Understanding the 1st Mekong-Japan SDGs Forum: Cooperation and Challenges

Along with these countries’ global institutions like the World Health Organisation, the United Nations Environmental programme, the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies and the Asian Institute of Technology also attended this forum.[1] This forum was chaired by Kano Takahiro, the Director General in the Southeast and Southwest Asian Affairs Department under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan and Arunrung Phothong Humphreys, the Ambassador Attached to the Ministry and Thailand’s Mekong SOM Leader, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Thailand.[2]

As per the meeting, it was virtually held and was divided into several sessions like:

·        Session 1: The theme was “Towards Partnership for Health” and they discussed on issues and approaches to achieve Universal Health Coverage covering the principle of leaving no one’s health behind. They also focused on the health system of every country along with taking measures for COVID-19 Pandemic and cooperating in the field of health and medicine. The participants focused on achieving the Sustainable Development Goals No.3 on Good Health and Well-being.

·        Session 2: The theme for the second session was “Towards Sustainable Economic Recovery” and they discussed about digital currency using the blockchain technology, sustainable energy and investment promotion. They focused on the Sustainable Development Goal No.17 on Partnership for the Goals.

·        Session 3: The theme for the third session was “Towards Green and Inclusive Society” and here they focused on climate change and water resource management especially with regard to the Mekong countries to promote cross-regional efforts.

Mekong-Japan Initiative for SDGs toward 2030

In October 2018, the 10^th Mekong-Japan Summit Meeting was held where they adopted the Tokyo strategy and aimed to cooperate on the Sustainable Development Goals in the region of Mekong and agreed to implement the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The purpose of Japan and the Mekong countries was to cooperate and work on a decade toward green Mekong initiative which was decided in 2009. Further, an Action Plan was also incorporated into the Mekong-Japan Initiative for SDGs toward 2030. The objective of this initiative is to make the Mekong countries achieve and accept the SDGs by 2030 which would pave the way for interactions between people and society, people to people, between human and nature and toward a stronger future generation.

Figure 1: 3 Priority areas for cooperation/Priority Goals. Source: Author’s Annotated

Cooperation in 3 Priority Goals

Priority Goal 1:  Environment and Urban Issues

Japan and the Mekong countries agreed to focus on harmonisation of environment protection along with economic development and social resilience. They focus on waste management and sound material-cycle society (Goal 11,12) and aim to reduce, reuse and recycle so as to build health and well-being which would result in a sustainable community.[3] They also aimed to work on the development of quality infrastructure for effective waste management and recycling of waste to energy plants, information sharing, capacity enhancement and policy decision making. Japan has agreed to support the Mekong countries with financial and technical support. With regard to marine plastic litter and water and river pollution (Goal 14) focus on collaborating to promote ocean environment research, monitoring and observation, environmentally sound management of wastes, recovery of marine litter and innovation[4] and realising the Osaka Blue Ocean Vision. The concern on marine plastic litter focuses on Mekong countries because many of the rivers of the Mekong countries face this issue. Disaster Risk Reduction and Disaster Management (Goal 11) focus on build back better approach where it aims to create a resilient community aiming for the promotion of quality infrastructure investment based on international standards of openness, transparency, economic investment and debt sustainability of the borrower countries.[5] Reduction of Greenhouse gas emissions and building climate resilience (Goal 13) focus on climate change and so, Japan and the Mekong countries have aimed to promote Joint Crediting Mechanism including the HFC lifecycle management.[6] Japan has agreed to financially support the projects which will help reduce the greenhouse gas emissions and build a climate resilient society.

Priority Goal 2: Sustainable natural resource management and utilization

The focus of sustainable development in the region of Mekong is on natural resources which need to managed in a sustained manner and so, this there is a need to aim for increase in agricultural productivity (Goal 8, 12) and for this, they aim to modernise agriculture through improved facilities like irrigation, agricultural mechanisation, agro-processing and ICT. Japan aims to assistance the countries in Mekong by helping in building the food value chain and increase the income of small-scale farmers by utilising ICT.[7] They also work towards water resource management (Goal 6, 7) and focus on irrigation facilities, flood and drought management and developing water supply service by expanding water treatment. Sustainable forest management (Goal 15) aims to preserve rich bio-diversity[8] and contribute towards economic growth in the Mekong countries.

Priority Goal 3: Inclusive growth

Inclusive growth is vital for societal growth especially with regard to individuals. It covers education and human capital investment (Goal 4) to promote inclusive and equitable education along with processing lifelong learning opportunities.[9] It also deals with girls’ and women’s education and training, providing primary and secondary education, improving STEM-science, technology, engineering and mathematics education and vocational trainings. Health and social welfare (Goal 3) aims to realise the necessary steps being taken for a healthy life and well-being of all the people in the Mekong region and further, enhance the Universal Health Coverage by 2030.[10] Gender equality and empowerment of women (Goal 5) to facilitate sustainability along with socioeconomic development and eradicate trafficking of women, girls and children.[11] They also aim towards legal and judicial cooperation (Goal 16) where they work on strengthening the rule of law and good governance. They worked towards promoting an inclusive and sustainable industrialisation (Goal 9) where they focused on micro, small and medium enterprises.[12] Finally, they also aimed to work in the sector of tourism so as to create jobs and promote local culture and products which would help diversify markets.

Challenges

The region of Mekong does face several challenges and those challenges need to addressed in order to have these SDGs a grand success. The challenge of pollution and climate change is important as through on one hand, rapid industrialisation is vital for the economic growth but on the contrary, it has increased cross-border pollution which includes industrial waster pollution, marine litter and climate change and these are issues need to be realised through the sustainable cities and communities (Goal 11), responsible consumption and production (Goal 12), climate action (Goal 13) and life below water (Goal 14).[13] Further, there is a need to utilise the resources and that is essential to realise the goals like ensuring availability and sustainability management of water and sanitation for all (Goal 6), affordable and clean energy (Goal 7), decent work and economic growth (Goal 8) and the life on land (Goal 15).[14] Another issue is the equal distribution of economic growth that can only be achieved with inclusive growth which is only possible with good health and well-being (Goal 3), quality education (Goal 4), gender equality (Goal 5) and peace justice and strong institutions (Goal 16).[15]

Conclusion

They say to start a great initiative, one must have a sensible and doable plan of action. The efforts made by Japan and the Mekong countries clearly describe that these countries are focused on achieving the sustainable development goals which would be the game-changers. It needs to be understood that Japan understands the importance of the Mekong countries as some of them are also ASEAN members. With Cambodia becoming the ASEAN Chair in 2022, there is a most likelihood that Cambodia would try to benefit China in the issues of South China Sea which would not only affect the centrality of ASEAN but also interests of Japan in the South China Sea and the East China Sea. Thereby, this meeting is extremely timely.

Notes

[1] Ministry of Foreign Affairs.2021.” The 1st Mekong-Japan SDGs Forum”, December 23, 2021. https://www.mofa.go.jp/s_sa/sea1/page24e_000333.html

[2] Ibid.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Ministry of Foreign Affairs.2021.” The 1st Mekong-Japan SDGs Forum”, December 23, 2021. https://www.mofa.go.jp/s_sa/sea1/page24e_000333.html

[6] Ibid.

[7] Ibid.

[8] Ibid.

[9] Ministry of Foreign Affairs.2021.” The 1st Mekong-Japan SDGs Forum”, December 23, 2021. https://www.mofa.go.jp/s_sa/sea1/page24e_000333.html

[10] Ibid.

[11] Ibid.

[12] Ibid.

[13] Ministry of Foreign Affairs.2021.” The 1st Mekong-Japan SDGs Forum”, December 23, 2021. https://www.mofa.go.jp/s_sa/sea1/page24e_000333.html

[14] Ibid.

[15] Ibid.

Pic Courtsey-Trang Trinh at unsplash.com

(The views expressed are those of the author and do not represent views of CESCUBE.)