At separate ceremonies held in Koronadal City on March 6th and in General Santos City on March 7th, a total of 20,000 children’s books and reference materials were presented to 560 schools across the province of South Cotabato and the city of General Santos. The donations are part of The Asia Foundation’s Books for Asia program. The distribution of the books in Mindanao was made possible through the Foundation’s Transparent Accountable Governance (TAG) project with support from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
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By Sanchita Saxena and Veronique Salze-Lozac’h

Sanchita Saxena is the Vice Chair of the Center for South Asia Studies at UC Berkeley and Veronique Salze-Lozac’h is The Asia Foundation’s Regional Director for Economic Programs.

The last several decades have seen Bangladesh’s dependence on the garment sector grow significantly. In 1983, there were about 50 garment factories in the country. By 2004, this number had jumped to 4,000. Exports have increased from a meager $68 thousand in 1968 to $5.7 billion in 2004. It was around the early 1990’s when consumers in the U.S. and the E.U. began noticing that almost any T-shirt they picked up at their local Walmart, Target or JC Penney was made in Bangladesh. Currently, this sector employs approximately 2.2 million workers, of whom almost 80% are women. It is not an understatement to say that this sector has created enormous economic opportunities for the country’s women, who until the late 1970’s were almost non-existent in the labor force.
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By Barnett Baron

Barnett Baron is the Executive Vice President of The Asia Foundation. The below is from a presentation originally delivered to a luncheon of Korean corporate executives on February 14th in Seoul, Korea.

Corporate social responsibility, corporate philanthropy, and corporate community engagement are terms that have been used more or less interchangeably to describe the relationships between the modern corporation and its shareholders, its employees, the communities in which it operates, and others, including government and civil society.

These concepts have been discussed within the corporate community for many years, but the discussion has now made prime time. The January/February issue of Foreign Affairs includes an article on corporate citizenship by Klaus Schwab, CEO of the World Economic Forum. In that article, Schwab disaggregates corporate engagement with “the community beyond its shareholders” into five core components
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China’s migrant workforce is one of the major drivers of the country’s economic rise. In Beijing alone there are 4 million migrant workers. Over the past decade, China has seen the development of micro-loans to support rural development, but very few banks lend money to migrant workers. With support from the Boeing Company, The Asia Foundation developed the “Social Innovation Fund” for migrant workers in Beijing. The fund helps integrate migrant workers into their new urban communities by building social support networks and creating new and enhanced economic opportunities and providing skills training. Loan projects have provided them a remarkable opportunity to start their own businesses, set up a bookstore for other migrant workers, and recruit more migrant workers to expand their garment businesses.

Each year, thousands of young women are trafficked within and outside of Nepal and forced into exploitative labor situations, including prostitution. Extreme poverty, illiteracy, and internal conflict are all factors contributing to this illegal practice. The Foundation has provided more than 2,300 trafficking survivors and those at risk of being trafficked with vocational training and education, enabling them to become economically self-reliant. Many of these young women have been trained and employed in vocations normally reserved for men, such as drivers and mechanics. With support from Give2Asia, the Foundation helps program graduates establish “one-stop shops” where customers come for motorcycle and electronic repairs. The program challenges stereotypical gender roles, and provides the young women with gainful employment that reduces their risk of being trafficked.

Women make up 25 percent of the National Assembly in Laos, but only two percent of local level government leadership. The Asia Foundation helped put on a workshop for women parliamentarians in an effort to increase women’s representation in public office and to help put women’s priorities on policy agendas. The training covered women’s constitutional rights, public speaking, and presentation skills and participants included women members of the National Assembly, the Lao Women’s Union, and high-ranking government officials. Soon after the workshop, participants put their training to practical use by uniting to advocate for laws that protect the rights of women and children. Their efforts resulted in extending the legal age at which women can retire to 60 years (the same as men), approving a Child Protection Act, and revising the labor laws in favor of workers’ rights.

By Ruengrawee Ketphol

Ruengrawee Ketphol is a Senior Program Coordinator for The Asia Foundation’s Tsunami Rights & Legal Aid Referral Center (T-LAC) project in Thailand.

Last year I wrote an In Asia piece about mothers in Thailand who were made childless by the Indian Ocean Tsunami of December 24, 2004. It was an issue very close to my heart; as a mother of two daughters I can not even begin to imagine the pain of separation that these mothers have gone through, and must still be going through every day.

In the two years since The Asia Foundation’s Tsunami Rights & Legal Aid Referral Center (T-LAC) began providing legal aid to people in tsunami-affected areas, I have met many women whose children were swept away by the waves. The tragedy is further compounded for some of these women as they are not able to conceive again due to having had a tubal ligation operation – a surgical contraceptive supported by the Thai government’s family-planning campaign.
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By John Brandon

John J. Brandon is Director of The Asia Foundation’s International Relations Programs.

On February 28th, former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra returned to Bangkok after being deposed by a military coup on September 19, 2006. He was greeted warmly and enthusiastically by thousands of his supporters. Upon his arrival, Mr. Thaksin was taken to the Supreme Court to face arrest warrant and was quickly bailed, and then taken to the Office of the Attorney General to face a different arrest warrant (and bailed again). Mr. Thaksin’s trial with the Supreme Court is set to resume on March 12th; no court date has been set yet with the Attorney General warrant. From the onset, the former prime minister has proclaimed his innocence.
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