Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has unleashed unparalleled challenges. At the same time, it offers a window to rethink Asia's most fundamental development policies and strategies to address inequality, socioeconomic vulnerability, and environmental challenges. This publication gathers blogs and short policy pieces contributed by ADB staff and experts in an attempt to tackle immediate challenges and prepare for what may lie beyond the horizon. It covers a broad range of development challenges and highlights the crucial role of rapid adoption of digital technologies, adequate supply of quality infrastructure, disaster risk management, and strengthening regional cooperation for a resilient and sustainable future by shaping post-pandemic conditions.
Singapore, a multiethnic country with one of the highest median incomes in the world, is undergoing a demographic shift. Twenty-five percent of the population is predicted to be aged 65 and older by 2030, versus 14.4% in 2019. This demographic shift has profound implications on the country's health and care needs. In response, Singapore has been moving toward a more holistic view of aging, health, and care, along with policies and systems related to these.
Tobacco Industry (TI) is constantly evolving strategies to outwit all the efforts to make this world tobacco-free4, 12. Under the garb of 'harm reduction', the tobacco companies have been attempting to rehabilitate their reputation to influence the government to soften their policies or create exemptions for products such as HTPs. Such efforts are intended at renormalization of the tobacco products and increase social acceptability. The industry is more actively yet discretely exploiting the policy gaps, regulatory loopholes, and enactment of stricter laws especially in those countries where the implementation of such laws is weak, or non-existent. Pakistan continues to be an example where multiple laws exist, however, its sluggish implementation as well as excessive TI influence in taxation adds to the defiance space. Pursuant to these developments in the tobacco market, WHO in a report on the Global Tobacco Epidemic in 2019,13 claimed that there is 'insufficient independent evidence to support the use of [E-Cigarettes] as a population-level tobacco cessation intervention to help people quit conventional tobacco use'; these products are 'undoubtedly harmful'. This report further concluded that there is a similarity between the toxic chemicals emitted through regular smoking and HTPs, and there is no evidence that these products will reduce tobacco-related diseases.13 Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) shares the commonality of the views with the authentic opinion and positions taken by the leading international health experts, including WHO and The Union, and aspires to highlight the localized context concerning Pakistan. This is our first study in this regard and we intend to contextualize the issue of ENDS/ENNDS with specific problems and the tobacco control environment in Pakistan. We also intend to highlight that the current studies and policy proposals are focused on the evidence generated/collected and analyzed concerning the High-Income Countries (HICs) whereas there are evidence and policy void related to the LMICs. The urgency to address this gap is further hastened by the fact that the TI is aggressively and consciously introducing these products in the market. Many policymakers and legislators and those proposing the policies lack the comprehensive understanding, capacity, and requisite knowledge about the health, social and cultural effects of these products on the youth, existing smokers and beginners. In the presence of such a murky environment with conflicting interests of multiple segments of the society and government, SDPI recommends an urgent need for discussion and policy development in handling the E-Cigarettes and HTPs.
This study assesses the implementation of selected agribusiness venture arrangements (AVAs) and identifies the prerequisites needed to ensure that the adoption of AVAs will improve farm income and productivity, thereby enhancing sustainability of the agrarian sector. As such, a framework for AVAs was devised considering the supply chain, the policy environment, and the global market influence. Using a case study approach, the study focused on two export crops—banana and pineapple—that were selected based on their significant contribution to the Philippines' export earnings and gross value added of agriculture. In particular, the AVAs considered in the study were lease/leaseback and growership arrangements for banana and pineapple. The study notes several issues on production and capital investments, marketing and pricing, institutional support, and contract terms that affect the implementation of AVAs. It recommends that AVAs should be encouraged but government has to provide a policy environment for Philippine export crops to be competitive. Agrarian reform beneficiaries and their associations should also be supported through capacity-building activities and access to legal advice.
Palm oil, a major commodity crop in the region, is likely to be phased out in the EU by 2030. Given the potential regional and transboundary implications, a Singaporecentric perspective can be helpful.
This report analyzes the complexities of health financing in Papua New Guinea with a focus on resource allocation, use, and accountability. It explores information gaps and transparency issues that undermine health service delivery and outcomes. Recommendations in this report aim to improve health sector governance and capacity, which will ultimately contribute to a more robust and equitable health care system.
RESUMEN: Colombia ha sufrido las consecuencias de fenómenos naturales propios del medio tropical andino, tales como sequías, inundaciones, terremotos, huracanes, erupciones volcánicas y deslizamientos de tierra. En dicha problemática la gestión integral del riesgo debido al cambio climático cuando arrecian El Niño o La Niña, y frente a la amenaza sísmica en nuestros medios urbanos, seguirá siendo el desafío más relevante. Veamos algunas acciones y estrategias de carácter participativo, y elementos de la política pública, para lograr mediante la apropiación del territorio, la necesaria adaptación ambiental y la reducción de la vulnerabilidad a las amenazas naturales.
La declaratoria de Patrimonio de la Humanidad para el Paisaje Cultural Cafetero colombiano, obliga a implementar acciones institucionales concertadas, con visión de futuro, para mitigar las amenazas antrópicas y bioclimáticas, del frágil sistema natural y cultural en que se soporta la decisión de la Unesco. Esta reflexión para presentar en Pijao, el municipio más lindo del Quindío, cuya arquitectura vernácula de bahareque y verdes montañas sembradas de café, expresan en su Medio Ambiente una relación profunda entre la Cultura y el Medio Ecosistémico, los diferentes retos que se deben enfrentar para hacer del PCC una opción de desarrollo para las comunidades rurales del Eje Cafetero, en el Sur del Quindío.
Según el informe del IPCC, incluso si se aplican los objetivos de París, a finales de siglo la temperatura global aumentaría 3 grados, y las consecuencias además de irreversibles, serían catastróficas. Cop 24 es la penúltima cita crucial en el camino hacia 2020 cuando el Acuerdo entre en vigor. Y para el caso de Colombia, además de implementar estrategias forestales y modelos agroforestales, en un escenario de cambio climático y bajos precios del petróleo y el carbón, ¿cómo sortear las dificultades que se advierten en nuestro horizonte económico?
This tool kit comprises information on how to create a shared vision for digital health through a national strategy, focused on maximizing the value of resources. It supports efforts to introduce digital health solutions that make systems interoperable and less fragmented, and thus provide equitable access to health care services and offer every patient continuity of care. This tool kit provides a practical framework for structuring digital health road maps, a guide to running a digital health convergence workshop, and insights from previous country convergence workshops.
This report details the key achievements of the Regional Malaria and Other Communicable Disease Threats Trust Fund from its creation in 2013 to the first half of 2018. It provides detailed analysis of the results by outcome, profiles specific projects that serve as exemplars of the fund's impact, and offers insights into how similar trust funds can be managed for success in future.
NZIER was asked by the Horizons Regional Council to estimate the regional macroeconomic impacts on farmers and commercial vegetable growers of meeting the nitrogen loss targets in Table 14.2 of the One Plan in three local economies: horticulture in the Horowhenua district, dairy farmers in the Tararua and Rangitikei 4 districts. Horizons Regional Council wants to understand how these estimated on-farm/on-orchard costs might affect the wider territorial authority economies, the Horizons economy and the New Zealand economy. In this report, we examine the indirect or flow-on effects for supplying industries (e.g. agricultural services, fertiliser production, transport, etc.) and downstream industries (primary processing, retail, construction, etc.). Our modelling also considers how resources (especially labour and capital) shift between the primary sector and other industries (manufacturing, services, etc.) as the dairy and horticulture industries becomes less competitive and profitable in the face of higher costs to meet nitrogen loss targets. Using these direct and indirect effects, we determined the flow-on effects throughout the wider Horizons economy and the national economy on GDP, employment, wages, and household spending. This gives us the macroeconomic impacts that you are interested in for your review.
The Government of Georgia has prepared several regional development programmes in recent years. However, a development strategy does not currently exist for Tbilisi. The 2018-2021 Regional Development Programme emphasises the role of competitiveness in the development of Georgian regions, and the country as a whole.2 The document states that the growth of individual regions' competitiveness will have a significant effect on increasing the country's competitiveness, which, in the long term, will help to achieve the goals stated in the 2018-2021 Regional Development Programme. These goals include increasing the per capita GDP, increasing the shares of product and service exports in the GDP, reducing the proportion of the population living below the poverty line at the national level, and increasing the share of investments in fixed assets at the regional level (as a percentage of the national GDP). The main purpose of this study is to identify and examine competitive economic sectors and subsectors in Tbilisi and the surrounding area, and to devise relevant recommendations for central and local Government, what will promote improving competitiveness of Tbilisi and the surrounding area (hereinafter referred to as sector), which, in turn, will help to increase economic activity and living standards, as well as reduce poverty and unemployment.
