The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Positions for the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific
I. Developing an Action Plan to Address Urban Growth in the Asia-Pacific Region
Many Member States are experiencing continual urban growth and development, especially in the Asia-Pacific region where this is occurring at varying rates among Member States due to a variety of situations such as job and career opportunities, degradation of the environment, natural disasters, and even from the influx of refugees from other Member States. Currently in Asia, about 42% of the total population lives in urbanized areas and that number is projected to increase to 55% by 2025.[1] That is over five hundred seventy-seven million people moving into urban area in eight years.[2] Without pre-existing infrastructures and protocols capable of accommodating this rapid increase in urban populations, economic and social problems are sure to arise capable of causing mass internal conflict with potential to spill over and affect neighboring Member States. However, this growth has great potential to benefit the Member States if proper measures are taken to accommodate and foster the growing populations.
Standard Development Goal Eleven (SDG 11) broadly mandates Member States to make urban environments safe to live in, inclusive of all people regardless of any form of discriminatory factors, resilient, and sustainable. Some of the key ways in which to attain these goals are providing affordable and safe housing that is meets the needs of its residents, safe and affordable transportation such as public transport, and reducing environmental impact and pollution while still protecting cultural and natural heritage.[3] The UK is one of the leading Member States in managing urban growth. Approximately 83.2% of the UK’s current population lives in cities and this percent has been growing at a steady 0.3% per year.[4] The urban populations currently face problems such as poor quality housing, needing land to develop more housing, congested transportation, and environmental pollution. These are only some of the concerns Member States in the Asia Pacific region will have to deal with. Other areas of concern will include crime rates, standard of living, equality in work places, and civilians respect each others cultural and religious beliefs and practices. To help manage the urban growth within the UK, public transport has played a major role in providing citizens equal opportunities to job opportunities while helping slow the rate of urban growth and greatly reducing traffic congestion and air pollution. Recognizing that not every working individual is able to own a motor vehicle, establishing train systems that cover the urban center and extend into the surrounding smaller towns allows for citizens to live outside the city and ride the train into the urban hub and go to work, shop, or accomplish whatever tasks they may need to do. Other public transportation options include inner city tramways, taxis, ferries, and even Uber. By having a heavy emphasis on public transport, there is not as large a need for a personal vehicle and this helps reduce the total amount of air pollution as well as providing citizens who cannot afford a vehicle equal transportation opportunities.[5] Transportation extending into the suburbs and smaller towns helps reduce urban sprawl, the expansion of a city into the surrounding areas often at the cost of natural land, and it also provides an effective means of spreading information. The UK utilizes a variety of means for dispersal of information ranging from the printed newspapers, to the Internet, billboards, advertisements in public transportation, the radio, news broad casts, social media and the television. These methods are effective for conveying government information as well as private business information and other uses in people’s daily lives. By using a variety of information dispersal strategies, the UK can reach and provide almost all of its population with any important information.
Public transportation and dispersal of information are two of the most effective ways to address and manage urban growth. The UK proposes that Member States in the Asia Pacific region focus on developing a resilient and affordable public transportation within the urbanized areas that also extends into the surrounding areas as this will help slow the rate of urbanization and reduce traffic congestion within cities as well as the environmental impact from polution. Secondly, Member States should seek to establish effective means for information dispersal utilizing the most effective modes of communication available to the individual Member States. One of the most influential public education topics is to raise awareness about the equality among all the people residing in the state, regardless of race, gender or any other distinguishing factors. United and treating each other as equals will result in an over all increase in standard of living and state of the urban cities. In all of these efforts, it is important that Member States keep in mind the diverse cultures and practices within their populations and that they provide accommodations to help preserve them.
II. Examining the Impact of Organized Crime on Social Development
The UK strongly affirms the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific’s (ESCAP’s) four main focuses that surmise to all regions of the world and their respective Member States, particularly the Asia-Pacific Region, should be able to meet and exceed the expectations set by the Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs); in order to accomplish this with respect to SDGs 16 and 17, Member States need to be able to combat the rise and establishment of organized crime within their economies and governments.
The United Nations on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) officially defines organized crime as “a group of three or more persons that was not randomly formed; existing for a period of time; acting in concert with the aim of committing at least one crime punishable by at least four years' incarceration; in order to obtain, directly or indirectly, a financial or other material benefit.”[6] The 2030 SDGs are guided by the Charter of the United Nations and is grounded in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, international human rights treaties, the Millennium Declaration and the 2005 World Summit Outcome; and, it is influenced by other policies, such as the Declaration on the Right to Development.[7] SDG 16 promotes peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, while providing access to justice for all and seeks to build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.[8] SDG 17 seeks to strengthen the means of implementation and revitalization of global partnerships for sustainable development.[9] The UK also supports the Asia-Pacific Information Superhighway, which aims to increase the availability and affordability of broadband Internet across Asia and the Pacific, by strengthening the underlying Internet infrastructure in the region.[10] The UK has a no tolerance policy against corruption, one form of this is the Scottish Government’s Counter Fraud Forum, which was created as a result of the Public Services Reform (Scotland) Act 2010, which aimed to strengthen the approach to dealing with financial crime across the public sector. Another example of the UK’s effort to combat organized crime is when The Centre for the Protection of the National Infrastructure (CPNI) spearheaded research on the ‘insider threat.’ Extensive guidance was published on the management of employee risk to reduce the large scale risk of ‘insiders’ carrying out malicious attacks.[11]
Recognizing the developing regions of Asia and the Pacific as hot spots for the establishment of organized crime due to their deficiencies in current information and technology infrastructures as well as current fragile political and economical infrastructure and the lack of protocols and resources to combat these crimes, the UK endorses the establishment of the FULL PROOF plan: Full Utilization of Long Lasting Protocols Reducing Opportunities for Organized-crime Fruition. FULL PROOF endorses the implementation of legal programs and protocols that provide better technological security for the existing and future economic and political infrastructures, public education about identifying organized crime, and effective measures for helping tear down crime organizations. Any monetary assets seized from organized crime rings by the efforts by FULL PROOF will be directly reallocated back into the affected Member State to fund other FULL PROOF initiatives. In order for FULL PROOF to truly be effective, it is recommended that Member States that have effective measures for dealing with organized crime compose a databank of their different strategies that can be accessed by other Member States. This databank will allow Member States will be able to identify what organized crime is prevalent within their population and then select tactics they deem best suited for their population with respect to any cultural or religious beliefs that may exist. The best way to defeat organized crime globally is to organize ourselves into a untied, cohesive front.
[1] https://web.stanford.edu/class/cee320/CEE320B/Seto.pdf
[2] http://worldpopulationreview.com/continents/asia-population/
[3] http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/cities/
[4] https://www.statista.com/statistics/270369/urbanization-in-the-united-kingdom/
[5] https://www.internations.org/great-britain-expats/guide/16150-transport-driving/public-transport-in-the-uk-16145
[6] https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/organized-crime/index.html
[7] http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/RES/70/1&Lang=E
[8] https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/sdg16
[9] https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/sdg17
[10] http://www.unescap.org/sites/default/files/Master_Plan_for_APIS_English_0.pdf
[11]https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/388894/UKantiCorruptionPlan.pdf