In Asia: Weekly Insight and Features from Asia

At a time when the Korean government is discussing plans to deploy more civilian aid workers and security troops to Afghanistan early next year, development progress in the entire South Asia region is high on the minds of Korean policymakers and aid organizations.

On November 25, South Korea further solidified its commitment to international development and aid by becoming an official member of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) Development Assistance Committee (DAC). The DAC is an international forum that brings together donor governments and multi-lateral organizations to discuss and set standards for effective aid to developing countries.

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South Korea’s name and role is being recognized on the world stage because of its economic and political accomplishments.

Hosting the Olympic Games in 1988 and the World Cup in 2002 shed a spotlight on our progress in industrialization and democracy. Chairing the G-20 summit talks in Seoul next November accentuates the country’s rising political and economic status.

In the latest tip of the hat to Korea, the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development’s Development Assistance Committee in Paris a few weeks ago extended its 24th membership to South Korea in official recognition of its eligibility to join international campaigns to help poorer countries. That move marks significant progress for a country that a half-century ago was one of the top recipients of international aid.

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Pakistan is signatory to eight international human rights conventions, four of which have been ratified. Despite these legal achievements, the reality of the current state of human rights in Pakistan remains bleak, according to Amnesty International’s latest State of the World’s Human Rights report. Prison torture, deaths in custody, attacks on minorities, forced disappearances, honor killings, and domestic violence persist.

Yet, Pakistan is well-known for its robust electronic and print media, which has emerged as a mouthpiece for its citizens to voice concerns about governance, democracy, and human rights. Pakistani journalists are at the forefront of covering human rights abuses – whether a military operation or barring girls from attending schools.

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The unprecedented degree of polarization in Thai politics has been well-documented, and local media have undoubtedly played an instrumental role in perpetuating ongoing political tension. Gone are the days when balance and objectivity were held as worthy goals of the media. In the current commercial television climate, high-quality debate programs where two sides of an important public issue are represented have all but disappeared from the screen.

Inspector-General of the Ministry of Public Health MD Somchai Pinyopornpanich and Nasroh Sae debate on Let's Talk Rights over the right of nurses to wear the hijab in public hospitals.

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Today, International Anti-Corruption Day, The Asia Foundation released its eighth semi-annual Corruption Benchmarking Survey (CBS) in Mongolia. The only surveying tool in Mongolia that gauges corruption on the household level, the survey was conducted in partnership with the Sant Maral Foundation using multi-level randomization and face-to-face interviews. Findings from the survey indicate that Mongolian households are increasingly paying more bribes, with one in every five Mongolian households having paid a bribe within a three-month period.

Since 2006, The Asia Foundation has conducted this survey twice a year to monitor the scope, incidence, and impact of corruption at the household level over time, in an effort to analyze trends and strengthen institutional and public capacity to deter and reduce corruption in Mongolia. For more information, download the full report.

Next week on Monday, December 7, the United Nations Conference on Climate Change in Copenhagen will commence. Despite deteriorating hopes for a binding international treaty to aggressively tackle climate change, the potential remains for useful dialogue, collaboration, and concerted steps forward. Already in the works is an agreement for collaboration on clean energy and climate change between China and the United States – two major countries that will contribute to the pace of the Copenhagen negotiations. But what does this collaboration mean on the ground in practical actions and output, beyond the high-level agendas and statements?

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The Himalaya mountain range is warming at a rate three times faster than the rest of the planet, and the impact of this crisis is reverberating throughout Nepal. Snowcaps are receding, new lakes are making traditional animal herding routes impassable, landslides are becoming more frequent, and insects that previously were unable to live in the high altitudes of the Himalayas are flourishing and driving down crop yields. Despite some controversy over numbers, the catastrophic effects climate change could bring to the region are inarguable, and will be a leading priority as global leaders convene on Monday for the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen.

A village sits at in the shadow of the Himalayas. It is estimated that more than 700 million people live near the Hindu Kush-Himalayan mountain ranges, and are particularly vulnerable to the effects climate change brings to the region. Photo by Mr. Helmut Blauth.

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Election violence is a paradox. Elections are designed to be peaceful means to resolve contestation for power and to uphold the democratic rights of citizens to participate directly in governance. Yet, in the Philippines, elections have increasingly become a reason for the use of violence and have often sowed fear and divisiveness and/or violation of human rights.

The recent and horrifying November 23 massacre in the province of Maguindanao, on the island of Mindanao in the southern Philippines, that killed over 50 people, many of them women and including many journalists, is the most gruesome case of election-related violence in the country, and the worst single attack on journalists in history. The event has solidified our ranking as one of the most dangerous countries for journalists in the world. Even innocent bystanders and those passing by were not spared.

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Among the nomadic river peoples of Bangladesh, the students at Subornogram Schools had never seen a children’s book. So we asked each student to choose their favorite Bangla storybook, and then we gave it to them. Watch the video to see the kids receiving the books and take a minute to vote for your favorite storybook. Harold and the Purple Crayon currently has the lead, with 13 more days to go!

After a number of Mangudadatu family members were murdered on November 23 in unprecedented election-related violence in Maguindanao, in the Philippines, many have expressed concern over the possibility of a new eruption of rido, or retaliatory clan feuding. As journalists, bloggers, and the general public respond to the tragedy, The Asia Foundation’s definitive reference report Rido: Clan Feuding and Conflict Management in Mindanao details clan violence and resolution in the Philippines and serves as a resource to understand the roots of these sporadic outbursts between families and communities. The report’s map chronicles the result of extensive research conducted by the Foundation beginning in 2002 with a household survey in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) and adjacent areas. New York Times columnist Robert Mackey, recently blogged about the Philippine government’s response to the massacre and mentioned the report’s findings. Access the full report, listen to an interview on KQED’s The Forum with our Country Representative in the Philippines Steve Rood, or join the discussion on Twitter.