In Asia: Weekly Insight and Features from Asia

For the past 30 years, Asia has been urbanizing at a faster rate than any other region in the world. In 2011, Asia was home to roughly 61 percent of the world’s population, or 4.2 billion people. More than 40 percent of them now live in urban areas. By 2025, Asia will have 21 of the world’s 37 megacities…

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When I first met Pandju Merali at his home in Seal Beach, California, in 2010, he told me a story about his life, which is recorded in his memoir, From Africa 2 America. Mr. Merali talked about what it was like growing up as a child of Indian descent in the Congo…

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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.

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Earlier this week in Mongolia, The Asia Foundation organized an International Women’s Leadership Forum, hosted by the Community of Democracies, to examine women’s challenges in economic, political and civic arenas. Hillary Clinton spoke at the event, which brought together 100+ participants to discuss ways to promote women’s entrepreneurship, access to natural resources, and leadership in [...]

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As Mongolians prepare for next week’s Mongolian Lunar New Year festivities, government and non-governmental organizations are celebrating the passage of two long-awaited pieces of legislation that the Parliament of Mongolia passed in January. The passage of a standalone Law on Combating Trafficking in Persons marks a milestone in Mongolia’s anti-trafficking efforts, and signifies the culmination of more than three years of intense advocacy.

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This week, His Excellency Elbegdorj, president of Mongolia, was honored by The Asia Foundation at a private dinner in San Francisco. The president was here to mark the opening of a formal Mongolian consulate. President Elbegdorj was one of the leaders of Mongolia’s peaceful democratic revolution in 1990. Under the president, the nation has seen [...]

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As university students across Mongolia complete final exams this week, 60 girls at two of the top universities in the country came together over the weekend to look back at their first year as recipients of Merali Scholarships.

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The “resource curse” in development is well known. Countries endowed with valuable natural resources –most notably oil, natural gas, minerals, and diamonds – often also suffer from poor governance, high poverty, and conflict. And, as recent events in the Middle East have reminded us, such countries are frequently authoritarian and highly repressive.

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Over the last decade, Mongolia has seen a rapid increase in human trafficking, especially of young women being forced into prostitution across Asia. While analysts say the resource-rich country could be one of the fastest growing economies of the next decade, many young women will be shut out of the boom…

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In recent decades, Asia has experienced transformative economic growth and reform, and women have made significant advances in gender equity, political participation, and personal security – but challenges remain. The Asia Foundation’s Women’s Empowerment Program seeks to identify change agents, create new political and economic opportunities for women, build constituencies for reform, develop leaders, increase women’s rights, and ensure their personal security.

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