Regional: Strengthening Regional Cooperation and Integration Knowledge Partnerships and Research Network in Asia and the Pacific

Finance / Infrastructure finance and investment funds

Public sector management / Social protection initiatives

The proposed knowledge and support technical assistance (TA) will strengthen knowledge partnerships on themes relevant to regional cooperation and integration (RCI) by facilitating and forging research collaboration among policy research institutions in the Asia and Pacific region and organizing technical workshops and high-level policy dialogues to produce policy papers and a book volume for the use of policy makers in the region.

The TA will be included in the management-approved annual work program for the Economic Research and Regional Cooperation Department (ERCD), as a policy research capacity building activity for relevant institutions in DMCs.

Regional integration has played a pivotal role in driving Asia''s economic and social development by expanding market and boosting productivity through the exchange of new ideas and production technologies across the region. A deeply interconnected region such as the European Union has gained considerable efficiency by sharing natural and human resources.

To continue taking advantage of the benefit of regional integration, policy makers in the region must closely cooperate on economic and the related development agenda of mutual interest to the region.

Knowledge management plays a role of assisting policy makers respond to challenges and opportunities by generating and disseminating targeted research. Active knowledge management is particularly important for RCI agenda because individual country effort is often insufficient in addressing region-wide concern or proposing regional solutions. Research collaboration also generates synergies of making research outcome relevant, actionable, and effective across the region.

However, research that identifies good practices and innovative regional solution to on RCI themes in the region tend to be carried out in stand-alone or fragmented form of efforts. Where collaboration exists, it tends to focus on sharing country-specific analysis of a common topic, but fall short of jointly conducting research on regional agenda with an aim to provide regional solution and recommendation. The situation necessitates proactive promotion of research partnerships across the region on RCI themes. Initiatives to promote research on regional agenda through forging partnership and collaboration among research institutions remain limited, but with few exceptions and they can be strengthened.

1. Collaborative RCI research conducted

2. DMC researchers actively participate and deepen knowledge on the research topics

3. Policy papers and book volume printed and disseminated