The 5-year project is supported by the Ministry of Science and ICT of the Republic of Korea, and the UNOSSC leads the project implementation in partnership with other institutions including the Mekong River Commission Secretariat (MRCS), Mekong Institute (MI) and the Science and Technology Policy Institute (STEPI) of Korea and will enlist the help of other UN Agencies.

The Mekong River is the longest river in Southeast Asia, it runs approximately 4,900 km from the Tibetan Plateau in China to the South China Sea in southern Viet Nam. The Mekong region consists of Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Viet Nam, Thailand and some Chinese Provinces, namely Yunnan and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Geographically, the region is divided into Upper Mekong Basin (Myanmar and China) and Lower Mekong Basin (Cambodia, Lao PDR, Thailand and Viet Nam). Approximately 72 million people live and derive their livelihoods in the Mekong basin area.

The Mekong basin, “a basin of one of the world’s greatest rivers” is facing unprecedented challenges including loss of wetlands, reduced sediments nourishment, and rising salinity that is increasingly impeding rice cultivation. These adverse impacts have been coupled with the COVID-19 pandemic, natural disasters, climate change and human activities that are creating hardship for millions of vulnerable fishing and farming families.

Cross-sectoral and integrated approach through multi-stakeholder engagement

The project will have a multiplicity of stakeholders, that is, government, intergovernmental organisations, communities, the private sector and civil society. It will be supported by the UN with the development cooperation modalities and concepts of sustainability, SS & TrC as overriding issues. Along with the thematic focus areas of water, energy and food, the project will use science, technology and innovation for remedies to the development challenges in the Mekong Basin. Participating Korean institutions are expected to be from government and the private sector. To help achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, multidisciplinary approaches with clear focus should be taken to develop comprehensive solutions and produce meaningful change on the ground.

The RoK-UNOSSC Facility (Phase 3)’s outcomes and outputs are partly derived from the Basin Development Strategy (BDS) 2021-2030 of the Mekong River Commission. The project  puts the vulnerable communities living in the LMB at the centre of the initiative through strengthening their access to  water, food and energy, increasing livelihoods and employment opportunities in the context of the triangular and South-South cooperation development modalities.  The implementation phase of the pilots will introduce apprpriate technologies in partnership with the private sector and academia.