In Asia: Weekly Insight and Features from Asia

On August 28 at the World Affairs Council in San Francisco, The Asia Foundation’s Gordon Hein moderated a discussion on Burma’s (also known as Myanmar) current reform process and its future. Dr. Hein, who just returned from his third trip to Burma this year, joined leading experts Stan Sze of Community Partners International; Nyunt Than [...]

> More

While the arrest of Mongolia’s former president Nambar Enkhbayar on corruption charges has been dominating headlines, another quieter, but very significant event took place earlier this summer on June 28, when nine women won seats in the country’s parliamentary elections.

> More

My colleague Michelle Chang recently blogged about the promises of mobile money for Asia. It’s true that in many countries, like Pakistan and Afghanistan, where banking infrastructure is limited, mobile money represents a potential solution for the hundreds of millions of individuals who remain unbanked…

> More

Secretary of the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Jesse Manalastas Robredo – a highly-regarded, multi-awarded public servant, and an internationally recognized expert in local governance – died after the small plane…

> More

The Asia Foundation’s Sam Taffer recently joined Mirza Amiri, former director and CEO of the Export Promotion Agency of Afghanistan, in a discussion on the challenges and opportunities for Afghanistan’s private sector. Mr. Amiri is the recipient of the Foundation’s prestigious Chang-Lin Tien Visiting Fellow Award…

> More

Laos, which has one of the most limited civil society sectors in the world, has recently taken steps to consider the growth of the sector, which could help deliver crucial services needed for the country to graduate from least developed nation status by 2020. To assist with these efforts, The Asia Foundation just launched the [...]

> More

From July 2011 to January 2012, Thailand encountered the worst flooding in five decades. The floods killed over 800 people and left millions homeless or displaced. Over three quarters of Thailand’s provinces were declared flood disaster zones, and the World Bank estimated that the economic loss exceeded $45 billion. Thailand’s government was unprepared for the longevity and severity of the floods, and many communities felt that the Flood Response Operation Center (FROC), which was established to coordinate emergency response and provide regular communications to the public, was inadequate.

> More

Hours before her expected arrival at the Migrant Workers Rights Network (MWRN) office in Mahachai, Thailand, southwest of Bangkok, hundreds of people began to assemble around the building, hoping to secure a good spot to greet or at least catch a glimpse of “the Lady.”

> More

The Foreign Ministers of the members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) were reluctant history-makers last month. The 45th ASEAN Ministerial Meeting (AMM), which took place in July in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh…

> More

In Nepal’s Chitwan District, a 40-year-old widow and mother of two was burnt alive by her family on Feb. 18, 2012. A local shaman and her family members had accused her of using witchcraft to make another family member sick.

> More