During your tenure, the region faced many challenges from the COVID 19 pandemic post affects to climate related disasters. How do you see these challenges in terms of shaping development priorities in the region?

I would distinguish between two types of crises. One is the sudden outset which calls for an immediate response and the other is the more silent, longer-term crisis.

When I started my position, the first type of crisis was exemplified by COVID, which was severely affecting the region. India was among the most affected countries, and we had to respond and support the CO staff and the people of the country. We saw other examples of this first type of crisis in Sri Lanka and Pakistan, where we can see the combination of economic, social, political and environmental issues. And there were also natural disasters like the earthquake in Myanmar. Those were moments where the team in the Bangkok Regional Hub, and in HQ actively stepped in to provide a quick effective response led by the country office to help the affected populations.

The second type is the silent crisis that is longer-term but probably more damaging. Asia-Pacific is the region which is mostly affected by rising sea level and melting glaciers caused by climate change. Nothing gave me a better understanding of what sea level rising mean for the people than visiting Tuvalu, the very existence of which is threatened. And then it was fascinating to see the work that UNDP Pacific office is doing through a most successful Green Climate Fund (GCF)’s project for Tuvalu Coastal Adaptation, that protect the communities and their livelihoods. This kind of issues requires response in terms of adaptation and mobilizing resources, which has been an important part of UNDP’s work in helping the communities to adapt and prevent from the impact of the climate change.

In my regional post, I have come to better perceive that in many respects, Asia is the region of dynamism, innovation and an engine for the world economy, and at the same time it is a region of high vulnerabilities and multiple development challenges, some long-standing and other emerging now.

UNDP works with different partners and donors to implement different programmes. Please share how collaboration with governments, bi-lateral and multilateral donors have evolved during your leadership?

Well, we are clearly entering a new era in terms of international cooperation. We are having very different landscape in terms of our resources. Our core resources are being drastically reduced. And that has not been a pleasant part during the final year in my job to do the budget reductions and structural adjustments.

On the positive side, we have seen a diversification of funding sources for UNDP in the Asia-Pacific region. As we move toward a context with more non-core funding, this diversification is encouraging. It represents an important shift. We are seeing new bilateral partners, like the Republic of Korea(ROK), partnering with UNDP in many countries. The vertical funds portfolio in Asia-Pacific remains the largest for UNDP and increasing, this includes blended financing schemes too.

We can also see expanding partnerships with the private sector and foundations, although the potential there is, it not yet fully harnessed. Most importantly, over the last years we have seen increase in government financing, which was limited to a few countries, but now expanded to about 15 countries. This needs to be expanded further and scaled up because that is really where our future lies, with UNDP providing development services to the government and with the government financing for development is the modus operandi.

In Asia-pacific, one of the important changes that is visible is digital transformation. But there are also some countries which even do not have internet access and how do you see these this digital inequalities issues and what can be do done to overcome?

Digital transformation and AI are new dimensions that will have a major development impact. Asia-Pacific has seen dramatic reduction in poverty, but a strong persistence of inequalities. For example, in Indonesia, the gaps between the western and eastern parts of the country are still huge. In several countries, half of the wealth is concentrated in just 5–10% of the population. And now with technology, and AI, there is a risk of a new kind of inequality within countries,the connected ones versus the non-connected one, the one who know how to use AI for their job versus the one who do have the skills, are not prepared to use AI and have fewer opportunities. And there is a risk of an increasing gap among the countries, which the UNDP’s recently published regional report calls the Next Great Divergence.

UNDP works across countries at different income levels, from middle-income to low-income ones. Our presence in all those countries is important to address those persistent and looming inequalities together with other development challenges that they face. 

Finally, any message that you want to say across UNDP and next generation of development practitioners?

Never lose sight of why we work in UNDP, it is more than just a job. Ultimately everything we do is aimed at improving people’s lives. That’s why keeping UNDP’s “raison d’etre” always in mind matters.

And second, we should believe in and stand for the values of multilateralism and international cooperation, especially at a time when they are being disregarded or attacked. For the younger generation in particular, it is important to defend the idea that we are an international community and that international organizations have real value. We must stand up for these values and be vocal about them.