By Kim Ninh

Kim Ninh is The Asia Foundation’s Country Representative in Vietnam.

On November 21st, the 493-member National Assembly of Vietnam (NA) finished its second session. Elected in May 2007 for a term of five years, these NA deputies meet twice a year for about 30 days to review the country’s legislative agenda and the government’s work.

Recently, a question and answer component was introduced into these NA sessions, which is now also broadcast on television and radio and reported widely in news outlets across the country. For the first time, Vietnamese citizens have been able to directly see and hear high-level government officials explain the visions they hold for the country’s development in their areas of responsibility and defend their agencies’ records. These officials are no longer simply names on paper; they are real people ripe for public judgment on their capacity to answer questions without being evasive, their thoughtful knowledge of the issues’ impact on citizens, and their readiness to offer meaningful solutions.
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By Roderick Brazier

Roderick Brazier is The Asia Foundation’s Country Representative in Cambodia. In the 1990s he worked in the Australian Prime Minister’s Department.

The Australian federal election on November 24 ended more than 11 years of rule by the conservative coalition of Liberal and National parties led by John Howard. The new Labor party government is headed by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, a former diplomat and senior state government official with an intimate understanding of both domestic and foreign policy.

What can Asia expect from Kevin Rudd and his government? For three reasons, Australia’s foreign policy in Asia will remain largely unchanged.
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By Kim McQuay

Kim McQuay is The Asia Foundation’s Country Representative in Bangladesh.

On the evening of Thursday, November 15, the cyclone in the Bay of Bengal that weather monitors had been tracking nervously for two days as it increased in intensity reached the coast of Bangladesh with a fury. Cyclone Sidr battered the coast with 150-mile per hour winds and a tidal surge that lifted waters ten feet or more higher than normal, submerging lands that lie inches above sea level, uprooting mangrove forests, and sweeping away fragile homes, crops, and the lives of human and animal victims who failed to reach shelter as the storm arrived in the cloak of darkness.

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By Carolyn Mercado with Steven Rood

Carolyn Mercado is a Senior Program Officer and Steven Rood is The Asia Foundation’s Country Representative in the Philippines.

On Tuesday, November 20th, the leaders of the 10 Association of Southeast Nations (ASEAN) countries attending the 13th ASEAN Summit in Singapore signed the first-ever ASEAN Charter. Article 14 addresses human rights:

ARTICLE 14: ASEAN HUMAN RIGHTS BODY
1. In conformity with the purposes and principles of the ASEAN Charter relating to the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms, ASEAN shall establish an ASEAN human rights body.
2. This ASEAN human rights body shall operate in accordance with the terms of reference to be determined by the ASEAN Foreign Ministers Meeting.
While any mention of human rights in the ASEAN charter can be read as progress, clearly the details of implementation remain to be filled in.

The Working Group for an ASEAN Human Rights Mechanism was formed more than a decade ago, in 1995, when human rights advocates from ASEAN countries formally banded together to pursue the creation of an inter-governmental human rights body in the region. A decade of patient and somewhat tedious labor seems finally to have borne some fruit in the new ASEAN Charter.
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By William Foerderer Infante

William Foerderer Infante is The Asia Foundation’s Country Representative in Mongolia.

Worldwide, thousands of tons of mercury are discharged into the environment every year. In many countries, including Mongolia, human and environmental health are in peril.

In September 2007, a Communities and Small Scale Mining (CASM) conference was held in Ulaanbaatar, which united international scientists in expressing their concerns for Mongolia’s environment. Dr. Peter Appel, Senior Research Scientist at the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland, said that the rapid increase of small scale mining for coal, fluorspar and gold the past five years – from zero in 1998 to 100,000 small-scale miners today, due to a change to a market economy — has been of grave concern to the World Bank. With the mining comes the widespread use of mercury. According to environmental expert Robyn Grayson of Ulaanbaatar-based Eco-Minex consultants, “an epidemic of mercury disease” is foreseeable in several Mongolian towns and villages. Other scientists, like Dr. Bern Klein and Dr. Marcello Veiga from the Mining Department at the University of British Columbia, warned that increasing evidence of mercury contamination threatens communities and the environment on a much broader national — or even international — scale.

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By Marielle Sander Lindstrom

Marielle Sander Lindstrom is the Chief of Party for the Counter-Trafficking in Persons Program (CTIP) in Cambodia.

November 25th was International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women and an opportunity to take inventory of achievements made on behalf of women’s security as well as what remains to be done. 2007 saw an increase in the response to fight human trafficking by the Cambodian government and to reduce the vulnerability of their most at-risk population – particularly children and women. While it was clear that lack of opportunity and wide-spread poverty are contributing factors to the high risk of human trafficking, Government officials realized that they had to change behaviors and attitudes towards trafficking and women. Responding to international pressure, but also expressing real concern about their citizens, Government officials appealed to the NGO and donor communities to help them address the problem.

Alarming reports of Cambodian nationals being trafficked for sex and labor on long-haul fishing boats, child pornography on the Internet, and young Cambodian women being stranded in neighboring countries because of fake marriages pushed the government to take radical steps.
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By Syed Al-Muti

Syed Al-Muti is The Asia Foundation’s Director of Local Economic Governance Programs in Bangladesh.

Every year, a substantial portion of Bangladesh is submerged by monsoon floodwaters. Bangladeshis have adapted to this recurrent cycle of seasonal flooding with extraordinary resilience. But then there is extreme, severe flooding. This occurs every few years here, posing a great threat to public health and placing a tremendous strain on social service delivery.

This past July, 2007, severe flooding affected thousands of square kilometers of land in several parts of the country, damaging crops, homes, schools, hospitals, and other public facilities. The flooding devastated rural areas and forced tens of thousands of people from their homes, threatening the lives and livelihoods of farmers, laborers, cycle rickshaw drivers, small traders, and fishermen. In response to this emergency, The Asia Foundation partnered with small business associations in Rangpur and Jessore Districts to address one of the major long-term consequences of flooding—the supply of safe drinking water.
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By Janice K. Stallard

Janice Stallard is the Deputy Project Director of the Vietnam Competitiveness Project.

Since its accession to the World Trade Organization in 2006, Vietnam has continued to improve its regulatory environment for business. The 2007 Provincial Competitiveness Index (PCI) report, which measures economic governance for private sector development, was released last week. This survey - the third annual edition - is the largest and most comprehensive assessment ever done. It is a ranking of the performance of provincial governments based on the views expressed by over 6,700 entrepreneurs and managers of small and medium (SME) enterprises across Vietnam’s 64 provinces.

The 2007 PCI findings show that, as provincial governments strive to create a better business environment, the private sector has flourished and economic welfare has improved. Findings reveal that the overall standard of provincial economic governance in Vietnam has improved over the past year.
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By William S. Infante

William S. Infante is The Asia Foundation’s Country Representative in Mongolia.

Mongolia will soon have a new Prime Minister. The implications are profound and could signal a changing political climate — one that is more stable and secure. This would bode well for trade, and for investment, particularly in the largely-untapped minerals sector where tens of billions of dollars in gold, copper, coal and other resources remain underground. If the new government can break the logjam that has obstructed development of the minerals sector, then billions of dollars in investment could flow, creating tens of thousands of jobs for Mongolians whose per capita income hovers just barely above $1,000 per year. Oddly, the leadership change has escaped the western press.
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In 1999, the Indonesian National Police separated from the military structure to become an independent entity. This single change has been a crucial element in Indonesia’s transition to democracy because it created an accountable, civilian police force. For over four years, The Asia Foundation has supported the development of Community-Oriented Policing (COP) programs that help police in their efforts to improve services to citizens, reduce crime, and enact reforms. COP programs have not only improved the performance of the Indonesian police, but, by creating partnerships between the community and the police to work on issues like safety, they’ve built public trust.
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