In Asia: Weekly Insight and Features from Asia

This article is the second in a three-part blog series exploring barriers to women’s advancement in Asia and how The Asia Foundation is working to address them. When Indonesian citizens began scrutinizing their local government budgets as part of an Asia Foundation-led program on gender-responsive budgeting, they found some surprises:  a new suit for the [...]

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Local government budgets in the Philippines are by nature public and are important instruments for policy making and planning. But, inequities often emerge when local officials monopolize allocation decisions, which do not always reflect the priorities of the people who rely on local government services such as health care, social services, and low-cost housing for [...]

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Reports indicate that human trafficking today is among the fastest growing criminal industries in the world. According to the 2007 U.S. Department of State’s Trafficking in Persons Report, an estimated 800,000 men, women, and children are trafficked across international borders every year. And many Asian countries are both the primary sources and destinations for the [...]

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John Karr, The Asia Foundation’s Digital Media director, participated in a Chronicle of Philanthropy webinar last week alongside other prominent nonprofit social media experts such as Merritt Birnbaum, Marketing and Development director at Youth Renewal Fund; Estrella Rosenberg, founder of Big Love Little Hearts; and Kathy Rowan, president of Rowan Communications. Karr – who spearheaded [...]

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This is the loveliest time to be in Hanoi. The weather is cooler, and the light takes on a soft, golden glow spilling over the ochre walls of the numerous stately colonial buildings around the city. It makes the perfect setting as Vietnam ends its year of ASEAN chairmanship and hosts the 17th ASEAN Summit [...]

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These are boom times in U.S.-Southeast Asia relations. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton represents the United States at the 17th ASEAN Summit this week in Hanoi – the highlight of which is to be U.S. participation, for the first time ever, in the East Asia Summit (EAS). Secretary Clinton is also expected to travel to [...]

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The Office of Senator Richard Lugar has released the latest Congressional Research Service (CRS) report on implementation of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1874, along with a statement that “the findings include a stark reminder that U.S. and China interests regarding North Korea are largely incongruent. While the United States presses for elimination of North Korea’s [...]

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“We have come to declare that we will help bring reform to this country and create space for access to human rights and true democracy. Our movement will not cease until the people’s problems are solved, until our sufferings are alleviated, and until our people can live with dignity and justice.” This declaration was read [...]

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After the successful first-ever nationwide automated elections in the Philippines in May, the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) still held its breath for more than five months as it prepared for the nationwide barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections in October. The barangay (the native term for a “village” previously known as barrio during the Spanish occupation [...]

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On Oct. 21, 2010, four days before the scheduled synchronized barangay (village) and Sangguniang Kabataan (youth council) elections, 297 villages in eastern Visayas were placed on the “election watchlist” by the Philippine National Police (PNP). According to the PNP, the areas, 122 of which were located in Northern Samar province, were identified as “hotspots” because [...]

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