January 2013: The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has released a report proposing a conceptual framework and process towards post-2015 goals in the region, based on a mixture of universal and country-specific targets.

The report, “A ZEN Approach to Post-2015: Addressing the Range of Perspectives Across Asia and the Pacific,” has been published in the ADB’s Economics Working Paper Series. The report puts forward a conceptual framework, dubbed “ZEN,” based on zero extreme poverty, country-specific benchmarks, and environmental sustainability.

The authors recommend that countries take an approach of adopting supplementary development goals within a universal post-2015 development framework so as to build in flexibility, country ownership and the possibility to learn by doing. They cite examples of the sanitation and reproductive health targets that were incorporated into the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) framework at a later stage than other targets, after intergovernmental agreements were made. They also propose that governments announce rolling targets for their own countries, based on five-year plans.

On MDG achievements in Asia, the authors highlight development successes in reducing extreme income poverty, increasing education access, providing safe drinking water, and addressing tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS. They point out rising inequality, environmental impacts and constraints, and vulnerability to floods as issues to be tackled, noting that Asia is still home to the world’s largest number of extreme poor. [Publication: A ZEN Approach to Post-2015: Addressing the Range of Perspectives Across Asia and the Pacific] [ADB Press Release]