The famous poet Rumi once said, “Your true country is not where you are but where you are going.”
He wanted us to think about the afterlife because what we believe affects our action. But even Rumi could only guess and theorize what lies on the other side. Like the future the afterlife is unknowable.
However, we can make educated guesses about the development paths of countries and the region, which we will be creating in the near future.
So, what will this future for Asia and the Pacific look like — the region with the fastest economic growth and, at the same time, with the poorest people and the largest inequalities in the world?
This is the big question that stimulates discussion as the Asia-Pacific formulate perspectives on the post-2015 development agenda, the successor of the Millennium Development Goals.
The voice of Asia-Pacific is quite important in this exercise because it will affect the entire planet, whether the region gets it right or wrong.
To solicit views from across the region, the regional MDG partnership of ADB/ESCAP and UNDP conducted sub-regional consultations with participants from governments, civil society, the private sector and think tanks to sum up lessons learned from the MDGs, new development challenges, and the most suitable approach for formulating a post-2015 development agenda for Asia-Pacific.
For me, the most striking was that in these consultations everybody agreed that climate change is a game changer for development in Asia-Pacific. Social, economic and environmental development cannot be seen as separate and an integrated development approach is required.
In many cases, governments in the region are actually already designing inclusive and sustainable development plans; but, they are faced with enormous challenges in translating them into reality.
In these consultations, it was agreed that poverty reduction and well-being for all — including the well being of the plant — should lead the regional and global vision of the post-2015 agenda.
There was consensus that economic growth is important for reducing poverty, as experienced in Asia-Pacific. However, the previously expected “trickle-down effect” has been proven not to materialize in many cases. For that reason, economic growth needs to be inclusive and sustainable.
Participants also agreed that a strong narrative about means and strategies to achieve the new agenda has to accompany the proposed goals, which was missing in the MDGs. This implies highlighting the importance of good governance, peace and security, and political stability.
The new agenda needs to be practical and should not be overburdened. Root causes of inequality, poverty of opportunities, and vulnerabilities (including those related to climate change) should be tackled, and these might differ from country to country.
The consultations underscored that the post-2015 development agenda for Asia-Pacific must be applicable to all countries and be tailored to country needs and development status.
For developed countries, lifestyle changes and sustainable consumption pattern should be addressed. It was also emphasized that the new agenda needs to be taken up in national planning, policies and budgeting.
There was an understanding that official development assistance will be mainly relevant for least-developed countries (LDCs) but developing member countries (DMCs) need to strengthen their internal revenue mobilization, leverage foreign direct investment, increase private sector investment, and mobilize global climate funds such as the future green fund for post-2015 development agenda implementation.
In my view — but I might be biased as a health and social protection specialist — we need to strengthen the inclusiveness of ADB’s business through more capacity development, knowledge work and investments in social protection and health, and continue to link both to our core sectors.
Most important in all this — whatever shape the post-2015 agenda will have — is the need to put all efforts together to create the future we want for Asia-Pacific. And this future needs to be inclusive and sustainable.
View Susann’s ADB blog here.
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About the author
Susann Roth
Susann is a senior social development specialist at the Asian Development Bank and co-led the preparation of ADB’s Operational Plan for Health 2015–2020, which aims to double ADB’s health sector operations by 2020. Besides the strategic work, she focuses on increasing ADB private sector health investments. Susann also holds a position as adjunct associate professor at National University of Singapore, Lew Kuan Yew School of Public Policy.
