Solid waste management (SWM) is one of the most pressing issues in the Pacific. Historically, low island population levels have generated small volumes of solid waste that were easy to manage. However, due to economic development, many countries and territories have started to generate and consume significant amounts of consumer and disposable goods. This has resulted in large volumes of organic and inorganic solid waste from residential, institutional, commercial, and manufacturing sources. More recently, electrical and electronic waste, construction and chemicals, ship-sourced pollution, and natural hazards have become new sources of waste.

The United Nations General Assembly adopted the definition of recovery as “The restoring or improving livelihoods and health, as well as economic, physical, social, cultural and environmental assets, systems and activities, of a disaster-affected community or society, aligning with the principles of sustainable development and ‘build back better,’ to avoid or reduce future disaster risk.

The Financial Cooperation and Integration Team would like to thank members of ADB Digital Learning Labs (formerly the Information Technology Department Sandbox team)—Marc Lesage, Principal IT specialist; Christopher Verceles, consultant; and Jacob K. Ninan, former consultant—for their support to the project.

The study comprises four volumes or reports covering three countries in the Central and West Asia region— Azerbaijan (Volume 1), Pakistan with a focus on Punjab (Volume 2), and Uzbekistan (Volume 3); including this synthesis report, which draws together the findings from the three country studies and outlines common areas of policy and action for Industry 4.0.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) share a commitment to integration, sustainable development, and inclusion. This has spanned a wide range of cooperation in areas including project financing, policy dialogue, capacity building, information sharing, and joint production of knowledge products.