unit to Songdo, which will also host the secretariat of the Green Climate Fund and other U.N. agencies. The Global Green Growth Institute launched by the Korean government is believed to be considering relocating to the business district on the outskirts of Seoul.

The consolidation of its offices will create synergies and foster even closer partnership with Korea to combat poverty and promote environmentally sustainable growth in the region, Heyzer said.

Since its launch in 1987, the Korea-ESCAP Cooperation Fund has been a “key channel” for implementing various activities in the fields of trade, transport, green growth, information communication technology and disability, she noted.

“Korea is one of the few countries that have successfully made the transition from being a developing country to being a developed country,” Heyzer said.

“This experience is very important for other developing countries in our region, as both a reference and for the practical learning experiences that can be drawn from the Korean example.

“Given the region’s economic, social and environmental challenges, cooperation and partnership are critical for us to move forward both regionally and globally.”


By Shin Hyon-hee
(heeshin@heraldcorp.com)