How far have we come?

Social Policy Section
Social Development Division, United Nations ESCAP

BACKGROUNDER 1 - THE CONFERENCE

To live in the Asia and Pacific region today is largely to be part of a triumph. In the past five decades, the region has made stunning strides in its economic development. Economies once mired in the past are now leaders in the drive to the future. Cities that were once backwaters have become thriving centres. And millions of people who were once poor are now closer to achieving a decent standard of living.

But economic growth has not been equal; its benefits have not been evenly distributed. Asia and the Pacific is famous, paradoxically, for being both a region of tremendous growth as well as a place of crushing poverty. Though many economies have advanced, the region still accounts for more than three-quarters of the world’s poor. One-half of them can be found in South Asia, while one-quarter live in East-Asia. The United Nations Development Programme counts eight Asian and Pacific countries and areas among the 45 with low human development.

Worryingly, the growth, however impressive, has in many economies largely been unable to meet the mounting demand for employment. Significant proportions of the population either have no jobs or are stuck in occupations that do not pay enough to buy basic necessities. Many women remain locked out of employment, while young, first-time job-seekers are swelling the ranks of the unemployed.

Add to these concerns wrenching social changes, troubling communal tensions, persistent discrimination of the vulnerable and the disadvantaged, and environmental degradation, and the evidence is clear: Asia and the Pacific have come a long way, but the region still has far to go in translating prosperity into better lives for all. If social and economic inequities are not addressed, the threat is great that the region could end up divided into competing spheres of rich and poor, the employed and the idle, the powerful and the powerless. Now, more than ever, economies are facing up to a basic fact: economic growth and social advancement must proceed apace, otherwise development as a whole is ultimately unsustainable.

Next: Where are we going?

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