Report of the NEAT Working Group on"The Sustainable Development Goals and East Asian Cooperation"
21 July 2022
Rationale
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have increasingly become a universal
agenda since its adoption by the United Nations in 2015. It has also been described asthe ‘transformative agenda’ (UN 2015). The SDGs aim to eradicate poverty, establish
socioeconomic inclusion and protect the environment. Disparaging analysis suggests apotential inconsistency in the SDGs, particularly between the socio-economic
development and environmental sustainability goals. While being a transformativeagenda that is universal, human rights-based and comprehensive, SDGs are also
constrained by the lack of political will, limited capacity, and financial resources.
The ASEAN Plus Three member states have pursued the SDGs with various levelsof commitment and capacity. ASEAN's goal of being people-centred andpeople-oriented has emphasised the significance and urgency of the SDGs. ASEAN
adopted the report on the SDG indicators to establish the baseline information of theSDGs being tracked and measured in the region, which will support the monitoring ofprogress in achieving the global agenda and supporting relevant policymaking at thenational and regional levels. A situation is made more acute by a lack of appropriate
data and implementation mechanisms.
The SDGs increasingly appear to complement the establishment of the ASEAN
Community and are essential in building a regional community in East Asia. TheSDGs' significant elements align with those of the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community(ASCC), which include poverty, gender, environment, biodiversity, education, labour,
rural and urban development, marine issues, and so on. ASCC embraces a wide rangeof subjects and topics under the SDGs. However, the relatively slow progress of ASCC
is evident. In addition, the pandemic will likely negatively affect ASEAN’s progress
toward the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In early 2020, a UN reportillustrated that the region’s SDG progress had already slowed and that the area was far
from achieving most goals by 2030.
Considering the urgency of the SDGs, regional cooperation is an essential part ofrealising the SDGs as many goals are transboundary in nature. There are different
priorities among the APT member states. A regional cooperative mechanism has achance to bridge multilateralism and unilateralism toward the SDGs.
The working group, held on 21 July 2022 online, discussed how the SDGs can beincorporated into the East Asian community-building process.

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On Discussion
Participants in the working group shared their views, observation, assessment andinsightful policy recommendations to improve the implementation of the SDGs in
APT member states through enhanced regional cooperation.
The working group participants revisited the SDGs' concepts and essentialprinciples. They addressed critical issues arising from the SDG implementation at thenational and regional levels based on the review of the development of the SDGs in
ASEAN and the APT. The working group suggested an institutional mechanism andmeasures for achieving the SDGs.
Participants agreed that there was a significant disparity among the countries inpractising the SDGs. The priority of SDGs agendas varies from country to country.
There has been a considerable capacity gap in technology and financial resourcesamong the APT member states.
There is a lack of regional cooperation for the SDGs in the region. At the same time,a state-led SDGs model has been a dominant feature with limited collaboration with
the United Nations. The state-led approach at the national level has exposed its
limitation in tackling various issues since the nature of SDGs is inherently
transnational. At the domestic level, it is essential to embrace multi-stakeholders,
including government, local authority, enterprise, civil society, etc.
The participants reaffirmed essential principles of the SDGs, including a humanrights-based approach, gender equality, and the principle of ‘leaving no one behind,which are of particular importance to cope with various challenges derived from theCovid 19 pandemic. Since nearly ninety per cent of the goals correspond to humanrights, implementing the SDGs is crucial to secure human rights. The SDGs need tobe pursued more inclusively since vulnerable groups, including women, children,refugees, and foreign workers, face social and economic problems worsened by theimpacts of the Covid-19 pandemic. Without committing to the principles of the SDGsand lack of involvement of multi-stakeholders, the practice of the SDGs would beconstrained as ‘SDGs Wash’ decoupling with internal development.
The SDGs are also transformative at a time of the fast-emerging digital economy,
which will bring various socio-economic impacts as well as business transformation,
which includes changes in the labour market. The SDGs implementation should
contribute to reducing inequality and caring for marginalised groups by providing theproper programs to develop digital literacy for improving human capital and capacity
building. In this sense, SDGs can be a great reset to adapt to our new challenges.
The record of the SDGs progress of the APT member states has been off track even
before the outbreak of Covid-19. The re-emergence of Covid-19 would bring moresignificant impacts on the SDGs achievement without severe and immediate
responses through international cooperation. Despite the modest progress in reducing
poverty and related agendas, the increasing gap between the rich and the poor
increased considerably during the onset of the pandemic-triggered social-economiccrisis. To protect their human security, the vulnerable groups should be subject toexceptional attention.
2Recommendations
Localisation of the SDGs is crucial for the meaningful implementation of the SDGs.
There are cases of domestic mechanisms to implement the SDGs such as

engagement of the parliamentarians in some member states. There should be
more effort to raise public awareness and participation to promote the “bottom-up”
implementation of the SDGs.
Sharing good practices and models of SDGs and related capacity and technology,
including digitalisation and statistics, should be extended at the regional level. The
APT-wide implementation mechanism of the SDGs by the APT and member statesshould be considered to meet financial and institutional needs.
To achieve the SDGs, WG suggests that APT:
-Call the leaders to pay more attention to APT cooperation to meet the SDGs
and acknowledge the growing challenges amid the covid 19 and significant
disparity in progress among the member states.

-To incorporate SDGs implementation into APT cooperation to share goodpractices of SDGs. i.e. climate change, capacity building, and Human
capital/resources development should be considered to ensure no one is left
behind.

-To establish the APT SDGs multi-stakeholders committee, including nationaland local governments, business sectors and CSOs, to share development
model and related technology, and to provide finance and investment based on
the bottom-up approach.

-For further collaboration among the APT member states, conduct joint
voluntary national reviews and organise a special session at the UN
High-Level Political Forum.

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