United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP)

The APFSD is mandated by ESCAP resolutions 72/6 and 78/2. The Forum highlighted the urgent need for ambitious climate action, coupled with robust investments in social protection, energy efficiency and renewable energy production and focused on gender equality and access for marginalized groups, to mitigate the adverse effects of climate-induced disasters and support livelihoods. It emphasized the importance of leveraging science, technology and innovation to facilitate sustainable development and ensure no one left behind, while underscoring the value of ongoing regional and subregional cooperation, including through South-South and triangular cooperation to address complex, transboundary challenges.  

The Forum included an in-depth review of progress on Sustainable Development Goals 1, 2, 13 ,16 and 17. Additionally, the Forum provided a regional platform to comprehensively review progress of the implementation of the 2030 Agenda, aimed to identify priorities and solutions for accelerating its implementation in the remaining years to 2030.  

The APFSD is mandated by ESCAP resolutions 72/6 and 78/2. The Forum will be organized under the theme, “Advancing sustainable, inclusive, science- and evidence-based solutions for the 2030 Agenda and its SDGs for leaving no one behind in Asia and the Pacific”.  

The Forum will include in-depth review of progress on Sustainable Development Goals 1, 6, 13, 16 and 17. The outcome of the Forum will inform the 2025 High-level Political Forum.  

The subregional preparatory meetings for APFSD 2025 took place in ESCAP's five subregions: East and North-East Asia, North and Central Asia, the Pacific, South-East Asia, and South and South-West Asia. The outcomes and recommendations from these meetings will contribute to the discussions at APFSD 2025.  

In accordance with ECOSOC Resolution E/RES/2022/5, ESCAP will lead the Asia-Pacific regional intergovernmental review of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (BPfA), in collaboration with UN Women and supported by the Asia-Pacific Issue Based Coalition on Human Rights and Gender Equality.  

The ambition of the Conference is to reinvigorate political commitment to advance the realization of gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls in Asia and the Pacific by seeking to build regional consensus on priority actions to accelerate the implementation of commitments made in the BPfA. The Conference will further act as a platform for sharing knowledge and information on progress made as well as gaps and challenges encountered in realizing the rights of women and girls in the region. The report of the meeting will serve as the region’s input to the deliberations at the 69th session of the Commission on the Status of Women. 

This SDG Partnership report focuses on the interlinkages between climate change, poverty and hunger against the background of multiple crises. 

It provides a stocktake of climate impacts on poverty and hunger in the Asia-Pacific region, including the effects of sudden onset climate events such as storms, floods, and heat waves, as well as longer term impacts such as rising temperatures, changing rainfall patterns and sea level rise. It identifies examples of good practices, policies, programmes and partnerships to support more effective climate action that also makes meaningful advances in tackling poverty and hunger. It also examines the key enablers of transformative change and provides policy recommendations to address these interlinked issues and integrate climate action, poverty and hunger alleviation in a more holistic manner.  

The ESCAP LNOB Platform is an innovative online policy tool that widens the knowledge base and raises awareness on inequality of opportunity in Asia and the Pacific by leveraging household surveys collected from 31 countries across the region. The results relate closely to 19 SDG indicators spanning 10 SDGs.  

Using a variety of methodologies, including a machine learning algorithm, the Platform disaggregates the SDG indicators with a view to identifying the shared circumstances of furthest behind households and individuals. The context-specific intersections of circumstances are visualized in an innovative and accessible manner.

In addition to hosting 11,000+ results at national and sub-national levels, the Platform is a one-stop-shop for training materials and knowledge products on LNOB such as thematic reports and country briefs.

The regional platform has recently inspired deeper analysis at country level by leveraging additional household surveys in support of member States undertaking Voluntary National Reviews. 

ESCAP has maintained strong collaboration with ASEAN Member States to pioritize the value of unpaid care work and investments in the care economy. Building on the ASEAN Comprehensive Framework on Care adoption and the 2023 Regional Forum on Care, ESCAP was instrumental in the drafting of the ASEAN Declaration on Strengthening the Care Economy and Fostering Resilience Towards the Post-2025 ASEAN Community. Supported at the 3rd ASEAN Women Leaders’ Summit and endorsed by the ASEAN Committee on Women, the Declaration was later adopted at the ASEAN Summit, marking a milestone for regional care systems.

At the national level, ESCAP offers policy and technical support, including consultations in Lao PDR and Indonesia on care investment and support for national action plans in Cambodia and the Philippines.

Additionally, ESCAP co-hosted the Asia-Pacific Care Forum and the Asia-Pacific Care Champions 2024, showcasing ASEAN best practices to encourage similar actions across the Asia-Pacific region.