..Press Release................................ UNESCAP News Services

Date 2 March 2007
Press Release No. G/04/2007

UN/ADB REGIONAL ACTION PLAN CALLS ON GOVERNMENTS TO
'REACH THE UNREACHED'

Efforts to improve e ducation, health care, forests seen lagging behind
in East, South-East Asia

Hanoi (United Nations Information Services Bangkok) – Participants at a UN/ADB development forum which closed today in Hanoi, Viet Nam, have called on East and South-East Asian governments to do more to 'reach the unreached' by improving educational and health care services. Participants also called for increased efforts to protect the subregion's quickly dwindling forests.

The recommendations came at the close of the East and South-East Asian MDG Forum held in Hanoi, Viet Nam, 1-2 March.

At the Forum more than 100 participants from 12 countries identified common 'road blocks' to universal primary and secondary education, health care for mothers and children, equal treatment of women, sustainable use of forests, and obtaining the human and financial resources to meet common development goals.

UNESCAP Executive Secretary Kim Hak-Su told the Forum that the Action Plan identified key areas where urgent actions are needed, which would be included in developing and refining a regional road map to meeting the MDGs.

"I have no doubt in my mind that, together, we can not only achieve the MDGs in time, but also go beyond the targets. I am sure that soon Asia and the Pacific will become free of poverty and its entire people will live a dignified life worthy of all human beings."

Mr. Ayumi Konishi, Asian Development Bank's (ADB) County Director for Viet Nam, said "much more effort is needed on the part of all stakeholders" to achieve the MDGs, which he said, "is a collective responsibility for all of us – governments, international community, the private sector and civil society."

He also told participants that all stakeholders need to redouble their efforts so that the region can achieve all of the MDGs, and that ADB would fully support this effort.

UNDP's Deputy Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific, David Lockwood, said he was pleased that gender equality was earnestly deliberated in the Forum.

"This is a welcome indicator that finally countries are addressing this major inequality in their societies. The report from a number of countries such as the Philippines, Malaysia, the Republic of Korea, Thailand and Viet Nam, on the progress of gender-responsive budget, was highly encouraging. This is one area that UNDP has been supporting through its Regional Centre and Country Offices, and in partnership with various UN agencies."

Other points in the Plan of Action include recommendations to improve the quality and availability of teachers, especially in rural and remote areas, to disadvantaged groups such as minorities, child workers and the disabled; improve accessibility of health care facilities in remote and mountainous areas; change traditional/cultural perceptions of women's role in politics, and train women elected officials at the local level to enter national-level politics; consider economic instruments such as fees or taxes to support the sustainable use of forests and water resources; create new and strengthen existing South/South partnerships in the subregion.

The Forum is part of a tripartite MDG initiative by UNESCAP, UNDP and ADB. A South Asia regional forum was held in Nepal in October in 2006; a Central Asia Forum is being planned for later this year.

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