Subregional activities for development

Given the vast coverage and diversity of the Asian-Pacific region, ESCAP’s programme on subregional activities for development strengthens the Commission’s presence and interventions at the subregional level in order to better target and deliver programmes that address specific key priorities, including poverty reduction and sustainable development, of member States in the respective subregions.

The programme on subregional activities provides more focused and in-depth technical assistance to address key development challenges, including capacity-building activities, through the provision, on request, of advisory services, the organization of training workshops and the implementation of field projects. The subregional work also serves as catalyst to operationalize the analytical and normative work of ESCAP at the subregional and national levels.

ESCAP’s work on subregional activities for development cover five subregions:

• the Pacific (Australia, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, Nauru, New Zealand, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu);
  
  
• East and North-East Asia (China, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Japan, Mongolia, the Republic of Korea and the Russian Federation);
  
  
• North and Central Asia (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, the Russian Federation, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan);
  
  Afghanistan would participate in activities relating to Central Asia as a member of the United Nations Special Programme for the Economies of Central Asia (SPECA).
  
  
• South and South-West Asia (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Turkey); and
  
  
• South-East Asia (Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Timor-Leste and Viet Nam).

In addition to the existing office for the Pacific, ESCAP Pacific Operations Centre, three new subregional offices respectively for East and North-East Asia, North - which will be a joint office with the Economic Commission for Europe - and Central Asia, and South and South-West Asia are being established in 2009. The activities for South-East Asia will be coordinated by ESCAP’s headquarters for the time being.