23rd & 24th February, Bangkok.
Asia Pacific Peoples Forum on sustainable development (Peoples Forum) was organized on the 23rd and 24th February at Tinidee Trendy Khaosan Hotel in Bangkok. More than 130 representatives from CSOs from all over Asia Pacific participated besides colleagues from the ESCAP and the UNEP (ROAP and HQ at Nairobi). The Peoples Forum was organized by the APRCEM in collaboration and with support from the ESCAP and UNEP. The secretariat support for organizing the APPFSD was provided by Asia pacific Migrants Mission (APMM, a Hong Kong based network of migrants). The theme of the APPFSD was “Reclaiming the Development Agenda for the People, Advancing Development Justice in Asia and the Pacific.” This was accompanied with the clarion call of the APRCEM; shift the power; change the system.
The Forum opened with the welcome remarks from Joy Hernandez, one of the co-chairs of the APRCEM and Mr. Hirohito Toda, Deputy Executive Secretary, ESCAP. Mr. Ajay K Jha, Co-chair (APRCEM) delivered the keynote address. He highlighted that we are far off from “bringing the multilateralism from the brink” as SOTF had promised, and that the divide among the developing and industrialized world is resulting into all UN processes getting deadlocked on the question of finance. He added that poverty, hunger and inequality in the region are getting deeper, wider and more entrenched. He concluded by saying basic flaw lies in the economic paradigm which creates haves and have nots and caters only to the elite rather than to the masses.