The Asia-Pacific Development Journal is published twice a year by the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific. Its primary objective is to provide a medium for the exchange of knowledge, experience, ideas, information and data on all aspects of economic and social development in the Asian and Pacific region. The emphasis of the Journal is on the publication of empirically based, policy-oriented articles in the areas of poverty alleviation, emerging social issues and managing globalization.This special issue contains 6 selected papers, developed as spin-off of discussion at the 3rd North-East Asia Development Cooperation Forum. The Forum is one of the initiatives of subregional engagement of ESCAP to bring together researchers and practitioners of development cooperation in the four North-East Asian countries (China, Japan, Republic of Korea and Russian Federation), which are major players in development assistance, to discuss subregional cooperation to strengthen effectiveness of their initiatives. China International Development Research Network (CIDRN), Japan Society for International Development (JASID), Korea Association of International Development and Cooperation (KAIDEC), Russian Association of Experts in International Development Assistance are partnering with ESCAP in this initiative. The papers contained in this issue are submitted by the respective associations. The Forum in 2015, held in Tokyo on 31 October – 1 November 2015, was co-hosted by JASID and JICA Research Institute and had special focus on the development cooperation of North East Asian countries as a key to the means of implementation for Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).