In Asia: Weekly Insight and Features from Asia

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.

On the same day the anti-trafficking law was passed, Mongolia's Parliament also passed another ground-breaking law: a Law on Preventing Conflict of Interest in Public Service. This is particularly critical now in Mongolia; with mining investment continuing to pour into the country, Mongolia is predicted to have the second fastest growing economy in the world in 2012. Photo by Kristin Colombano.

Passage of the legislation comes at a crucial time in the country’s efforts to end trafficking in persons. Over the past decade, hundreds of trafficking victims have been identified. Many are young women who, lured into false promises of employment and study abroad, instead end up in China, Macau, South Korea, and other Asian countries, either sexually exploited or forced into labor with little to no wages. In 2010, the State Investigation Department of Mongolia’s National Police Agency established a specialized counter-trafficking unit to focus on investigating cross-border trafficking. Now, the law further clarifies the roles and responsibilities of stakeholders in anti-trafficking activities, including government agencies, civil society, the private sector, and media. The landmark law also includes a critical provision for a state shelter and victim support for both Mongolian and foreign victims, as well as victim confidentiality and compensation.

Last week, to commemorate the law’s passage, more than 100 guests, including members of Parliament, senior government officials, and civil society representatives, gathered at a ceremony held in Ulaanbaatar organized by the Human Security Policy Studies Center (HSPSC). Despite temperatures reaching -25 degrees Celsius outside, spirits were high at the ceremony, with some guests even dressed in traditional Mongolian deels. During the ceremony, several dignitaries reflected on the importance of the law, and highlighted the strong collaboration between government partners, local NGOs, and the international donor community both during the development and drafting of the law and advocacy for its passage.

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Nearing its 65th year of independence, India, the largest democracy and second-most populous country in the world, is undergoing another transformation: a second freedom struggle. Birthed from decades of frustration over rampant corruption, a large-scale movement led by activist Anna Hazare has energized the country’s youth, charging them with the desire to rebuild India. As a relatively young country, with an estimated 780 million Indians under 35 years old – or roughly 65 percent of the population – investment in the country’s young entrepreneurs will undoubtedly be a vital part of India’s future.

India’s broad development issues, the widening divide between urban and rural populations, lack of comprehensive public services, and freedom from strict regulations that exist in other globalized countries make an ideal testing ground for budding social entrepreneurs. Photo by Geoffrey Hiller.

Although India has become an increasingly important stakeholder in the global economy and its development over the next two decades will undoubtedly be looked to as a model for the rest of the world, it must first find ways to overcome the enormous challenges of infrastructure, healthcare, poverty, hunger, education, and corruption. It is clear that India will be relying on these 780 million young people to take the lead. As a Luce Scholar in Bangalore, I am working with Ashoka, a global organization that identifies and invests in leading social entrepreneurs, observing first-hand the opportunities and obstacles these young leaders face.

In December 2011, I traveled on the Jagriti Yatra, an annual 7,500 km chartered train ride that takes highly motivated young Indians, and a few international participants under 25 years old, on a 15-day national odyssey to meet with entrepreneurs who have developed innovative solutions to India’s challenges. The 450 participants and facilitators came from 26 states and territories across India, and six continents abroad; 63 percent were from non-urban areas and 37 percent were from urban areas.

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Female entrepreneurs in Bangladesh represent a miniscule percentage of business owners (0.05 percent), according to The Asia Foundation’s 2010 firm-level survey results. Issues of concern to women business owners, such as difficulties in accessing information on regulations or obtaining loans for their businesses, are concomitantly raised in a relatively diminished voice. Yet by joining together to form a Women’s Business Forum and working with local public authorities, a group of women entrepreneurs successfully negotiated over the course of several months to improve the terms for accessing credit from a local commercial bank.

Female entrepreneurs in Bangladesh represent a small percentage of business owners. However, recent Business Forums have provide them with a voice for expressing their challenges and concerns about the business environment. Photo by Geoffrey Hiller.

Although this was a success, in many of Asia’s developing economies, this type of collaboration is difficult due to an absence of a strong, organized private sector and active civil society (whether local business associations, consumer or citizen groups, or farmers’ collectives). As a result, mutual collaboration between the private and public sector is often weak, or in some cases nonexistent. Even when the private sector’s demands for reform are expressed, they may not always be clearly articulated, due to lack of capacity, or acted upon effectively by the government.

Public-Private Dialogues (PPDs), such as the one illustrated above between the Bangladeshi women entrepreneurs and their local bank, help facilitate constructive interaction for reforms  by providing a forum for participants to identify constraints and issues that need to be improved. Issues vary widely, ranging from the quotidian (garbage collection, the need for more street lights, or better parking facilities), to the complex (onerous business licensing regulations, informal fees, improved food safety regulations, or gender-based discrimination).

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For three days in December, individuals from a range of industries gathered at the 3rd Annual Big Ideas Fest to explore the future of education. In a venue overlooking the Pacific Ocean, a stone’s throw from Silicon Valley, teachers, administrators, and representatives from policy and advocacy groups, non-profits, foundations, social enterprises, and cutting-edge technology companies discussed the unique opportunities offered by the intersection of education, technology, and innovation.

I registered for the Big Ideas Fest hoping to better understand innovative trends in education and assess their potential application for the developing world. Based on its growing reputation, I knew that Big Ideas would be unlike any other conference I had attended. Challenging from the start, the ice-breaker exercise asked us to reflect on our earliest memories of learning and the most dramatic shifts in our own personal education experiences, and to then share them with all 175 participants, in a span of 15 minutes. I was immediately brought back to my experience as an English as a Second Language (ESL) student. Born in a refugee camp in northern Thailand to parents who fled war-torn Laos, I was very young when we were sponsored to resettle in the United States. Speaking only my mother tongue, Mien, and placed in an ESL group at school, I felt lost and at times ostracized in the classroom. But as I gained fluency in English, I remember the wonderful “aha” moments that occurred as I found a voice in my new environment. As it turns out, my own early memories were about to inform another dramatic shift in my perception of education at the Big Ideas Fest 2011.

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On Monday, Malaysia’s High Court acquitted opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim of sodomy charges after a highly publicized and controversial 2-year trial. As Malaysia looks to elections in 2013, which are widely expected to be called later this year, In Asia‘s editor, Alma Freeman, interviews Herizal Hazri and Nurshafenath Shaharuddin in The Asia Foundation’s Malaysia office for insight into how the verdict could affect elections, Prime Minister Najib Razak’s recent democratic reforms, what this says about the independence of Malaysia’s judiciary, and more.

How is Anwar Ibrahim’s acquittal being received among the public in Malaysia?  

Overall, the verdict has been received positively by the public in Malaysia. Opinions on what positive effects Anwar’s acquittal could have on the political discourse in the country vary depending on political sympathies: pro-Anwar responses generally hail it as a sign for future reforms and Anwar’s innocence in the matter, while pro-establishment responses mark the verdict as a sign of already existing judicial independence and the liberal-mindedness of the Najib administration. For the general public who are not aligned to either Anwar or Najib’s administration, the verdict presents a hope for a more transparent and mature democracy in Malaysia.

Prime Minister Najib said that the verdict exhibits the independence of Malaysia’s judiciary, and that it “will help extend this transparency to all areas of Malaysian life.” What are your thoughts on this?

It is always reassuring to know that the prime minister is focused on reforms, and there have been bold decisions made recently that could promote better transparency in Malaysia, such as the repeal of the Internal Security Act and three Emergency Ordinances, as well as the formation of the Electoral Reform Select Committee. Certainly, and no doubt, Malaysia is transforming. However, I don’t think Anwar Ibrahim’s acquittal should be viewed as an example of the prime minister’s democratic reforms efforts. This verdict came from the strength of the judiciary’s ability to be impartial in exercising its responsibility to uphold law in Malaysia.

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In September, my colleague William Cole and I wrote about a revolution in data analytics that is affecting how many of us in the development field manage and analyze information. In that blog post, we expressed support for the growing open data movement that is an integral part of this transformational moment. So, with that in mind, in conjunction with the November 15 launch of The Asia Foundation’s 2011 Survey of the Afghan People, we released data from six years of public opinion survey research in Afghanistan in a machine-readable format, accessible to anyone with an interest in the data. Available for download at an interactive mapping and data visualization micro-site connected to The Asia Foundation website, Visualizing Afghanistan: A Survey of the Afghan People, presents data to anyone who wishes to explore, analyze, or republish it.

We are excited not only about the promise of “open data” but also because of the changes we see in how researchers and data scientists are handling and exploring large, open data sets. Data visualization and processing tools are coming into their own and further fueling the data revolution. In fact, some of these new and powerful tools for visualizing data are on display at Visualizing Afghanistan. We’ve structured the experience in such a way that users can intuitively explore key survey questions using Google Maps, move through six years of data, and disaggregate data in a variety of ways to see and analyze trends. Users can map responses by region, compare national or regional totals on a year-by-year basis, or expand and explore supplementary data.

The Open Data Movement, the notion that certain types of should data be “open” and available to all for analysis and evaluation, is an idea that’s creating new opportunities to strengthen development efforts across many fields. For The Asia Foundation, we see opportunities in areas like transparency, accountability, and good governance where open data can help enhance efforts to build more responsive and effective institutions of governance.

We developed Visualizing Afghanistan to bring even more accessibility to our survey data in Afghanistan. We invite you to have a look, download the data, and build your own visualization. If you do, please share it with us at digitalmedia@asiafound.org. We hope your own exploration of our data resources on Afghanistan sheds new light on a complex region.

John Karr is The Asia Foundation’s director of Digital Media. He can be reached at jkarr@asiafound.org. The views and opinions expressed here are those of the individual author and not those of The Asia Foundation.

In the early weeks of October, people across Thailand experienced great heartache and even disbelief as they watched news coverage of rising floodwaters submerging several sizable industrial factories north of Bangkok one by one. During the first weeks of the flooding, we listened patiently to the hazy and tedious information announced by the government’s Flood Relief Operation Center (FROC).

The recent flooding in Thailand submerged four million acres, leaving over 500 dead and 9 million affected. Above, residents wade through deep water to get to their homes and shops. Photo by flickr user Philip Roeland.

Preoccupied by the government flood news, I lost focus on what to do next. At that point, I was primarily concerned over the likelihood that my house would be affected by the flood, how soon and for how long, and when I should plan to evacuate. Unfortunately, I found the information from the FROC and other sources not very helpful or specific and difficult to interpret. We heard assurances such as:

“At this moment several thousand million cubic meters of water are flowing down from the north; everyone should stay calm because your government is capable and ‘Ao Yoo’ (which translates as ‘we can handle it’). We will build sandbag walls and close major water sluice gates so that Bangkok is guaranteed to be safe.”

Just a few days later, all these assurances seemed to float away with the rising flood waters. News coverage showed metal roofs of houses and factories glinting in the sun, surrounded by expanses of flood water. We watched as thousands of people waded through flooded streets, while others floated in boats and on hand-made rafts or truck beds, carrying their essentials above their heads in search of dry refuge. Many held their beloved dogs and pets, pressing against waist, chest, and neck-high water levels. We watched this watery expanse churn through sewage drains and creep across road surfaces, growing bigger and higher. The experience was not so much frightening as nerve-wracking.  

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The Philippines long had a terrible reputation for telecommunications, with Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew famously saying that in 1992, 99 percent of the population in the Philippines was waiting for a phone and 1 percent was waiting for a dial tone.

Above, a rice farmer in the Philippines uses his mobile phone to send a text message. Photo: IRRI Images.

However, beginning with the administration of Fidel Ramos (1992-1998) and followed by President Estrada (1998-2001), the telecoms industry was liberalized, and phone ownership skyrocketed. While there were more landlines available, much of the growth was in mobile phones. Soon the Philippines was the texting (SMS) capital of the world – to the point where the practice played a part of the ouster of President Estrada early in 2001. When the Senate impeachment trial was suddenly adjourned without verdict, the text message went around “meet at EDSA.” Crowds gathered in the middle of the night and refused to leave the main Manila thoroughfare until he left the presidential palace.

Fast forward to the present, and we have Facebook being used by more than 25 percent of the population – ranking 8th in the world, while other social media networks (such as Twitter) are rapidly growing in popularity. In September 2011, the Philippine Trust Index, commissioned by EON The Stakeholder Firm, was released. The study revealed that 68 percent of the respondents view online news sites as the most trusted sources of news and information while 49 percent trust social networking sites.

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In recent years, a revolution in data analytics has changed the way both public and private sector institutions share, manage, and analyze information – and it’s a revolution now reaching developing nations. In Timor-Leste, the Ministry of Finance has just made current, real-time national budget statistics available online. The government of Kenya recently launched a website providing public access to data from the ministries of Finance, Planning, Local Government, Health, Education, and Kenya’s National Bureaus of Statistics. For international development professionals and policymakers, working with “big” and “open” data to better understand the challenges less-developed communities face has never been more exciting than it is today.

The recent trend toward open data is giving policymakers, researchers, and the public greater insight and understanding into pressing development challenges. Photo by Conor Ashleigh.

Historically, The Asia Foundation and its local partners have invested heavily in the collection and dissemination of research data on the socio-political values, aspirations, and expectations of Asia’s diverse people. From some of the largest election surveys ever conducted in Indonesia, to comprehensive, nationwide business climate studies, to monthly rapid assessment polls in Bangladesh, to the broadest nation-wide public opinion survey conducted annually in Afghanistan, our efforts have responded to the paucity of information in certain contexts and the need to quickly collect, analyze, and disseminate to policymakers the findings of our work. But several key developments have created a flood of available data: from government statistics, to quality of life data, from spatial geographic information to internet usage throughout the developing world. As the volume of enterprise, development, and social information moves from the terabytes to the petabyte scale, development organizations must explore how best to share, manage, and analyze this information.

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A rapidly increasing number of people across the globe are now staying connected to one another via a mobile phone device – whether it’s an iPhone, Nokia, or Samsung. In fact, the United Nations reported earlier this year that the worldwide figure for cell phone subscriptions had topped five billion at the end of 2010. According to the International Telecommunication Union, approximately 3.8 billion of these mobile subscriptions were from developing countries – with India and China fueling this upsurge.

As the number of mobile phone users rapidly increases across the world, the mobile financial services market is also booming, and is increasingly dominated by Asia. Photo by Karl Grobl.

As this trend continues, the mobile financial services market is also booming, and is increasingly dominated by Asia, driven by mobile, operator-led initiatives in these developing nations to “bank the unbanked.” Developing countries such as Pakistan are among those that have made remarkable progress in global mobile phone adoption; in 2007, while just one million Pakistanis owned bank accounts, 70 million were mobile subscribers. In April 2011, this total subscriber figure stood at 108 million. This rapid mobile subscription rise has the potential for even greater expansion among those living in the developing world with the enablement of these four mobile banking functions: government cash transfers, international remittances, bill payments, and savings.

Government-run welfare transfers

State-run welfare programs such as conditional cash transfer programs, or CCTs, provide cash transfers to poor mothers in rural areas based on the condition that they send their children to primary and secondary schools and to health clinics. Typically, monthly transfers are given to the head of the household, specifically used for food consumption, vaccinations, and school attendance. However, they require a well-developed infrastructure where money can be transferred. In countries such as Brazil, a well-developed banking sector helps in CCT implementation. Other developing countries like India may lack a mature enough banking system for a CCT program to launch. In these scenarios, alternatives to banks must be considered.

Mobile phones present a viable means for such cash transfers. Their widespread usage and low start-up costs are compelling reasons for CCTs to conduct transfers via mobile phones. In the Philippines, the Department of Social Welfare and Development’s Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) provides cash transfers to the country’s poorest families. Along with rural banks, mobile phones have become one of the most integral tools to facilitating cash transfers to these poor. Using the rural Green Bank’s “GCash” platform, bank personnel verify beneficiary data, including CCT ID, GCash transfer numbers, and cash amount, submits the ID to a specific text code, and within a minute, receives the amount that is approved for physical payout to the recipient. Such programs – and those specifically with mobile phone integration – hold a potential for providing the poor with easier and wider access to financial services.

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