United Nations Radio

The UN regional centre for the Asia -Pacific region says Asia and Pacific countries are particularly vulnerable to the triple threat of food and fuel price volatility, climate change and the global economic crisis.

Housewife cooking on a biogas stove

The UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific - ESCAP in its flagship publication, the Economic and Social Survey for Asia and the Pacific 2009, analyses the three crises and offers some solutions.

The report says while most governments are focused on dealing with the worst economic crisis in many decades, two other longer term crises should not be forgotten.

It says food-fuel price volatility and climate change are converging with the present economic crisis to create what is now being referred to as the triple threat.

The report says because the region has almost two thirds of the world's poor and half of its natural disasters, the Asia / Pacific Region is at the epicentre of the triple crises.

The Executive Secretary of ESCAP Noeleen Heyzer says the emergence of all three crises at the same time has hit the world's poor the hardest.

She warns that there is significant risk that the financial crisis could result in political instability and social unrest.

And she adds that "unless we deal with growing inequalities, especially on the poor, it will create greater social stress."

She called for the setting up of social protection systems that increase income security and free up the spending power of middle and lower-income people who drive the economy.

Donn Bobb, United Nations Radio.

(duration: 1'21")