Regional Programme for East Asia and the Pacific 2009 - 2012 Challenges, Achievements and the Way Ahead: Implementation Update 2

This is the second consolidated report on the achievements of the Regional Programme for East Asia and the Pacific. The focus remains squarely on articulating the contribution to development results, rather than simply providing an account of activities that have been carried out over the preceding 12 months.

East and South-East Asia is one of the most rapidly developing parts of the world. Global experience has shown us that positive and welcome developments, such as increased mobility of goods, services and money as well as the availability of information and communication technologies, simultaneously provide opportunities for transnational organized crime to expand. An uneven distribution of economic opportunities also produces significant domestic and international migration, which often disrupts communities and isolates vulnerable individuals. Rapid urbanization can also generate zones of anonymity and insecurity where criminality emerges and the law is challenged. This in turn adds impetus to both the demand for and supply of illicit drugs, for forced labour, for sex workers, for counterfeit products and for limited or protected natural resources (like timber, fish and wildlife).

For this reason, in addition to accounting for what we have achieved in 2010, we also attempt to outline the new and emerging threats and how we can best respond to them.