The financing needs to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are substantial for the Asia-Pacific countries in special situations, which comprise the least developed countries (LDCs), landlocked developing countries (LLDCs) and small island developing States (SIDS) of the region. Estimates of the Asia-Pacific’s financing needs to achieve the SDGs by 2030 before the pandemic amounted to an additional 5% of GDP per year, or $1.5 trillion per year, and were considerably higher for LDCs and SIDS, around 15% to 20% of their respective GDPs. Although updated estimates are not available, it is expected that the COVID-19 pandemic increases the region’s financing needs due to drastic declines in government’s revenues and the urgent need to deploy substantial fiscal and monetary measures to address the health and socio-economic consequences of the pandemic.
Since 2018, the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) has implemented a project entitled Supporting the countries with special needs (i.e., countries in special situations) in Asia-Pacific in meeting the challenge of resource mobilization for achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The overall objective of the project is to strengthen the capacity of policymakers in selected countries to identify gaps and design appropriate policy options to effectively allocate and utilize existing financial resources, as well as to mobilize additional financing, for achieving SDGs.
The project identified three themes through national stakeholders’ consultations, and it oriented its activities around them: (a) developing capital markets to broaden financing resource, with a focus on LLDCs; (b) enhancing digital finance services and financial technologies to accelerate financial inclusion, with a focus on LDCs; and (c) exploring climate finance opportunities, such as thematic bonds issuance and debt-for-climate swaps, with a focus on SIDS.
Two of the target beneficiary countries took concrete policy actions in 2020 based on the recommendations and discussions that took place during the project activities. In July 2020, the Council of Ministers of Vanuatu approved a strategy, called the “Smooth Transition Strategy”, that the project activities partly contributed to developing, with the principal aim being to smoothen the process of the country’s graduation from the category of LDC. In September 2020, the Government of Bhutan issued its first-ever sovereign bond in its history to support the economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and to diversify its financial resources.
With the project coming to an end in December 2021, ESCAP is organizing a virtual regional workshop to bring together experts and policymakers from countries in special situations to share their knowledge, experience and lessons learned, with a focus on the aforementioned three areas: capital market development, digital finance, and climate finance. This workshop will also include two special events for LDC policymakers on (a) enhancing digital G2P (Government-to-Person) transfer capacities in the Asian LDCs and (b) mobilizing resources to support the smooth graduation from the group of LDCs.
Objectives and target audience
The objective of the workshop is to share lessons learned from this project and identify follow-up activities in further enhancing resource mobilization for sustainable development in the Asia-Pacific countries in special situations. Issues to be discussed will include but not limited to:
- Main project activities and achievements;
- Challenges and opportunities for capital market development, focusing on bond markets in LLDCs;
- Challenges and opportunities for digital finance, focusing on MSME development, as well as G2P situations and measures to scale these up in LDCs;
- Challenges and opportunities for climate finance, focusing on innovative financial instruments in SIDS;
- Role of regulatory authorities and the private sector; and
- Salient aspects of needed policy measures.
This workshop’s outcomes are expected to contribute towards further exploring and filling knowledge gaps at the regional level and to inform global processes, such as the Financing for Development in the Era of COVID-19 and Beyond Initiative (FfDI), particularly in its Cluster III on Finance and Technology, Cluster IV on Liquidity and Debt Vulnerabilities; and Cluster VI on addressing countries in special situations. The results of this workshop will also result in the production of ESCAP knowledge resources, and in establishing a network of experts for follow-up purposes.
Targeted participants include public officials from relevant ministries, particularly ministries of finance, planning, economy or commerce, aid coordination, climate change, and implementation and coordination of SDGs, from LDCs, LLDCs and SIDS. The workshop will include presentations given by experts, practitioners, along with participants from private sector entities and relevant international and/or regional organizations.
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https://www.unescap.org/events/2021/final-rm-csn