Blogs

For sound and informed policy-making, indicators at all levels must be taken into consideration. This blog presents two gender statistics’ indices whose disparate outcomes are caused by the investigation of different indicators. This blog also raises the issue of intersectional discrimination, which is currently not easily deduced from existing indicator sets.

Universal social protection is an important and instrumental policy measure in support of achieving the 2030 Agenda: Universal social protection can reach to those hitherto excluded by guaranteeing at least a basic level of income security and effective access to health care across the life cycle.

The COVID-19 pandemic has clearly demonstrated the link between digitalization and development, both by showing the potential of digital solutions and by laying bare the significant digital divides that still exist.

The rise of the omicron variant is pushing the end of the COVID-19 pandemic further into the future. It remains to be seen if this new variant will wreak as much havoc as previous ones on public health, the economy and urban transport across Asia and the Pacific.

Asia and the Pacific is a region where diverse modes of transport play special roles in facilitating mobility. Mass transit modes (trains, trams, Bus Rapid Transit and ordinary buses) coexist with private modes (cars, motorcycles, bicycles and e-bikes) and paratransit vehicles. The term “paratransit” is used to describe the many multi-passenger small vans, mini-buses, 

This is the sixth in a series of policy primers developed to support policymakers and practitioners in Asia and the Pacific in their efforts to strengthen social protection.