High food prices have put increasing inflationary pressures across the Asia-Pacific region and are seen as a key downside risk to sustaining recovery in 2011. Bad weather in important food-producing countries, increasing use of crops in biofuels and speculation in commodity markets have added to...

Least developed countries (LDCs) in the Asia-Pacific region face severe structural impediments to growth and sustainable development.1 The majority of their population makes living from agriculture, including horticulture, livestock, fisheries and forestry, and the development of that sector is...

Ensuring full or high employment has been one of the key mandates put forward by the international development community.1 But despite their impressive economic growth, a number of Asia- Pacific economies continue to experience high informal and vulnerable employment. Including agriculture,...

Every year governments spend significant amounts of money in the goods and services needed to run their activities. The general governments of selected Asia-Pacific countries spent 582 billions in procurement in 2010. These expenses, which represented 5.6 percent of the GDP and 18.6 percent of...

The triple threats to development1 in 2008 and 2009 highlight the need to strengthen social protection systems in Asia and the Pacific. This Policy Brief provides reasons why this strengthening should be a critical component of the region’s development agenda, and shows that a number of...

Although as a region the Asia-Pacific has done well and is an early achiever in most of the MDGs, many countries have not done as well in health related indicators. In fact, some of the countries have regressed, for example in the reduction of HIV and malaria prevalence rate. In the case of...

This chapter provides a picture of post-crisis trade and investment interventions in the Asia-Pacific region. It focuses not only on restrictions on merchandise trading, but also on new obstacles to services trade and movements of people, including service providers.