BANGKOK, Thailand, May 16 2025 (IPS) - As the United Nations celebrates its 80th anniversary, one message from the UN Charter remains particularly relevant: promoting cooperative solutions to international economic, social, health, and related problems.
Over the past eight decades, international cooperation has led to an unparalleled reduction in hunger, extreme poverty, and disease. Investments in public services have unlocked opportunities and enhanced choices in Asia and the Pacific.
There are numerous lessons for policymakers to learn and apply to the current context. Rising prices, growing wealth inequality, multidimensional poverty, and the prevalence of low-paid informal sector jobs still shape the lives and livelihoods of over 4.86 billion people in the Asia-Pacific region.
Differential outcomes in economic prosperity, social progress, and environmental stewardship have been critical in addressing policy turns. Policy insights and formulations are often shaped by the need to navigate regional and global uncertainties; with these triggers influencing policy turns.
Today, there are enormous opportunities to turn past policy lessons into future policy insights.
The age of a new international economic order
The adoption of new technologies, particularly advanced farming techniques and high-yield crop varieties, significantly boosted agricultural productivity and led to substantial rural income growth in the 1970s. Conversely, volatility in energy prices adversely affected macroeconomic conditions and increased debt levels in many developing countries in the 1980s.
The 1997 Asian financial crisis raised alarms about the deepening links of financial markets, impacting trade diversion, cross-border investment measures, and labour market absorption capacity.
These region-wide challenges were addressed through multi-layered policies focusing on public services, macroeconomic stabilization measures, active labour market policies and promoting national policies for industrial and technological development.
The policies also emphasized the significant role of supporting private sector enterprises to restore growth potential and the need to accelerate regional, inter-regional and sub-regional cooperation in trade as well as promote financial sector development.
An era of globalization
With the world turning towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in 2000, optimism soared with the prospect of ending extreme poverty and fostering a commitment to development cooperation.
Global trade performance saw a sharp rise in export growth in developing countries, alongside a steady flow of supplies across regional value chains. These positive trade experiences were complemented by a favourable macroeconomic environment, which further improved foreign direct investment flows and ICT-led growth.
However, the 2008 global financial and economic crisis had an adverse impact on the Asia-Pacific region. Economic growth experienced one of the most severe downturns since the Great Depression of the 1930s, constraining domestic economic activities and destabilizing the trade sector, causing hardship for millions and dampening job prospects.
During this period, policymakers pursued multilayered goals to balance strategies on multiple fronts based on their national and regional contexts. Governments prioritized anti-poverty agendas, scaled up public-private investments, and fostered cooperation around fiscal, financial, and monetary responses to mitigate the severity and duration of the crises.
Governments announced fiscal stimulus packages and reinvigorated global policy coordination post-2008 crisis to overcome the Great Recession. Post-2008 policy turns emphasised governance, decentralization, and trans-boundary cooperation, which stabilized the macroeconomic and foreign exchange markets.
As people began to enjoy the benefits of stability and the spirit of cooperation, there was a renewed call to increase socio-economic opportunities for the marginalized groups.
Towards sustainable development
As the world leaders adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in 2015, international cooperation was championed to transform our world. Forward-looking policymaking has been mainstreamed to unlock opportunities across regions. Inspired by policy choices for inclusive development, structural transformation, accelerated energy transition, technology-driven industrialization and sustainable financing, a new path has been paved to overcome the existential threat of climate change.
Meanwhile, the COVID-19 pandemic impacted communities and countries across the region, exposing weak healthcare systems, inadequate social protection mechanisms, informal labour markets, supply chain vulnerabilities, and limited trade and economic diversification strategies.
The multi-speed economic recovery highlighted the need for cooperation during turbulent times, while prioritizing sustainability to ensure a smooth recovery from the cost-of-living crisis as well as global supply chain disruptions and debt distress.
Governments emphasized the importance of reimagining public policymaking, ranging from cooperation in vaccine production to environmental protection policies, technological advancements, and early warning systems.
Strategic foresight and going beyond 2030
In 2025, all stakeholders face a critical choice between regional and subregional cooperation and focusing on limited interests, which could further stall progress in socio-economic prosperity and climate action. As policy turns occur, international cooperation and fostering partnerships are once again poised to play a catalytic role in expanding and scaling up solution-focused pathways, enhancing futures thinking for all stakeholders in Asia and the Pacific.
Now is the time to focus on developing economic and social infrastructure, trade and investment strategies, and private sector engagement to align with the aspirations of the people in the region.
Sudip Ranjan Basu is Chief of ESCAP Sustainable Business Network Section
Source: Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP).
IPS UN Bureau
