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Photo credit: ESCAP/Omar Siddique Blog

Where would you feel safer walking alone at night? A busy street, or a loosely populated section of a sprawling city? Most people would likely choose the former. Indeed, higher population densities…

Photo credit: Brodie Cass-Talbott Blog

On bikes and on foot, with trikes, pushcarts and more, informal waste pickers are an active and persistent feature of waste management systems across the Asia-Pacific region. Daily waste pickers make…

Photo credit: Yang Shuo on Unsplash Blog

In the first quarter of 2020, as news of lockdown measures in other parts of Asia and the Pacific rolled in, Kazakhstan was holding its breath and developing appropriate urgent measures in…

Unsplash / Laurentiu Morariu Blog

In the 2000s, the streets of Bishkek city in Kyrgyzstan were buzzing with private minibuses, ferrying people from Osh Bazaar to Ala Too Square&nbsp…

iStock/Roijoy Blog

The proliferation of plastic in our society is hitting extreme levels that should be of concern to all nations. According to recent research by Plastics Europe, we produce around 359 million tonnes…

Stefanos Fotiou Blog

Air pollution has become a serious environmental and health issue in Thailand. The pollution levels in the country follow predictable patterns, which highlight the presence of a peak pollution season…

Pexels / Sergio Souza Blog

Why are cities vital to support a green recovery from COVID-19? Urban areas are critical for both the global and local environment. They constitute the most significant source of GHG emissions,…

Kuensel Online Blog

What’s the recipe for cooking up outstanding policies? Policy practitioners the world over have strived to get the right people in the room and stay abreast of the latest research.

In Bhutan, an…

wong yu liang/Shutterstock.com Blog

As the world’s sixth largest economic market, the ASEAN bloc has significant potential to drive growth. By 2030, the bloc aims to become the fourth-largest economy, and with the world’s third-largest…

iStock.com/tampatra Blog

In 2015 and 2016, five landmark UN agreements were synchronously adopted, culminating in the New Urban Agenda in October 2016. The 7th Asia-Pacific Urban Forum convened by ESCAP and UN-Habitat in…