9:30 - 13:00 (Thailand Standard Time), Virtual, Bangkok, Thailand

The Asia-Pacific Regional Consultation was jointly convened by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) and the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).

The objective of the Regional Consultation was to provide an interactive forum for ESCAP member States and key stakeholders in Asia and the Pacific to discuss ways to accelerate progress on key frameworks including the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (in particular, the 2019 Asia-Pacific Declaration on Advancing Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment: Beijing+25 Review), the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030, the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Specifically, this Regional Consultation was held to facilitate the exchange of knowledge and ideas among state and non-state actors in order to:

• Foster better understandings of issues that impact women and girls and other vulnerable groups due to climate-related and other disasters. These issues included women’s leadership and stewardship in the areas of natural resource management and environmental conservation, the water-food-climate nexus, loss of livelihoods and relevant (social and physical) infrastructural support, sexual and reproductive health and rights, girls’ education as well as other relevant dimensions such as data collection, youth engagement and grassroots solutions for climate change and disaster risk reduction.
• Consider possible areas for joint policy and programmatic interventions to account for the intersectionality of gender equality, climate change, environment, and disaster risk reduction and management, following the outcomes of the COP26.
• Enhance collaboration and bring synergies to the implementation of the different frameworks in order to accelerate progress in the region.

The Regional Consultation has also informed ESCAP member States’ inputs to the focus goals for the 2022 High Level Political Forum (HLPF), i.e. SDG 4, 5, 14, 15 and 17.  

The Regional Consultation generated a set of recommendations on areas for accelerated action, based on consensus reached by representatives of ESCAP member States and other key stakeholders such as civil society, academia, UN entities and other inter-governmental organizations, private sector, international financial institutions and others. The recommendations will feed into the CSW66 and inform membership contributions to the Agreed Conclusions.