With presidential elections in the island nation of the Maldives approaching in September, anxiety over an increase in gang-led violence is on the rise, despite the Maldives Police Service having successfully reduced crime on the streets of the capital, Male, in recent months. As in most fledgling democracies, political uncertainty can breed violent acts in an effort to achieve narrow political gains. The Maldives is no exception – just last year, the country was torn by weeks of political violent protests on the streets, and clashes between the police and protesters ending with the unexpected resignation of President Mohamed Nasheed. This uncertainty, combined with social issues such as high unemployment and rising cases of domestic violence, have resulted in a significant number of people joining gangs.

Last year, The Asia Foundation conducted a seminal study that revealed the diverse reasons why people join gangs, including unemployment, a need to belong, a search for brotherhood and identity, drugs, desire for an affluent lifestyle, and bullying at school. The study indicated that there are 20 to 30 violent gangs in Male with 50 to 400 members each. The findings also suggest that due to high levels of domestic violence, divorce, and broken homes, joining gangs has become a popular choice for Maldivian youth looking outside of traditional family structures for support and protection. Since then, the Foundation has been piloting a series of programs in partnership with the Maldives Institute for Psychological Services, Training, and Research (MIPSTAR), a local civil society organization, to counter the growth of gang-related violence. Since the program began in September 2012, 34 gang members from 11 different gangs from across the city of Male, some of whom were gang leaders, have voluntarily registered for the program and have been actively engaged since its inception. While this sampling is small, the preliminary results have been positive.

Gang members visit Kudabandos island, an hour-long ferry ride from Male, for a workshop organized by MIPSTAR.

Monthly meetings with the police to discuss grievances and strategies to address potential violence serve as a fulcrum to bring all gang members together. They come dressed neatly; arriving promptly to discuss among themselves the key issues that they would like to highlight in the monthly meeting with senior representatives from the Maldives Police Service. In the meeting last month, *Azim, who has been involved in gangs since he was 16 and is now a senior member, pointed out frustration over police harassment on the streets and arrests without evidence. He also said that being labeled a gang member results in closer scrutiny by the police officers, which he said was acceptable as long as they are not wrongfully arrested for crimes not committed by them.

These meetings with the police result in some honest reflection, with both parties proactively collaborating to find solutions to their respective challenges. The discussions reveal that one of the root causes for harassment and wrongful arrests were the beat police officers (police constables and sergeants who are permanently assigned to a neighborhood) who tend to view all gang members with suspicion and hostility. To help mitigate this, MIPSTAR is beginning to organize regular meetings with the beat officers to bridge the relationship between gangs and the police officers patrolling the streets of the city. While the program is still new, we hope that it will also contribute to addressing the trust deficit, which currently runs high.

The gang members also participate in vocational training courses of their choice, which is a mandatory feature of the program. The courses range from training to be a water sport and diving instructor, tour guide, and computer programmer to completing formal education. *Ahmed Mahruf, a past gang member who recently completed his three-month water sports course, said that as a water sport instructor he is ensured of a job with a good salary. Six such gang members, the majority of whom have criminal records, completed the water sports course last month and are currently employed as assistant instructors, under probation, with resorts close to Male. For them to secure regular jobs, the Maldives Police Service will issue a letter of recommendation to ensure their employability. This is a significant step as it helps drive down unemployment, one of the key issues perpetuating gang violence. The three most dangerous gang members as identified by the police are enrolled in O-Level (High School Diploma) programs and regularly seek individual counseling also offered in the program. They expressed that the present context is challenging. On the one hand, they want to engage actively in the program and reform themselves; but on the other hand, there is also a pressure to engage in illegal activities including contract violence.

The program also helps gang members form goals for their future and develop realistic plans to achieve them. This along with psychosocial support offered through individual and group counseling sessions which focus on understanding their interests and motivations, managing anger and frustration, and developing conflict resolution strategies to keep out violence, are critical for self-development.

The project office serves as a drop-in center for gang members participating in the program, and is open until midnight during the week. It provides them with their own space not only to hang out and discuss their concerns with each other and the counselors but also to support the implementation of the program. For example, Ahmed and Azim have developed a five-minute video slickly edited to showcase the session on how to develop new career skills. Azim regularly types out the monthly meeting notes with the police and other gang members. He is also supporting MIPSTAR with the study of gang violence in the two atolls of Laamu and Fuvamulah by bringing the local gang leaders and some of its members on board.

Though the program is in the early stages and the sampling very small, it is noteworthy that none of the 34 gang members associated with the program has committed a crime over the past seven months. Based on this pilot, the Foundation will soon expand the program to work with gangs in Laamu and Fuvamulah. While it’s too soon to tell for certain, based on what we’ve seen so far, we are hopeful that by reaching a far greater pool of potential and current gang members, this program can contribute to addressing some of the most pressing issues in the Maldives.

*Names have been changed for privacy.

Gita Sabharwal is The Asia Foundation’s deputy country representative in Sri Lanka. She can be reached at gsabharwal@asiafound.org. The views and opinions expressed here are those of the individual author and not necessarily those of The Asia Foundation.

The horrific collapse three weeks ago of an eight-story garment factory building in Savar, just outside of Bangladesh’s capital, Dhaka, took the lives of more than 1,100 people, and was followed just last week by a deadly fire in another garment factory that left at least eight dead.

The garment sector in Bangladesh accounts for about 80 percent of the country’s exports and employs more than 3 million people. Photo/Conor Ashleigh

The tragedies have left a nation in mourning, shining a spotlight on the lack of safety for garment sector workers in Bangladesh. These incidents have drawn international attention on the urgent need for better working conditions for workers, starting with safer, more secure buildings.

While these events may serve as an immediate eye opener for consumers and manufacturers in the west, the critical need to improve factory safety in the readymade garment sector in Bangladesh should not come as a surprise. The country has long been under scrutiny because of recurrent industrial accidents that point to poor working conditions and poor safety standards in some of the country’s factories. Voices from within (including international buyers and local factory owners) and outside of the industry (international donors and civil society) have repeatedly called for measures to be taken to improve factory safety.

The death toll of what is one of the largest industrial accidents in Bangladesh fully justifies national and international outcries and the ire of the customers and business community, demanding that strong commitments and measures are taken. However, the worst thing that could happen to the readymade sector in Bangladesh, and to the millions of workers whose livelihoods depend on exports to western countries, is to see the label “made in Bangladesh” boycotted by consumers.

After China, Bangladesh is the world’s second-largest apparel exporter. The garment sector accounts for about 80 percent of the country’s exports and employs more than 3 million people, mostly women. If it is true that cheap labor is the main driver of the sector’s growth, it is also fair to say that this growth has provided economic opportunities to millions of women who would have very few other options to escape extreme poverty. The garment sector, despite what seems like an extremely-low paying industry in western standards, has positively transformed the lives of many women in Bangladesh.

Maintaining the livelihood of the workers and their families should, however, never be to the detriment of their safety. Strong commitments need to be made and measures implemented not only to improve safety, but to make safety and decent working conditions the heart of the industry’s competitive advantage. This is not only the responsibility of the employers; it is the responsibility of each of the players in the value-chain: consumers, international buyers, leaders of the garment sector and professional associations, Bangladesh’s government, the international community, the civil society, and the workers themselves.

Consumers have an essential role to play in requesting information on the conditions in which their clothes are produced and in putting pressure on brands to better control the working conditions in the factories they are sourcing from. Western retailers are, of course, well positioned to press for reform, and to impose good working conditions as a prerequisite for their orders, before considering the price. Many world-famous brands have already called for more stringent labour safety standards. On May 8, the U.S. Department of Labor and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative convened a conference call with U.S. buyers in Bangladesh’s garment industry to discuss U.S. government engagement to improve workers’ rights and working conditions, and to review how the private sector can assist in these vital ongoing efforts.

The question now is whether these “good words” will translate into effective action with real and sustainable results.

The different parties have already put forward some suggestions and resolutions, including the need for independent safety and fire inspectors, the requirement that factories are certified by a group of engineers, and the establishment of a “Corrective Action Plan” (CAP) which the manufacturer will have to fulfill, among others. Nobel Peace Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus also suggested in an op-ed in the Dhaka Tribune on May 9, the establishment of a Garment Workers Welfare Trust and of a “good compliance label” that consumers could reference as a guarantee for labor compliance. On Monday, Bangladesh’s cabinet approved changes to the nation’s labor laws that are expected to increase the benefits for garment workers and make it easier to form trade unions.

Another recommendation is to draw from the experience of Better Factories Cambodia, a program managed by the International Labour Organization, in close collaboration with the Royal Government of Cambodia (RGC), the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia (GMAC) and the country’s trade unions. The program aims to improve working conditions in Cambodia’s export garment factories and combines independent monitoring with finding solutions, through suggestions to management, training, advice, and information. In Bangladesh, the implementation of such a program would require four key elements:

• that international buyers join forces with the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) to advocate for the immediate passage of labour law amendments to lay the basis for the establishment of such a program;

• that Bangladesh’s government shows a strong political will to enforce the labour laws and a strong commitment to international labour compliance;

• that workers are more organized (which implies greater freedom of association), better informed and included in the design and implementation of the program, and;

• that the BGMEA, the government, civil society, and labour groups coordinate efforts with each other and with the international community.

Only a large mobilization of all parties can help ensure that tragedies of this kind don’t happen again. All parties need to send a clear message to factory owners that decent working conditions is a prerequisite for sourcing products from Bangladesh, or from any other country in the world. In the near future, consumers need to buy “made in Bangladesh” clothes, not “despite” the bad working conditions of some of its factories, but “because” of a clear commitment of its whole industry to meet international standards.

Sadly, it is too late for the hundreds of workers who perished in the tragedy of Savar, but what better testimony to their memory than to learn from this tragedy and use it to drive safety standards and changes in attitude that will lead to a safer, more just garment industry.

Véronique Salze-Lozac’h is The Asia Foundation’s director for Economic Development Programs based in Bangkok. She can be reached at veronique.salze-lozach@asiafoundation.org. The views and opinions expressed here are those of the individual author and not those of The Asia Foundation.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen announced in late March that the nation was on target to move from the status of a low-income to a lower-middle-income nation by the end of 2013, ranking it the 15th country that obtained high economic growth in the world in the last 10 years.

An owner of a small sundries shop in Kampong Chhnang in Central Cambodia. Small businesses like this one serve as the backbone of the country’s sustainable economy. Photo/Karl Grobl

However, the global economic crisis has had an adverse impact on the Cambodian economy since the end of 2008. In 2009, Cambodia’s growth hit the lowest level (2%) experienced in the last 15 years. The real GDP growth has started to pick up since 2010 and 2011, with 3.0 percent and 7.0 percent, respectively. According to the Ministry of Industry, Mine, and Energy, the industrial sector, which includes the agricultural, tourism, garment, and mineral industries, shared 30 percent of the GDP, up 6 percent from the past 18 years.

Historically, however, Cambodia has relied on the role of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as the backbone of a sustainable economy. Generally in Cambodia when we talk about SME economic activities, we are in fact talking about micro-small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), as out of the more than 500,000 economic establishments or enterprises counted in the 2011 Cambodia Economic Census, some 493,000 of them employ only one to 10 employees.

Prime Minister Hun Sen said in June 2010 when he announced the Rectangular Strategy Phase II, Cambodia’s main socio-economic policy agenda for the Fourth Legislature of the National Assembly (2008-2013), that SMEs are one of the angles of the strategy which government is committed to promoting.

Growth in the number of MSMEs could help expand the economy, create more jobs, facilitate Foreign Direct Investment, and enlarge the tax collection base. The 2011 census shows that more than 500,000 economic establishments were engaged in economic activities, employing more than 1.6 million laborers or approximately 20 percent of the total Cambodian labor force.

The best way to boost MSMEs is to encourage private sector development and support their expansion. Micro enterprises, mainly in the provinces, have the potential to grow to become small- medium-sized enterprise. However, this growth may not be realized if there are too many constraints.

For almost 10 years, The Asia Foundation has been working with MSMEs in Cambodia to help create a more productive, enabling environment at the provincial level; advocating for an improved business environment; improving the ability of Cambodia’s provincial MSMEs to compete in regional and world markets; and increasing the understanding of the benefits of MSME development in the local economy. Through different program activities such as subnational dialogues between public and private actors, surveys, and researches on impediments to growth, we found that constraints include lack of access to information, unclear and burdensome regulations, poor relationships with public authorities, lack of technological capacity in production, and most importantly, limited access to financing for business expansion. Despite these challenges, there have been a large number of new enterprises that opened their doors for business recently. Findings show that from 2009 to 2011, 34 percent of all total establishments had just started their business in those two years.

According to the National Institute of Statistics (NIS), around 72 percent of Cambodian enterprises are family-run businesses with one to three employees (2009). Out of 505,134 enterprises, only 3.5 percent were registered at the Ministry of Commerce in 2011. This means that the majority of enterprises are in the informal sector, effectively preventing them from accessing finance because banks and monetary financial institutions require SMEs to have legal status to be eligible to apply for a loan. As a result, SMEs rely on personal savings and informal sources for starting up or expanding their businesses. The primary reason for SMEs maintaining their informal status is the perception that standard accounting practices are complicated and unnecessary. Additionally, some SMEs prefer to keep informal financial records because it allows them to conceal their real profits and revenues from tax authorities.

Although there are policies in place, implementation still has a long way to go. Cambodia’s government should play an active role in connecting SMEs to the export sector by providing incentives to export firms to find local partners; benchmarking certain standards or priority areas for export growth; providing market, management and technical consultancy; and enhancing awareness of local SMEs to suppliers through tour organizing, workshops, or seminars. To reach its lower-middle income status and beyond, Cambodia’s small businesses must be given a fair environment to reach their full potential and grow.

The Asia Foundation’s work with SMEs in Cambodia is supported by the U.S. Agency for International Development, Australian Agency for International Development, New Zealand Aid Programme, and the Danish International Development Agency.

Khut Inserey is The Asia Foundation’s senior program officer in Cambodia. He can be reached at ikhut@asiafound.org. The views and opinions expressed here are those of the individual author and not those of The Asia Foundation.

Just months before Mongolia prepares for its 6th Presidential Elections on June 26, the capital, Ulaanbaatar, hosted thousands of delegates from over 100 countries for the 7th Ministerial Conference of the Community of Democracies. Among the impressive list of influential guests, Nobel laureate and elected parliamentarian of Burma/Myanmar, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, drew one of the biggest crowds.

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and Mongolian President Tsakhia Elbegdorj deliver a public lecture, with more than 800 people gathered in the Great Hall of State Palace for the event. Photo/president.mn

After the Ministerial Conference, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi stayed for a few more days in Mongolia to share with citizens, including civil society representatives and human rights activists, the experience of democracy in Burma versus in Mongolia, the country of her “ancestors,” as she warmly noted several times during her time here. The highlight of her visit was the joint public lecture, “Mongolia and Myanmar: Path to Democracy and Freedom,” delivered on April 30 together with Mongolian President Tsakhia Elbegdorj. More than 800 people gathered in the Great Hall of State Palace for the event, organized especially for Mongolian youth by the NGO, Globe International, and the Oluulaa Club, and the full lecture was broadcasted live throughout the country. With no seats left, the audience was in high spirits during the two-hour event in which both President Elbegdorj and Aung San Suu Kyi shared their thoughts on democracy, freedom, and achieving change through non-violent means. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi specifically directed her message to the Mongolian youth, encouraging them to exercise their right to vote, while reminding everyone that “voting for free and fair elections is a precious right to preserve.”

She also told the audience that while pursuing democracy, one should always keep a healthy balance between freedom and security as the essential elements of democracy: “we are responsible not only for our freedom and security, but also for the freedom and security of others.” She described Burma’s long path to democracy as not an easy one, full of hurdles to overcome and frustrations to cope with, leaving behind wounds that will take time to heal albeit less time than if a less peaceful road would have been chosen.

Afterwards, many of the young members of the audience commented on how they found her speech to be “simple, profound, and down to earth.” As they said, usually when Mongolians talk about democracy, they tend to use very complicated words, blurring the real meaning of the word “democracy.” One of our Asia Foundation colleagues noted that listening to her simple, yet wise message reminded the Mongolian audience of the very essence and importance of democracy that Mongolia has gained not so long ago, close to the beginning of a new century.

The Asia Foundation was the first international non-profit organization to be invited into Mongolia following the democratic transition in 1990. This year marks the 20th anniversary of the Foundation in Mongolia since it opened its office on October 1, 1993.

The following Asia Foundation staff in Mongolia contributed to this article: Naran Munkhbat, Ariunaa Norovsambuu, Gantulga Yonkhor, Chinkhand Dorj, Solongo Otgonbayar, and Batmunkh Batdelger. They can be reached at naran@asiafound.org, ariunaa@asiafound.org, gantulga.y@asiafound.org, chinkhand@asiafound.org, solongo@asiafound.org, and batmunkh@asiafound.org, respectively. The views and opinions expressed here are those of the individual authors and not those of The Asia Foundation.

Nepal has been in a state of transition since 1950. In the ensuing years, a relatively brief, decade-long romance with democracy ended in three decades of single-party, autocratic rule. Since the restoration of multiparty, democratic politics just over 20 years ago, we have had 20 prime ministers, a decade-long civil war, and an abortive constitutional development process. No elected government has ever completed a full term and just a few weeks ago, the fifth chief executive in as many years was sworn in.

The indicators of Nepal’s developmental progress are mixed: there are some very significant successes in health and education, the macro-economy is stable, and remittances are high. Investment is low, but there is no obvious economic crisis to spur political action. Though impunity and corruption are rising, the country has not descended into anarchy. While elected local government has been absent for much more than a decade, modest levels of public goods and services are available. The country is at a political impasse but seems to be muddling through; a suboptimal equilibrium, perhaps, that is difficult to graduate from.

How corrosive and costly are the effects of this most recent, elongated transition for Nepal? How much of the damage is reversible in the near and medium term? What keeps Nepal’s progress at an impasse?

One characteristic of this crisis is the Nepali political party. Following the first People’s Movement, the settlement in 1990-91 was for multiparty politics, whereby popular aspirations and citizen interests would be represented by parties who would govern via parliamentary democracy. Instead, individuals governed and still do. Some have served at least twice if not more as prime minister. The problem of the undemocratic nature of political parties and their demonstrated lack of belief and investment in democratic practice within themselves did not change even after a second People’s Movement.

Another characteristic of this crisis is the lack of trust among political actors. Commitments made by powerful political figures are no longer considered credible. While the nostalgia for a strongman to enforce commitment is occasionally evident, more worrisome is the crisis of confidence and trust in political parties and in politics.

On the one hand, parties have shown that they struggle to change. Take their current difficulty in dealing with identity movements within and outside their parties; or the suppression of dissenting voices and the trivialization of second and third-tier leadership opinion. One common consequence is that parties have fragmented, making it even more costly to achieve common understanding and build coalitions in future.

On the other hand, professionals and the rest of the middle class are disengaged from politics and are now either name-calling or launching movements of anti-politics. This narrow understanding of politics and political practice does not get us any closer to a governance arrangement that is of, for, and by the Nepali people.

Nepal has experimented with democracy, but Nepal has neither strengthened democratic institutions nor nurtured democratic practices; and all are culpable in this, not only the political parties. In addition to ignoring political party reform, we are guilty of allowing or hastening the decay of critical formal and informal democratic institutions and practices. We must pay attention to, for example, the National Human Rights Commission, the Commission for Investigation into Abuse of Authority, the proposed Commissions for Truth and Reconciliation and for Disappearances, associations of government bodies, the community groups that manage schools, forests, irrigation, and so on. These are just some examples where constant institutional strengthening and innovation by both state and society ultimately matters.

The answer in rebuilding societies usually lies in the deliberate efforts of the state, its representatives, and its friends, in providing leadership, articulating vision and a clear sense of direction, in redressing grievances and injustices, and in reducing the trust deficit among their peoples and with the state. This has to become the focus of those within and outside government, sooner rather than later.

At this juncture, Nepal’s political future is not clear. We have come to a pass of our own making in Nepal, where politics is not representative of popular aspirations, where individual leaders have impoverished and undermined the very institutions that matter, and where myriad groups and coalitions and movements – vertically and horizontally across society – have disengaged from the idea that politics matters most to economic and social life.

A new idea of politics is required in order to transition Nepal toward stable, plural, representative, and accountable governance arrangements. For this to happen, first and foremost, institutions must replace individuals as the focus of political practice, both by parties and by society. Let us hope that the current hiatus will spur thought and action in that direction.

George Varughese is The Asia Foundation’s country representative in Nepal. He can be reached at gvarughese@asiafound.org. The views and opinions expressed here are those of the individual author and not those of The Asia Foundation.

Against the background of Mongolia’s famous blue sky, around 1,215 delegates from 104 countries gathered in Ulaanbaatar to participate in the 7th Ministerial Conference of the Community of Democracies (CD) from April 27- 29, 2013, organized under Mongolia’s Presidency of the CD, which started in July 2011.

1,215 delegates from 104 countries gathered in Ulaanbaatar to participate in the 7th Ministerial Conference of the Community of Democracies. Photo/Tenzing Paljor

After an opening ceremony on April 27 led by Mongolian Prime Minister N. Altankhuyag, who highlighted the country’s democratic achievements and a group picture in front of the Chinggis Khaan statue at Sukhbaatar square, participants broke off to attend the fora of the five CD pillars: Civil Society, Youth, Parliamentary, Women, and Business. The Asia Foundation, through the USAID-funded “Supporting Mongolia’s Presidency of the Community of Democracies” Project, provided assistance to both the Parliamentary and Women’s forums.

At the joint meeting on the final day, chaired by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Mongolia, President Tsakhia Elbegdorj spoke of his country’s long road to democracy as well as how new democratic practices such as direct democracy and citizen participation increasingly are gaining momentum in Mongolia. He reiterated Mongolia’s role as a friend and its willingness to assist other countries that are transitioning to democracy. Thailand’s Prime Minister, Yingluck Shinawatra, spoke about the democratic struggles that her country has undergone and emphasized that these are not yet over, and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi expressed her gratitude for the support of the international community to the people of Burma in their fight for democracy, emphasizing that Burma has made the choice to transition towards democracy but still has a long way to go to become a full-fledged democracy. She also reminded that democracy brings with it not only rights, but also responsibilities and should be seen as a continuous learning process. She was later presented with the Geremek award in remembrance of the late Professor Bronislaw Geremek, one of the co-founders of the CD. Other speakers included Nobel Prize Laureate Tawakkol Karman from Yemen, UN Under-Secretary General, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State, Bill Burns, the High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security, Baroness Catherine Ashton, and the Vice President of Nigeria, Namadi Sambo.

During a plenary session on “Threats against Civil Society and Freedom of Expression,” several speakers outlined the worrisome trend by which many governments around the world are imposing restrictions on civil society and the use of internet. Parallel thematic sessions were held on “Democracy Education,” “Corruption and other Threats to Democracy,” “Arab Spring after 2 Years: Lessons and Challenges,” “Democracy and the MDGs,” and “Online and Press Freedom.”

Journalists interview the Minister of Health, N. Udval, at the 7th Ministerial Conference of the Community of Democracies. Photo/Tenzing Paljor

The Parliamentary Forum for Democracy (PFD) provided a space for legislators to share their experiences and best practices. This is just what a legislator from Libya was seeking. He noted how during the country’s recent revolution, freedom was the only concern; now his fellow parliamentarians face the harder challenge of building institutions and practices in line with the democratic values he and his fellow citizens fought for.

This year’s PFD focused on the debilitating effects of corruption. Legislators heard how corruption is a complex issue, resulting from weaknesses in laws, regulations, monitoring, enforcement, deterrence, institutions, and the political will to address it. Participants created a five-point plan for parliamentarians to address corruption:

• An anti-corruption paradigm shift to place more emphasis on the outcomes and results of anti-corruption efforts rather than focusing on the laws and institutions that address anti-corruption;

• Coalition strengthening among parliamentary and anti-corruption networks;

• Peer-to-peer review by parliamentarians across countries to allow for informal comment and positive advice on how a state can improve its anti-corruption efforts;

• Ensuring access to information legislation allows for citizen monitoring of all aspects of government income and expenditure; and

• Ending secrecy clauses in government-private sector contracts.

The Women’s Forum, organized by the Women’s Caucus of Parliamentarians, the National Committee on Gender Equality and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, focused this year on the challenges women face in political representation at the national and local level, challenges still common in many of the countries represented. Parallel sessions on “Democracy and Women’s Socio-Economic Rights and Empowerment,” “Women’s Role in Preventing Corruption and Promoting Transparency,” “Democratizing and Engendering Culture,” and “Stronger Systems, Institutions and Processes for Stronger Voices” provided a platform for further discussion on women’s positive role in addressing issues such as poverty, human rights violations, conflicts, and corruption.

The forum developed a statement calling for action by the members of the CD in four key areas:

• Endorsing women’s property rights, ensuring access to finance, and ensuring equal wages, as well as recognition of unpaid work;

• Increasing research and independent monitoring of the impact of corruption using a gender lens, and strengthening of women’s anti-corruption networks;

• Creation of a culture of gender equality, free from gender-based stereotypes and gender-based violence in all sectors of society, including media, education, and domestic life; and

• Increasing and honoring gender quotas for elected and nominated positions within national and local governments and political parties, and actions to ensure fair financing of political campaigns of women and men in part through campaign finance and political party reform, including political party financing.

After the fora, plenary sessions were held on “Harnessing Open Governance for Democracy,”  “Supporting Democratic Transitions: Insights from the CD Task Forces in Moldova and Tunisia and Lessons for Myanmar and Kyrgyzstan,” and “Women and Democracy.” At the closing session, representatives of each of the five pillars of the Community of Democracies presented the resolutions prepared during the different fora and the Ulaanbaatar Declaration of the CD was adopted. Mongolia also handed over its presidency of the CD to El Salvador, which will assume leadership on July 1, 2013.

Mongolia can look back at a very successful presidency over the last two years, during which it gave new impetus to the CD and was able to make significant progress in the priority areas of its presidency. The 7th Ministerial Conference provided an opportunity to showcase to the world the important progress Mongolia has made since its democratic transition in 1990 and share important lessons learned with current and aspiring democracies around the world.

Watch a new video, developed by The Asia Foundation, that features interviews with Mongolians across the country on what democracy means for them, how democracy has developed since Mongolia’s democratic transition, and views on the CD. The video has been produced in support of Mongolia’s Presidency of the CD through funding from the Embassy of the United States in Mongolia. The Asia Foundation was the first international nonprofit organization to be invited into Mongolia following the democratic transition in 1990. This year marks the 20th anniversary of the Foundation in Mongolia since it opened its office on October 1, 1993.

Meloney C. Lindberg is The Asia Foundation’s country representative in Mongolia, Jeremy Gross is a Foundation consultant based in Indonesia who has worked in Mongolia to support the Ministerial Conference, and Tirza Theunissen is the program and operations manager. They can be reached at mlindberg@asiafound.org, jg1@cbn.net.id, and ttheunissen@asiafound.org, respectively.

Cambodia announced two major bilateral trade agreements last month, with the Philippines and Thailand, that are expected to further expand the country’s rice export sector. Over the last few years, Cambodia has emerged as a major rice exporter in the region, due in large part to the Royal Government of Cambodia’s recent expansion of its agricultural sector.

Despite positive development, compared to neighboring countries with similar weather and soil conditions, Cambodia’s paddy rice yield remains relatively low. Photo/Karl Grobl

Agriculture, led by rice farming, contributes to roughly a third of the country’s GDP and has immense potential for strengthening Cambodia’s economic growth, accelerating poverty reduction, and improving the living standard of its citizens. As part of this agenda, in 2010, the RGC adopted a new Policy Paper on Paddy Production and Rice Export, better known as the Rice Policy, to promote diversification of Cambodia’s economic sectors by catalyzing growth in paddy rice production and milled rice export to match the growth seen in the garment and service sectors. In his keynote address at the policy’s launch, Prime Minister Samdech Hun Sen said: “The policy aims to ensure that we grab the rare opportunity to develop Cambodia in the post global financial and economic cataclysm.”

If Cambodia’s rice export sector were to reach its full potential, it could produce 3 million tons of milled rice, with the total export value amounting to $2.1 billion (approximately 20% of the GDP) and an estimated additional $600 million (approximately 5% of the GDP) to the national economy. It would also boost employment and income for agricultural farmers who make up more than 70 percent of the population living in rural areas.

Despite positive development, compared to neighboring countries with similar weather and soil conditions, Cambodia’s paddy rice yield remains relatively low. In 2006, the average yield was 2.6 tons per hectare, while Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam achieved 2.8 tons, 3.5 tons, and 4.9 tons, respectively.

The underutilization and non-usage of arable land is a huge deterrent to the industry’s growth. Most Cambodian farmers cultivate paddy rice once per year during the rainy season, while farmers in Vietnam’s delta region cultivate 3.5 times annually. Such low productivity is mainly a result of high energy prices and poor transportation infrastructure. For example, in the low elevation Mekong plain, petroleum products are generally used to pump water into irrigation canals, which makes it too expensive for farmers to plant multiple crops a year. Moreover, rural areas pay a much higher rate (30-90 cents per kWh) than those living in urban centers (20 cents). In contrast, farmers in Vietnam only pay about 10 cents per kWh.

As a relatively new player in the milled rice market, Cambodia faces a steep learning curve. However, with a surplus of 3.5 million tons of paddy rice, Cambodia has the potential to soon be among the top five milled rice exporters in the world. Photo/Karl Grobl

Poor transport and infrastructure such as roads, railways, warehouses, and handling equipment also increase costs for farmers. To transport one ton of rice on a 100 km road, Cambodian farmers must spend $15, while their counterparts in Thailand and Vietnam pay $4 and $7.50, respectively. The lack of handling equipment in one of the main ports, the Sihanouk-Ville Port, is also a major constraint for the export of large quantities of milled rice. In addition, lack of access to and high cost of credit decreases domestic economic value-added and hinders milled rice export, presenting an obstacle for rice millers to stockpile paddy rice.

According to the Rice Policy, If Cambodia is to export 3 to 4 million tons of milled rice per year, it has to produce at least 10 to 11 million tons of paddy rice. In fact, in 2012, Cambodia enjoyed a surplus of more than 4.7 million in paddies, according to the Ministry of Agriculture Forestry and Fishery. Yet, official figures from the Ministry of Commerce showed that it only exported 200,000 tons of milled rice last year, or only 10 percent of its full capacity.

To better understand the bottlenecks in the rice sector, The Asia Foundation, in partnership with the AusAID-funded program, “Cambodia Agricultural Value Chain” (CAVAC), hosted a series of consultative forums last year in three provinces – Kampong Thom, Kampot, and Takeo – with stakeholders from the private sector (farmers, seed producers, agro-business owners, exporters) and the public sector (Ministries of Agriculture, Commerce, and Water Resources Management, provincial governors, provincial departments of line ministries, and local authorities). Approximately 370 participants attended the workshops and discussed how to create business-friendly environments (i.e., competitiveness and productivity, access to finance, access to markets), and the technical aspects of rice production (use of fertilizers and insecticides, seed categories, and availability of water sources). The insights were frank and eye-opening.

Although the challenges are significant, the opportunities for the sector are greater. Dr. Hang Chuon Naron, Secretary of State for the Ministry of Economy and Finance, optimistically predicted that the RGC can achieve its target for milled rice: “With regards to RGC’s rice export target in 2015, we may achieve up to 80 percent of the 1 million tons planned. This should include the milled rice to Vietnamese, Thai, and non-EU markets.”

Implementing a strategic framework like the Rice Policy is just the beginning. To increase the paddy rice production to meet market demand and promote the export of milled rice, the government must initiate and support a host of reforms in partnership with the private sector. For instance, to solve the issue of credit shortages for buying and processing paddy rice, the government can provide incentives to commercial banks to increase the loan portfolio for agriculture.

At the end of the day, the RGC must keep the farmers themselves in mind. Introducing new technologies or improving agricultural practices can only go so far if they are not accepted and adopted by farmers. Donors and NGOs can play a pivotal role in providing support and facilitating the successful implementation of new policies and projects aimed at improving the agricultural value chain.

As a relatively new player in the milled rice market, Cambodia faces a steep learning curve. However, with a surplus of 3.5 million tons of paddy rice (equivalent to 2 million tons of milled rice), Cambodia has the potential to soon be among the top five milled rice exporters in the world. More importantly, growth in the agricultural sector will translate into more economic opportunities for Cambodia’s vast rural population. While not a silver bullet, the success of the rice sector is an exciting and potentially crucial driver in Cambodia’s prosperous and equitable development.

Khut Inserey is The Asia Foundation’s senior program officer in Cambodia. He can be reached at ikhut@asiafound.org. The views and opinions expressed here are those of the individual author and not those of The Asia Foundation.

The conference in the Asian Approaches to Development Cooperation dialogue series convened in Seoul, South Korea, this month, and brought together development experts and senior government officials to discuss climate change mitigation, green growth, and adapting to and building resilience to natural disasters. This dialogue series, co-organized by The Asia Foundation and the Korea Development Institute (KDI), brings together both “emerging” and “traditional” development actors to discuss international development challenges. This year’s focus on effective cooperation for deterring the impacts of climate change was launched in Seoul, fittingly, as South Korea is playing a leading role in low-carbon development in the Asia-Pacific region.

According to the UN, boosting global investments in renewable energy to $630 billion by 2030 would create at least 20 million additional jobs worldwide. South Korea is playing a leading role in the region’s green growth. Photo/Flickr user Toby Simkin

Green growth is a new policy paradigm for Asia and the Pacific that emphasizes ecologically sustainable economic progress and fosters low-carbon, socially-inclusive development. Its four pillars include sustainable production and consumption, green businesses, sustainable infrastructure, and fiscal incentives and reforms. “Growing green” means implementing more eco-efficient and profitable production, producing less pollution and waste in the process, and prioritizing the environment as essential to long-term social and economic development goals.

In July 2009, South Korea announced its “National Strategy for Green Growth” through 2050, providing a blueprint for how to shift its economic structure away from energy-intensive industries that have driven the majority of the development paths in Asia. The target goal is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent from a business-as-usual path by 2020, and increase the country’s renewable energy to 11 percent of total energy supplies by 2030.

With initial funding of $83.6 billion (representing 2 percent of GDP), South Korea’s first Five-Year Plan for Green Growth 2009-2013 has successfully turned strategy into concrete and operational policy initiatives toward achieving green growth and resource efficiency. South Korea’s government announced plans to continue making investments in innovative, low-carbon technologies for renewable energy, waste management, public transportation and construction, and to create enough new jobs in these sectors to offset the loss of employment in current carbon-intensive industries, such as mining, petroleum refining, and fossil fuel power generation.

In terms of development cooperation, South Korea has increased its development assistance budget since 2000 by 6.5 times, to approximately $1.3 billion in 2011, and has pledged to boost financing of regional renewable energy, conservation, and development projects to 30 percent of the total aid budget by 2020. Already, the Korean government installed a Communications, Ocean, and Meteorological Satellite system to improve Sri Lanka’s disaster preparedness by allowing officials to better share data, analysis, and forecasting capability. The system is part of the East Asia Climate Partnership, an initiative announced in 2008 and funded by the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) to share South Korea’s knowledge and technology resources in green growth, climate change adaptation and improved resource management to developing countries. KOICA has also pledged to build reservoirs, irrigation channels, and treatment facilities that will clean, recycle, and better manage water resources needed to effectively sustain agricultural production in the Philippines, which has decreased dramatically due to recent sustained droughts.

South Korea is also playing a leading role in green-growth policy advising. The Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI), founded in 2010 as a Korean NGO and since established as a treaty-based intergovernmental organization, works to advance the practice and theory of green growth by supporting the development, implementation, and diffusion of green growth strategies in developing and emerging countries, including in the least-developed countries in Asia. GGGI involves both state and non-state actors, such as other international organizations, NGOs, private companies, and research institutes.

According to a United Nations report on green growth, boosting global investments in renewable energy to $630 billion by 2030 would create at least 20 million additional jobs worldwide, making it a much larger source of employment than today’s fossil energy industry. One of the most interesting but least reported aspects of the current economic recovery effort is that over two-thirds of global green stimulus has in fact been committed in the Asia-Pacific, led by Australia, China, South Korea, and Japan.

Indeed, South Korea’s green growth strategy was highlighted throughout the AADC dialogue with representatives from other emerging economies in the region, notably China, India, and Malaysia, to share its successes on enacting renewable energy policy, implementing low-carbon transportation, and employing financial incentive for industries to make reforms to achieve green growth goals. Reflected in part by its leadership in this area, South Korea has been chosen as the home of the newly established Green Climate Fund, the multilateral financial mechanism recently created to support the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change adaptation and mitigation efforts.

At the 2010 G20 Seoul Summit, South Korea’s Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Kim Sung-han, declared that “many issues today require unprecedented international cooperation. Solving today’s complex challenges will require ‘middle powers’ to play a greater, more active role. Through various initiatives, such as its programs in green growth and development cooperation, South Korea has demonstrated the influence middle powers are having on global governance and that they may be best suited to facilitate consensus building and revitalize momentum for cooperation.”

Kourtnii S. Brown is a program officer for The Asia Foundation’s Environment Programs in San Francisco, and attended the AADC conference in Seoul. She can be reached at kbrown@asiafound.org. The views and opinions expressed here are those of the individual author and not those of The Asia Foundation.

As Mongolia makes final preparations to host the 7th Ministerial Conference of the Community of Democracies from April 27-29, 2013, an air of excitement and buzz is palpable here in the capital, Ulaanbaatar. Among the hundreds of high-level delegates from the government, civil society, and the media attending – both from abroad and from Mongolia – Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, as well as Yemen’s Tawakoll Karman are also expected.

Ulaanbaatar will host the 7th Ministerial Conference of the Community of Democracies. Photo/Kristin Kelly Colombano

The Community of Democracies is a global intergovernmental coalition of over 100 democratic countries, with the goal of promoting democratic rules and strengthening democratic norms and institutions around the world. The Community was initiated by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland, Professor Bronislaw Geremek, and former U.S. Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, inviting all democratic countries to the inaugural conference in Warsaw hosted by Poland in June 2000. The Governing Council is the highest decision-making body and presently consists of 24 member countries including the United States and Mongolia.

The Community of Democracies aims to be a global platform for democratic countries, who together with civil society and parliamentarians seek to strengthen democracy both at the national level and in the international system. Its mission is to support democratic transition and consolidation worldwide and help bridge the gap between principles and practice of democracy and human rights.

Mongolia has been holding the Presidency of the Community of Democracies since July 2011. As a country that has successfully mastered the process of democratization while undergoing simultaneous political, social, and economic transformation, Mongolia serves as an example for other countries aspiring to achieve democracy in a peaceful manner. During its two-year presidential term which will end in June this year, Mongolia has focused on promoting education for democracy, strengthening regional cooperation, fostering collaboration with civil society, advancing women’s empowerment, and countering corruption. In July 2013, El Salvador will assume the Presidency of the Community of Democracies.

The 7th Ministerial Conference will consist of plenary sessions on topics such as Harnessing Open Governance for Democracy and Supporting Democratic Transition, as well as parallel sessions of five specific fora: Women’s Forum, Parliamentary Forum, Civil Society Forum, Corporate Forum and Youth Forum. At the end of the conference, a resolution on the outcomes of the various plenary sessions and fora is expected to be adopted.

Through the “Supporting Mongolia’s Presidency of the Community of Democracies Project,” funded by USAID, the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, and the Embassy of the United States in Mongolia, The Asia Foundation has been working to support the Mongolian Secretariat of the Community of Democracies. Last year, in partnership with the Presidency of the Community of Democracies, the Foundation together with the Zorig Foundation and MonAme Scientific Research Center organized the International Women’s Leadership Forum on July 7-9, 2012. The forum brought together over 100 participants, including former Secretary of State, Hillary Rodham Clinton, to discuss ways to promote women’s entrepreneurship, access to natural resources, and leadership in the private sector. This year, through the generous support of its U.S. donors, the Foundation is supporting both the Women’s Forum and Parliamentary Forum and is also providing assistance on public outreach to inform citizens about the Community of Democracies in Mongolia. Stay tuned next week for further analysis and coverage of the event.

Tirza Theunissen is The Asia Foundation’s program and operations manager and Chinkhand Dorj is the communication and outreach officer in Mongolia. They can be respectively reached at ttheunissen@asiafound.org and chinkhand@asiafound.org. The views and opinions expressed here are those of the individual authors and not those of The Asia Foundation.

Yesterday marked the 18th World Book and Copyright Day, first introduced by UNESCO in 1995, in celebration of books, authors, and the joys of reading. It’s also an occasion to reflect on the importance of education, especially as a driver of poverty reduction. The link between education and economic empowerment is undeniable; accordingly, governments, civil society, and the international donor community have made notable efforts to increase school enrollment and improve literacy rates around the world.

While literacy rates have improved vastly over the past decade in Cambodia, improvements in functional literacy are more uncertain. Photo/Karl Grobl

Despite advancements, an estimated 250 million children are still unable to read and write, and in some developing countries, 25-50 percent of students who have graduated from primary school cannot read a single sentence, according to the World Bank.

Unfortunately, Cambodia is no exception. While literacy rates have improved vastly over the past decade – according to the 2008 National Population Census, currently at about 78 percent among those aged 15 years or older – improvements in functional literacy (the ability to read, write, and calculate beyond basic skills) are more uncertain. In 1999, functional literacy was just 37 percent, in comparison to the basic literacy rate of 68 percent. Unsurprisingly, a third of Cambodians live below the national poverty line, which is 61 cents. Moreover, Cambodia’s improvement in literacy has not necessarily been equitable, with girls, the rural poor, and minorities still facing the most significant challenges.

The Royal Government of Cambodia (RGC) has been committed to expanding educational opportunities and is party to several international initiatives, including the Millennium Development Goals and UNESCO’s Education for All. Nationally, the Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sport (MoEYS), as part of its Education Strategic Plan 2009-2013, has prioritized expanding early childhood education, non-formal education, technical and vocational training, and access to secondary and post-secondary education. To address disparities in literacy rates, MoEYS has designed and implemented inclusive policies such as bilingual education in provinces like Rattanakiri and Mondulkiri with a large minority population, scholarships for girls and students representing other vulnerable groups, and non-formal education opportunities for youth and adults that are not integrated into the public school system.

While these initiatives have had positive impact, Cambodia’s education system still faces numerous hurdles, including issues related to governance and quality of services at subnational levels. Cambodia also faces growing demand for a labor force fluent in English. In 2008, only 5 percent of the population had working knowledge of the English language. Inadequate resources, such as textbooks and facilities, contribute to the problem. With the formation of the ASEAN Economic Community in 2015, which will establish a free trade zone among ASEAN member countries, English-language proficiency will be even more critical for Cambodia’s growth and development.

The Asia Foundation’s Books for Asia program, in partnership with the RGC and a network of NGOs, has distributed over 900,000 books and other educational materials to Cambodian universities, primary and secondary schools, NGOs, government ministries, and public libraries. Read more about Books for Asia in Cambodia.

Cham Soeun is a program officer for the Books for Asia program and Lisa H. Kim is program officer for The Asia Foundation in Cambodia. They can be reached at scham@asiafound.org and lkim@asiafound.org, respectively. The views and opinions expressed here are those of the individual authors and not those of The Asia Foundation.