Resident Coordinator’s Message to the PAGE Consultation Workshop on Shaping Thailand’s Policy towards Green and Inclusive Recovery and Development

Distinguished experts,

Colleagues and friends,

I am pleased to join you all at this workshop on Thailand’s sustainable and inclusive development as part of the UN’s Partnership for Action on Green Economy initiative.

As you know, PAGE was launched in country last November to bring together the world-class technical expertise of five UN agencies to accelerate the country’s bio-circular-green transformation and contribute to advancing the SDGs nationwide.

These agencies, in partnership with the government and private sector, are building capacity for green methods and technologies; integrating green economy targets into nationwide development plans; and piloting BCG projects in sustainable agriculture, ecotourism, biodiversity restoration, to name a few.

Thailand was one of the first countries to pass a comprehensive post-pandemic stimulus package and one element of it supports green economic recovery for households nationwide, which is particularly heartening.

Analysis by the World Bank showed that without the government’s relief measures during the pandemic, the poverty rate would have increased, causing a further 700,000 people to fall below the poverty line.

People in rural areas would have especially been affected with the largest increase in poverty occurring in northeastern Thailand. 

This shows that targeted measures in the context of the BCG can support the most vulnerable to leave no one behind.

Through PAGE the UN is partnering with NIDA and the government to see how we can further green the stimulus package and empower local communities at the same time by creating green jobs, supporting sustainability at household level, reducing GHGs, and boosting inclusion.

The six current pilots provide us with a baseline on how well the package is addressing these elements.

As part of the evaluation process, UNDP and UNIDO, in partnership with NIDA, have just conducted extensive field trips to compile data and insights.

Their analysis shows that not all the six are yielding equal outcomes in terms of overall sustainability, GHG reductions and green job creation.

This means that the lessons learned from them can inform future pilots and can be mainstreamed into sustainable initiatives nationwide.

They can also be shared with other countries to inform policies across the wider PAGE project globally.

The discussions during today’s consultation will further strengthen this evidence base.

I am very much looking forward to learning from all the distinguished experts about how PAGE and its partners can accelerate Thailand’s green and inclusive transformation so we can take these insights to the global stage.

Thank you.