By Matthew Pendergast

Matthew Pendergast is The Asia Foundation’s Communications Assistant. He can be reached at mpendergast@asiafound.org. To watch a short film about the group of Mongolian educators discussed below, please click here.

Two weeks ago, I wrote a post on this blog about going to the Yosemite Valley with a group of Mongolian educators, and I talked about rivers and bugs and the importance of putting environmental monitoring tools directly in the hands of Mongolian citizens (click here to see a short film on the group visiting Yosemite).

After the Yosemite trip, I visited once more with the Mongolians before they returned home, this time along the shores of the Pacific Ocean at the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, where they were continuing their study of water quality monitoring.

Seemed strange to me – isn’t Mongolia landlocked? What’s the point of teaching them about water quality in the ocean of all places? I posed the question to Chris Plante, The Asia Foundation’s Director for Environmental Programs.
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By Steven Rood

Steven Rood is The Asia Foundation’s Country Representative in the Philippines.

On April 7 and 8, an important conference on the Philippines was held in Washington, D.C., titled “Can the Philippines Break Out of its Affliction: Prospects for Democratic Governance, Economic Development, and Philippine-U.S. Relations,” organized by Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) Southeast Asia Studies Program and The Asia Foundation, with generous support from Exxon-Mobil Corporation.
This program was a chance to focus attention in Washington on the Philippines, and it was occasioned by the Visiting Professorship at SAIS of Noel Morada, immediate past Chair of the Political Science Department at the University of the Philippines. This piece is a follow-up to last week’s, which discusses panels I-III.
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By Steven Rood

Steven Rood is The Asia Foundation’s Country Representative in the Philippines. He can be reached at srood@asiafound.org.

On April 7 and 8, an important conference on the Philippines was held in Washington, D.C., titled “Can the Philippines Break Out of its Affliction? Prospects for Democratic Governance, Economic Development, and Philippine-US Relations,” organized by Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) Southeast Asia Studies Program and The Asia Foundation, with generous support from Exxon-Mobil Corporation.

This program was a chance to focus attention in Washington on the Philippines, and it was occasioned by the Visiting Professorship at SAIS of Noel Morada, immediate past Chair of the Political Science Department at the University of the Philippines.

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By Matthew Pendergast

Matthew Pendergast is based in San Francisco at The Asia Foundation’s headquarters, where he works in Communications. He can be reached at mpendergast@asiafound.org.

“Everything is connected. John Muir explored these very mountains and came to that same conclusion. That’s how we approach the environment in Mongolia – by understanding that everything is part of a system.”

We’re in the car descending into the magnificent Yosemite Valley in California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains. Chris Plante, The Asia Foundation’s Director for Environmental Programs, is explaining to me why we’ve brought a group of Mongolian educators here – 13,000 miles from the arid steppes of Central Asia to lush rolling hills, almond orchards, old mining towns, and fir-lined granite mountains still packed high with snow. These teachers are here to learn about the importance of water quality monitoring, and how they can introduce simple experiential learning into their own classrooms in some of Mongolia’s most remote areas.

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By Ruangrawee Ketphol

Ruengrawee Ketphol is a Senior Program Coordinator for The Asia Foundation’s Tsunami Rights & Legal Aid Referral Center (T-LAC) project in Thailand. To contact her, please write to dfelix@asiafound.org.

Last week, just before dawn on Tuesday morning, six boats loaded with over 120 people left the island of Sin Hai and sailed for the mainland. Elsewhere along the coast of Ranong province, hundreds of other people climbed into buses and pickup trucks to travel to Ranong city for an event held by The Asia Foundation in conjunction with the provincial government. The long-awaited day was the culmination of a program organized by the Foundation’s Tsunami Rights and Legal Aid Referral Center (T-LAC) to provide free DNA tests which enabled unrecognized Thai citizens to prove their nationality and obtain ID cards.

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Over 200 new identification cards were distributed by Governor Kanjana Keeman to Thai citizens at a ceremony held in Ranong province on Tuesday, March 25th. The new I.D. card holders are participants of a major initiative led by The Asia Foundation’s Tsunami Rights and Legal Aid Referral Center (T-LAC) program, which provided free DNA testing and guidance to each family through the application process. In addition, 200 children were added to their family’s household registration list, which will automatically qualify them for a state I.D. card once they reach the legal age of 15.
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By Terry Foecke and Chris Plante

Terry Foecke is Senior Environmental Consultant at The Asia Foundation; Chris Plante is The Asia Foundation’s Environment Programs Director, and can be reached at cplante@asiafound.org.

Current funding and project trends to improve environmental governance in Asia focus on activism, increased enforcement of environmental regulations, public participation, and intergovernmental efforts to address transboundary environmental issues. Yet, an environmental protection model of activism and enforcement often ignores too many realities of developing economies. During more than 50 years of program work in developing Asian economies on governance and law, economic development, and the environment, The Asia Foundation has found that the existing governance systems and policy instruments often support polluting and environmentally destructive practices.

The Foundation’s Environment Program integrates and supports activist and enforcement approaches, but it also adds a third way: emphasizing a realignment of political and economic incentives and collaborative public policy. The fundamental problem is that, by its very nature, the status quo approach to environmental protection slows growth. Pollution control and cleanup drains resources away from short-term productivity and places resources into long-term investments like protected lands and forests, clean water, and clean air.
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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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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.