United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific Member States

The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) is one of the five regional commissions under the jurisdiction of the

United Nations Economic and Social Council The United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC; french: links=no, Conseil économique et social des Nations unies, ) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations, responsible for coordinating the economic and social fields ...

. It was established in order to increase economic activity in Asia and the Far East, as well as to foster economic relations between the region and other areas of the world. The commission is composed of 53 Member States and nine Associate members, mostly from the

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an are ...

and

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contine ...

regions. In addition to countries in Asia and the Pacific, the commission's members includes France, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States. The region covered by the commission is home to 4.1 billion people, or two-thirds of the world's population, making ESCAP the most comprehensive of the United Nations' five regional commissions.

History

The commission was first established by the Economic and Social Council on 28 March 1947 as the United Nations Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East (ECAFE) to assist in post-war economic reconstruction. Its main mandate was to "initiate and participate in measures for facilitating concerted action for the economic reconstruction and development of Asia and the Far East." On 1 August 1974, the commission was renamed to the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) by the Economic and Social Council to reflect both the economic and social aspects of the Commission's work, as well as geographic location of its members.

Scope

The commission works to address some of the greatest challenges facing the region through results-oriented projects, technical assistance and capacity building to member states in the following areas: * Macroeconomic policy and development * Trade and investment * Transport * Social development * Environment and sustainable development * Information and communications technology and disaster risk reduction * Statistics * Sub-regional activities for development * Energy Additionally, the commission provides a forum for its member states to promote regional cooperation and collective action in pursuit of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Member states

There are a total of 53 Member States, 3 of them are not part of Asia or Oceania

Full members

The following are all full members of the commission:

Associate Members

The following are all associate members of the commission: * * * * * Northern Mariana Islands (The) *

Hong Kong, China Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a List of cities in China, city and Special administrative regions of China, special ...

* Macao, China * Cook Islands (The) *

Locations

Headquarters

The commission was originally located in

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flowin ...

, Republic of China, from its foundation until 1949, when it moved its headquarters to

Bangkok Bangkok, officially known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estimated populati ...

, Thailand.

Subregional offices

The Commission maintains five subregional offices in order to better target and deliver programs, given the large size of the region. The subregions are as follow: * Incheon,

Republic of Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sharing a land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its ea ...

(East and North-East Asia subregional headquarters) * Almaty,

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...

(North and Central Asia subregional headquarters) * Suva, Fiji (The Pacific subregional headquarters) *

New Delhi New Delhi (, , ''Naī Dillī'') is the capital of India and a part of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament Ho ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

(South and South-West Asia subregional headquarters) * Jakarta,

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

(South-East Asia subregional headquarters / ASEAN)

Executive Secretaries

The following is a list of the executive secretaries of the commission since its foundation:

Publications

The commission releases a variety of publications detailing its work and updates on its mandate, as well as on a wide variety of issues affecting its member states. Some of these publications include:
Asia-Pacific Countries with Special Needs Development Report

Asia-Pacific Development Journal

Asia-Pacific Disaster Report

Asia-Pacific Trade and Investment Report

Economic and Social Survey of Asia and the Pacific

Review of Development in Transport in Asia and the Pacific

SDG Progress Assessment Reports / Statistical Yearbook for Asia and the Pacific

References

External links

UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific

ESCAP Pacific Operations Centre EPOC

Centre for Alleviation of Poverty through Secondary Crops' Development in Asia and the Pacific (CAPSA)
* The publicatio
''Asia and the Pacific: A Story of Transformation and Resurgence''
provides a detailed overview of ESCAP's work since the late 1940s (1947-2014). {{Authority control United Nations Development Group Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific Organizations established in 1947 Organizations based in Bangkok Thailand and the United Nations Politics of Asia Politics of Oceania