The United Nations just announced a program, in corporation with the European Union and Thailand, including the Thailand International Cooperation Agency (TICA) and the Ministry of Public Health, to push South-South and Triangular Cooperation to boost sustainable food and health systems.

The three flagship initiatives are to accelerate the move to organic agriculture, as well as to improve sexual and reproductive health services, including capacity development in midwifery and health officials.

The health aspect of the initiatives will promote more efficient sexual and reproductive health services and meet ICM global standards in ASEAN. They will be carried out by the Thai Ministry of Public Health, select nursing faculties and TICA.

Begin in Laos

The initiative to promote organic agriculture is a collaboration between TICA and Thailand’s Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives, funded by the European Union and implemented by the UN’s International Trade Centre (ITC), with an aim to promote organic agriculture in Thailand and other selected ASEAN countries.

The project will be piloted in Laos, on organic agriculture. The Director-General of TICA, Ureerat Chareontoh, said that one of the reasons Laos was selected is that there are already several existing Thai sustainable economy centres in the country. So, the pilot will not start from a total zero.

“3 South-South and triangular cooperation projects with the UN Country Team and the EU is part of TICA’s contributions to the UN-Thailand Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework 2022-2026,” Ureerat told the gathering on the side-lines of the Asia-Pacific Forum on Sustainable Development in Bangkok.

Trat needs to be taken seriously to realise its full potential

Sustainable Development Goals 

According to the latest UN report, the Asia-Pacific region has only made 14.4% progress toward achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a set 17 global targets on environmental and societal issues. Greater cooperation among developing countries, known as the global South, was needed to raise ambition to overcome a multitude of challenges.

In the most recent Sustainable Development Report by UN, Thailand ranked first in ASEAN and 44th in the world with 74.13%. Vietnam ranked second in ASEAN at 72.76%, followed by Singapore (71.72%), Malaysia (70.38%), Indonesia (69.16%), Brunei (67.10%), The Philippines (66.64%), Myanmar (64.27%), Cambodia (63.75%) and Laos (63.39%).

By Tulip Naksompop Blauw