Empowering a region

Ask Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana, the new executive secretary of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (Escap), what she misses the most about her Indonesian homeland and the answer is her garden.

"I miss my garden in Bandung where I grow jasmine, lavender and many other flowers," she replies cheerfully, with a gleam in her eyes as she talks about her hometown, the capital of West Java province, about 150 kilometres southeast of Jakarta.

Ms Alisjahbana also has a house and garden in Jakarta, but for now she is staying by herself in an apartment in Bangkok, where Escap is headquartered. She officially assumed her new position, and concurrent role as a UN under-secretary-general, on Nov 1 last year.

Bangkok is the first overseas posting for the 58-year-old former professor of economics, who trained in Indonesia and the United States, where she obtained her PhD. She also served in the Indonesian cabinet from 2009-14.

"My garden in Bandung is bigger than that of my house in Jakarta," she says with a smile, adding that since she moved from Bandung to Jakarta in 2014, it had become difficult to get away from the Indonesian capital because there are so many activities there.

"You are invited to many activities and for networking. That's why my husband decided to have houses in both Jakarta and Bandung," she tells Asia Focus.

"Actually Bangkok is not that far (from Indonesia) and with a similar climate, similar cities and similar traffic jams. Bangkok residents look like Jakarta people except when we speak, then we know they are actually Thai not Indonesian. Food is a big difference here. I don't feel like I'm living abroad though, not quite like that."

Prior to joining Escap, Ms Alisjahbana was active in various organisations involved in development, in addition to her academic responsibilities. Since 2016, she has served as director of the Center for Sustainable Development Goals Studies at Universitas Padjadjaran in Bandung, and vice-chair of the Indonesian Academy of Sciences.

She also sits on the board of the Economic Research Institute for Asean and East Asia, the Forum of the Statistics Community, the International Advisory Board of the Bulletin of Indonesian Economic Studies, and is a council member of the Regional Science Association International.

While serving as minister of national development planning and head of the national planning agency, she also represented her country as an alternate governor of the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank (ADB). As well, she has been involved with research projects and consultancy to the United Nations University Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability in Tokyo, the World Bank and ADB, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Australia, the Australian Agency for International Development, the European Commission, and the International Labour Organization.

Ms Alisjahbana's term at the helm of the UN's regional development arm comes at a crucial time as the global organisation undergoes its own reforms while stepping up its support to countries to meet the ambitious targets set out by the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (SD).

"Escap has the opportunity to lead from the front. It is important that we focus our efforts and resources where we can have the most impact," she says.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), she says, is an important focus of her role at Escap. "We (Escap) are in Thailand. I'm also from Indonesia, which is part of Asean, so Asean is a big thing for us.

"Escap is also cooperating with Asean on how to achieve the Asean Vision 2025 and we have SDG (Sustainable Development Goals) 2030. How can those match or have better complementarity in the coming years?"

GENDER DIFFERENCES

Ms Alisjahbana is the third woman in succession to lead Escap, following Noeleen Heyzer of Singapore (2007-14), who was the first woman to hold the position since Escap was founded in 1947, and Dr Shamshad Akhtar of Pakistan, who was at the helm until August 2018.

Ms Alisjahbana plays down the issue of whether the leadership of a development organisation is better suited to a male or a female, or that Escap is somehow destined to be led by women.

"I think every position, including executive secretary of UN Escap and under-secretary general of the UN, is based on certain merit, certain competency, and certain experiences that are suitable for the position," she explains.

But she adds: "Then, being female of course, naturally we have quite a lot of multi-tasking ability. In the family, we are mothers, wives and children. In my previous position, I was a university professor -- preparing lectures, advising students, doing research -- and I was also involved in government and other associations and so on. In short, we have many roles to play in society.

"We (career women) in general are quite used to multi-tasking from early on and we have to do those roles equally well. Of course, family is number one and the career is something that we have to do equally well. I hope and I'm sure that it helps with the job (of Escap chief).

"More and more we are seeing (women taking top positions), certainly in the UN system at UN entities … which I think is very good.

"Another advantage of women in general is that usually, I find women are more sensitive to non-technical issues or angles. Sometimes men are a little too 'rational' in certain positions, in certain jobs. Not only do you need expertise in technicalities but oftentimes you need the expertise in 'non-technicalities'. Then it is quite helpful being a woman."

Meanwhile, her past work experience in Indonesia has equipped her well for her current position at Escap. As minister of national development planning in the cabinet of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, she also headed Bappenas, the state planning agency that has a similar role as the National Economic and Social Development Council (NESDC) in Thailand, formerly known as the NESDB.

"Like the NESDB in Thailand, the ministry coordinates development organisations for Indonesia so it's more relevant not only to the development of Indonesia but also cooperation with Indonesia, and also with development partners such as the UN, the World Bank and ADB," she explains.

"So I think that my previous experiences help … in my current job because here at UN Escap, we deal with many development issues from A-Z, of course not politics, but all the issues not only economic but social.

"With my background of coordinating with development agencies, I'm now in the UN so I understand that already. My background in the academic field related to development economics also helps because I did a lot of research work, basically on human resources, labour and sustainable development."

The work of Escap -- and the concept of development in general -- encompasses many categories, from poverty eradication to improved access to health care and education, infrastructure, trade facilitation, food security, climate change mitigation and more. One area of particular interest to Ms Alisjahbana is gender equality, as Escap is looking into more ways to support women's empowerment. In her view, the Philippines is a leader in the region in this regard.

"Despite the improvement, we are working horizontally," she says. "How do we scale up this effort (vertically), for example, to work together with many countries?"

CHALLENGES & PRIORITIES

Discussing her priorities in her current position, Ms Alisjahbana notes that as a regional commission, Escap has intergovernmental convening power that could be used effectively.

"First, we can bring countries together to discuss and agree. Second, we have a think-tank function, capacity building and provide technical assistance to countries as needed," she says. "So the main challenge is how we can support countries in Asia Pacific, not only to agree but to implement development in line with global and regional commitments.

"For example, SDG is a global commitment but how we can do it in the region and of course, in so many countries. The big issue is connectivity and infrastructure development, particularly in landlocked countries."

Transport, she says, is a key for economic development in many countries, and in this respect Escap supports trans-Asia highway and railway projects, and inland container depots in landlocked countries. "We facilitate infrastructure building and cooperation so countries can work together. That is the role of Escap in regional agreements because they involve so many countries. Such agreements and cooperation cannot be done by only one country."

Infrastructure development, she adds, should take into account economic potential and major challenges of countries and the entire region. The major challenges Asian countries are facing include demographic changes, environmental problems, unbanisation and inequality.

Some countries are already advancing policies that address challenges such as ageing. The urgency with which they act tends to reflect where they are currently in terms of demographics.

For example, Thailand is considered a medium-sized country in the region in terms of population but it is starting to age, while the Indonesian population is big and young. The Philippines also has a young population with many working abroad while Singapore, with only 5.6 million people, is in need of workers from abroad.

"The policies should be for the entire region, not country-specific," says Ms Alisjahbana. "Again, Escap is a regional commission so our mission is for the region. We also have to cooperate more with Asean and a bit outside Asean to northern regions including China and Japan.

"Ageing is one of the challenges countries in Asia Pacific are facing, while countries that are not ageing have to prepare long before they do. They can learn from other countries. Thailand, for example, has been ageing. It can learn from Japan and cooperate with Japan."

The environment is also a key concern, given the fact that Asia is home to six of the world's 10 most populous countries -- China, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Japan -- while its economy has been growing substantially.

"Therefore, sources of environmental problems are growing. If we want to really contribute to the environment, Asia Pacific is the key," she states.

In a recent essay, Ms Alisjahbana called for Asia and the Pacific to move decisively to reduce its ever-growing environmental footprint, which is undermining development and peoples' health.

"As rapid urbanisation continues, the region accounts for the bulk of cities with unhealthy air pollution levels. It leads to over two million premature deaths a year," she wrote. "Now is the time to agree on a common response. One which limits hazardous health effects, accelerates the region's transition to cleaner energy, promotes sustainable transport and strengthens our fight against climate change."

She stresses that inequality, meanwhile, is widening both within and between countries. To tackle this, it is vital to provide the poor with access to better education, jobs and health care along with improving the region's resilience to natural disaster.

"The region cannot afford to ignore widening inequality. Had the proceeds of growth been shared more equitably over the past decade, 140 million more people could have been lifted out of poverty. Inequalities of income, opportunity and increased exposure to natural disasters are all on the rise.

"We know disasters increase inequality. They keep children out of school and adults out of work, increase inequality and entrench poverty. Regional cooperation can help establish multi-hazard early warning systems, improve impact forecasting and damage assessment."

As Escap's key task is to get sustainable development back on track in the region, Ms Alisjahbana feels that 2019 is the region's moment to build a more coherent regional response to these major challenges by taking decisive steps to combat air pollution and climate change, improve social protection and resilience to natural disasters.

"As the United Nations development arm in the region, our absolute priority is to support our members achieve the SDGs by 2030. One to ensure our region remains on track to achieve sustainable development," she says.

"We already know our region's effort must be intensified. We owe it to future generations to seize this opportunity, to come together and to quicken our pace to achieve sustainable development in Asia and the Pacific."