Asia-Pacific holds key to meeting sustainable goals

With multilateral cooperation at a critical juncture, the data revealed in the report "Asia and the Pacific SDG Progress Report 2026" — launched at the 13th Asia-Pacific Forum on Sustainable Development, or APFSD, in Bangkok from Feb 24 to 27 — could not have come at a more telling time.

The report's progress chart presents a mixed picture across the region. China stands out with nine of the 17 sustainable development goals showing strong positive trends. In comparison, South Korea shows progress in five goals, India in four, Japan in two, while Australia records progress in one. These variations reflect the diverse development pathways across Asia-Pacific.

Yet beneath these national comparisons lies a broader regional challenge. The report reveals a stark contradiction: while the Asia-Pacific region is at the forefront of economic growth and technological innovation, driving industrialization, and showing notable success in reducing poverty and improving health and well-being, these gains are being undermined by the failure to reduce inequality.

"At the current pace, we risk missing a staggering 88 percent of the measurable targets. The question before us is clear — will we act decisively to change course, or will we allow the current trends to continue unchallenged?" asked Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana, executive secretary of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, or ESCAP, in a foreword to the report.

In a news release by ESCAP, Alisjahbana said while the recent weakening of multilateralism threatens to erode the global partnerships we have forged, "with Asia and the Pacific now a stronghold for both technology and finance, the region holds the means of implementation for sustainable development in its hands".

For someone who has covered such UN conferences for over three decades, this was a welcome breath of fresh air — where Westerners were no longer lecturing Asians. And the solution? It depends on Asian people ourselves.

This new global reality was evident at the APFSD in Bangkok. Chinese and other Asian development, technology, and economic experts played a major role at the conference, with Europeans playing a distant second fiddle, and US experts largely missing in action.

ESCAP officials, including the executive secretary, attended and addressed some of these 'side events' sessions and so did the official government delegates especially from emerging member states. The Pacific Island states were well represented at these events with a large civil society presence at the conference.

"If we are serious about rescuing the SDGs, we must stop asking whether localization works. The evidence already shows that it does. The real question is whether we are ready to scale it up," argued Akmal Ali from the Pacific Islands Association of Non-Governmental Organizations.

"The Asia-Pacific region does not lack innovation, it does not lack leadership, it does not lack solutions. What it needs is alignment. Rescuing the SDGs will not happen through more declarations."

Local solutions urged

This call for local solutions finds its most urgent and tangible expression in the region's housing crisis. In Asia and the Pacific, home to more than 2.2 billion urban residents and over half of the world's megacities, the urgency of accelerating access to adequate housing and sustainable development is especially pronounced. Approximately 600 million people in the region lack access to adequate housing.

Srinivasa Popuri, chief of the UN-Habitat multi-country program for the Asia-Pacific region, asked: "Do you know any government or any company that has the capacity to deliver 100,000 houses per day?"

"The only answer is the people. So investing in people, empowering people, and letting people rebuild their own houses is the solution," he said.

Prakash Shrestha, vice-chair of the National Planning Commission of Nepal, described how they are encouraging Nepalis to use bamboo in housing for low-income groups. When asked whether this might lead to a future environmental crisis if bamboo forests are cut down, he argued it would have the opposite effect, as 68 percent of Nepal is covered by bamboo forests.

"Many people migrate to cities, and there is a lot of barren land available to plant bamboo. If we use bamboo widely in housing and it becomes commercialized, it will be an income source for farmers and the people. It will be sustainable."

The author is a Sri Lankan-born Australian journalist, podcaster and international communication specialist.

The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.