“The Asia Foundation’s rich legacy of contributing to Asia and the Pacific’s remarkable development story is the bedrock on which we are building innovative solutions to today’s social and economic challenges.” – Laurel E. Miller, President & CEO
Since 1954, The Asia Foundation has addressed the most critical issues facing Asia and the Pacific with purpose, focus, and urgency. Drawing on our deep local knowledge and vital partnerships across government, civil society, business, and academia, we proudly celebrate 70 years of enduring impact on individual lives, communities, and ecosystems in Asia and the Pacific.
Impacting Lives
People are at the center of our mission. Our programs invest in individual potential and ingenuity by offering direct access to knowledge and skill development. We also focus on elevating voices, particularly from vulnerable communities, to ensure their needs and perspectives are heard and recognized.
Impacting Communities
Local leaders and networks are crucial in creating effective solutions to complex development and policy challenges. From conflict mediation to climate resilience, we support communities as they design and advance positive change from the ground up.
Impacting Ecosystems
We bring citizens, government, and the private sector together to drive meaningful change. Our approach bridges divides, harnesses shared interests, and scales for reach. When people and communities are engaged, and policies and institutions are responsive and effective, impact is transformative and lasting.
“The Asia Foundation’s rich legacy of contributing to Asia and the Pacific’s remarkable development story is the bedrock on which we are building innovative solutions to today’s social and economic challenges.” – Laurel E. Miller, President & CEO
Since 1954, The Asia Foundation has addressed the most critical issues facing Asia and the Pacific with purpose, focus, and urgency. Drawing on our deep local knowledge and vital partnerships across government, civil society, business, and academia, we proudly celebrate 70 years of enduring impact on individual lives, communities, and ecosystems in Asia and the Pacific.
Impacting Lives
People are at the center of our mission. Our programs invest in individual potential and ingenuity by offering direct access to knowledge and skill development. We also focus on elevating voices, particularly from vulnerable communities, to ensure their needs and perspectives are heard and recognized.
Local leaders and networks play a crucial role in crafting home-grown solutions to complex development and policy challenges. From conflict mediation to climate resilience, we support communities as they drive meaningful change from the ground up.
We bring citizens, government, and the private sector together to drive meaningful change. Our approach bridges divides, harnesses shared interests, and scales for reach. When people and communities are engaged, and policies and institutions are responsive and effective, impact is transformative and lasting.
From Disputes to Resolutions: Launching Sri Lanka’s Mediation Boards
Photo: The Asia Foundation
Unlike conventional court decisions, in which one party prevails, mediation yields equitable, win-win outcomes that foster greater harmony and are sensitive to the complex dynamic of community life and relationships. The efficient and lasting settlement of disputes on terms agreeable to all parties has freed women from the specter of violence, restored damaged property, and facilitated commercial lending for improvements to farmland and farming practices and the launch of small businesses. In addition, mediation has helped people to recover from the trauma of devastating events like the Indian Ocean Tsunami, placed marginalized populations on an equal footing with those who would otherwise wield greater power and influence in a dispute, and healed deep societal wounds.
Like many Asian countries, Sri Lanka has long grappled with inequities in its justice system, especially those affecting women, the economically disadvantaged, and marginalized communities. Sri Lanka’s Mediation Boards Act in 1988 established a new process for resolving family, property, financial, and other disputes through mediation—facilitated by three-member panels of trained mediators who guide parties to a dispute toward a mutually satisfactory settlement. The Ministry of Justice turned to The Asia Foundation as a known and trusted partner in prior justice system development efforts, seeking our partnership in implementing the Act. It was clear at the outset that the success of the Community Mediation Boards would depend on the professional skills and sensitivity of mediators, efficient administration, and public awareness of and confidence in the process.
We began small, working with partners and experts to provide an initial group of 22 serving Family Court counselors and probation officers with the specialty skills needed to become Mediator Trainers. They, in turn, spread their expertise by training local volunteers to serve as mediators so that their knowledge and skills could ripple outward. Adapted over time to embrace new training tools and techniques, this professional development process has continued through generations of dedicated mediators and mediator trainers and remains a hallmark of The Asia Foundation’s contributions to the success of the Mediation Boards.
Decades on, our commitment to the Mediation Boards continues to deepen. With Boards now operational in every part of Sri Lanka and more than 8,800 trained mediators in place, Asia Foundation support has been instrumental to the program's growth and success. In addition to continually building the skills and expertise of mediators, we have supported the expansion of the program to the entire country, enabling access for all ethnic and religious minorities and economically and geographically marginalized citizens; responded to unique challenges and needs, including disputes arising from the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami and land conflicts stemming from decades of civil war; refined mediation practices on the basis of thoughtful review and scholarly research; and increased the number of women mediators from 2 percent in the late 1990s to 26 percent today.
In 2023 alone, the Mediation Boards resolved nearly 68,000 disputes, achieving a 69 percent settlement rate and consistently high satisfaction among parties. Building on this performance, we now provide solutions to debt and other post-pandemic economic recovery challenges by supporting the introduction of Sri Lanka’s first commercial mediation system. Over the years, we have helped others to study Sri Lanka’s Mediation Boards Program as a model for adaptation elsewhere, including in Cambodia, China, Nepal, and Mongolia.
The Sri Lanka mediation experience is one of many examples of The Asia Foundation’s commitment to increased public access to formal and informal justice and broader rights protection. We invite you to watch the following slide show, highlighting the Sri Lanka experience through a glimpse of processes followed by Community Mediation Boards.
From Clan Feuds to Dialogues: Conducting Community Research on Rido in Mindanao
Photo: The Asia Foundation
In the predominantly Christian country of the Philippines, the turn of the millennium saw continued unrest in the Muslim areas of Mindanao. Decades of government neglect and perceived injustices have fueled protracted cycles of conflict in the region. Prior to the recent peace agreements, the Philippines had a long-running Muslim separatist conflict which was a major source of instability for the country.
In 2000, the government’s all-out-war policy against the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and subsequent fighting devastated communities and resulted in a humanitarian crisis. Hostilities were further exacerbated by the spate of bombings, kidnappings, and the rise communal violence in various parts of Mindanao. The internal troubles in the country also coincided with major international events such as the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001, further fanning the flames of religious animosity in the region.
Amid the murky nature of the conflict in Mindanao, Philippines, The Asia Foundation sought to better understand the contours of the Mindanao conflict with the aim of providing solutions for it. In 2002, The Foundation conducted a household conflict survey which revealed the pertinence of clan conflict (rido) for local communities in Mindanao. Rido is a local term referring to kinship and community-based feuding in Mindanao, and is characterized by a series of retaliatory acts of violence carried out to avenge a perceived affront or injustice. The survey showed that while the Muslim-Christian conflict in Mindanao dominated the attention of the media, clan conflicts or rido were actually more interwoven in the daily lives of the people. Citizens were more concerned about the prevalence of rido and its negative impact on their communities than the conflict between the state and rebel groups in Mindanao.
The Asia Foundation then supported an in-depth, coordinated study on rido, which was conducted by Mindanao-based academic institutions and civil society groups in 2004. We gained a better understanding of the prevalence, nature, dynamics, and causes and consequences of rido. We also gained deeper insights into how a rido between rival clans can interact in adverse ways with the broader separatist conflict by drawing in the involvement of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, the Moro separatist groups, and other volunteer militias. Crucially, the study was able to unravel and highlight how such conflicts were mitigated and eventually resolved. Results of the study was published in a definitive volume on clan violence in 2007, and won the National Book Award in 2015.
The Foundation and its local partners devised strategic interventions to prevent, mitigate, and resolve rido conflicts. A Cotabato-based youth organization, the United Youth for Peace and Development (UNYPAD), utilized the research findings to successfully resolve a celebrated rido case between the Tayuan and Mangansakan clans of North Cotabato. The pioneering work of UNYPAD highlighted the potential of civil society in peace-making. Their efforts provided critical insights in conflict resolution practice, paving the way for enhancing the capacities of other mediators, and providing models for resolving other types of conflict such as election violence, resource conflicts, and conflicts due to criminality.
The rido study itself provided a process for engaging different peacebuilding stakeholders in Mindanao. It allowed The Asia Foundation and its partners to interact and consult with different local communities, civil society, the military, the police, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, Moro National Liberation Front, government, the peace process actors such as the peace panels, the International Monitoring Team and peace process monitoring mechanisms, the donor community, and the Philippine Congress itself. This process of engagement helped build constituencies for efforts to achieve a just and sustained peace in Mindanao.
The rido study contributed to the demystification of the Mindanao conflict by disentangling the blurred lines of conflict. There is now among all stakeholders a better understanding of the complex and multifaceted nature of conflict in Mindanao. The Foundation’s efforts in increasing attention to the problem of rido have prevented many such conflicts from spilling over into hostilities between the government and various non-state armed groups, as security forces have become more careful in distinguishing between rido and other types of violence in their military operations. The media have also become more nuanced in their reportage of the violence in Mindanao, going beyond the usual state-rebel, Muslim-Christian, or terrorism framing of conflict. All of this has greatly advanced the peace process, as stakeholders have learned to factor in the threat of rido to peace negotiations and in nurturing peace agreements.
Looking back after two decades, our engagement in rido was a leap in the dark, a leap into the unknown. At the time there was little formal study of the origins and nature of local conflict in Mindanao, and much less on documenting what works to resolve these conflicts. What drove us to take a leap of faith into these complex and difficult challenges was our sense of mission. At the heart of this entire process of learning and contributing to peace in Mindanao has been our sincere efforts to engage, to dialogue, and to journey with all stakeholders in Mindanao.
Listen now
A Community Approach to Plastic Pollution in Cambodia
Photo: The Asia Foundation
Polyethylene terephthalate, or PET, is a ubiquitous plastic found everywhere, from polyester shirts to plastic bottles. It is also a poster child for runaway plastic pollution in much of Southeast Asia, where single-use PET bottles can be found choking beaches and waterways, endangering wildlife, and degrading public spaces.
But PET can be recycled.
PET plastic collection site in Cambodia.
In Cambodia, an Asia Foundation initiative to spotlight plastic pollution and streamline PET recycling removed 78 tons of plastic waste from two cities and laid the groundwork for lasting change in how the country manages its recyclable waste.
Cambodia’s plastic problem has several dimensions, and current recycling practices are inefficient. Incentives for collecting and recycling plastic are inadequate, and waste pickers, junk collectors, and users of PET bottles have not been informed about important aspects of the recycling process.
This lack of effective recycling perpetuates reliance on single-use plastics. The resulting plague of discarded PET bottles clogging rural creeks and urban alleyways significantly challenges efforts to build a sustainable, circular economy.
Against this backdrop, the Foundation seized an opportunity to engage stakeholders and community groups to raise awareness across the recycling supply chain and streamline recycling processes to create a more environmentally sustainable Cambodia.
Community members participate in street clean-up efforts.
A key aspect of the program was training for PET bottle collectors and recyclers. The training included sessions for waste pickers, junk dealers, and teachers to help them improve the sorting, cleaning, and grading of PET bottles. The program prioritized gender equality by emphasizing the participation of women waste pickers and teachers.
These hands-on training initiatives have equipped 80 waste pickers (including 53 women) and 31 junkshop workers with new skills and best practices for sorting, cleaning, and grading recyclable PET bottles. This has both improved the efficiency of PET recycling and provided better economic opportunities for the people doing the hands-on work of collection and recycling, contributing to immediate, tangible improvements in the communities’ waste management.
Junkshop owner in Cambodia receives recycling education.
The program also organized study tours to a leading PET bottle recycling factory in Phnom Penh, providing participants from waste pickers to local officials with firsthand exposure to the practices and requirements of modern recycling and fostering a collaborative spirit among stakeholders at all levels of the recycling supply chain. The Foundation also organized various awareness-raising activities, such as clean-up events, school activities, and community training sessions, reaching a broad cross-section of society.
These activities have also had a noticeable impact on public awareness and behavior, with a culture of responsible waste disposal leading to a visible reduction in PET bottle litter and improved environmental health in Battambang Municipality and Phnom Penh.
From Divisiveness to Problem Solving: Harnessing the Power of Dialogue in Nepal
Photo: Conor Ashleigh/The Asia Foundation
After 10 years of simmering conflict and open civil war, the Comprehensive Peace Accord of 2006 brought a formal peace to Nepal, but it would take years to draft a new constitution that decentralized government and acknowledged the great diversity of the Nepali people. A Constituent Assembly was convened to do the drafting, but it dissolved in acrimony in 2012. When a second Constituent Assembly was convened in late 2013, measures were needed to preserve the fragile peace among restive political actors. The Foundation played a key role in this delicate process, through programs that facilitated community mediation, track 1.5 diplomacy, and all-important dialogue.
The Constitution of 2015 gave Nepal a federal system of government, but divisive issues remained unresolved, particularly boundaries and jurisdictions. Areas that had witnessed conflict among identity-based interest groups (gender, class, caste, and historically marginalized communities), and ethnically diverse areas at the confluence of newly created provinces, were especially at risk of fresh violence. Conflict brewed over natural resources, boundary demarcation, taxation, and the powers and jurisdictions of the new local governments. There was an urgent need for dialogue to defuse these disputes.
Our Nepal Peace Support Project (NPSP), with funds from USAID and SDC, had been supporting the conflict-mitigation efforts of the Nepal Transition to Peace forum (NTTP) since 2009. Drawing from the forum’s model of informal, multi-stakeholder dialogue, our Regional Program Partnership Arrangement with (then) DFID launched a subnational dialogue program in three districts in 2012. The program deployed new peacebuilding approaches featuring a mix of dialogue, mediation, and track 1.5 diplomacy. It mobilized actors who were insiders, but had an impartial reputation, to build bridges among the contesting parties.
Sambad Samuha (Dialogue Forum) of Rautahat District in Madhesh Province facilitating a joint dialogue between contesting parties.
The dialogue process relied on continuous in-depth analysis of the issues and extended interaction among the contesting parties. Local facilitators, trained in the process, analyzed the issues before bringing the contesting parties together in a safe space for informal dialogue. The analysis was done throughout the process, and even with the contesting parties, taking account of changing circumstances. The Foundation provided strategic direction, coaching and mentoring for the facilitators, and technical and logistical support to the sambad samuhas (dialogue forums). This facilitated approach helped the parties reach agreement on sensitive and politically charged issues that would produce deadlock in a formal political negotiation.
Since the introduction of federalism in 2015, this informal-dialogue model has evolved into our Multi-Stakeholder Dialogue Program. The program has focused on issues of subnational governance, especially jurisdictional disputes, as Nepal devolves authority to the new provincial and local governments. By 2019, the program had expanded to other districts, ultimately reaching more than 20 locations, and by 2022, it was working at the provincial level in five of Nepal’s seven provinces.
Dialogue facilitators of Dang District in Lumbini Province conducting a separate dialogue with one of the contesting parties.
When two massive earthquakes struck Nepal in close succession in 2015, the dialogue program made a sharp turn to address contentious issues of relief, recovery, and reconstruction. Since 2017, through our Subnational Governance Program, conducted in partnership with DFAT, these dialogues have resolved 391 issues ranging from use of the commons and the property rights of marginalized communities to reconstruction after natural disasters, local backlash to infrastructure projects, and many others.
Working with local facilitators and sambad samuha across the country, our Multi-Stakeholder Dialogue Program has built trust among wary stakeholders and helped develop skills and resources within the local communities to resolve conflicts constructively.
Listen now
Watch now
Watch now
From New Kid on the Block to Global Leaders: Supporting South Korea’s Electoral Framework
Photo: The Asia Foundation
In the late 1980s, The Asia Foundation played a key role in South Korea's dramatic transition from authoritarianism to democracy. After decades of struggle against military rule, the Declaration of Democratization in June 1987 marked a pivotal moment in South Korea's modern history, affirming the right of Koreans to directly elect their national leaders. Local elections followed in 1991.
Having reached this milestone, the nation took up the essential task of building a system to conduct elections. Korea's election officials were dedicated, honest, and competent, but with past elections having failed to follow a consistent set of rules, there were serious gaps and inconsistencies in the elections playbook that threatened to derail Korea’s hard-won democratic progress.
With extensive experience in sharing the lessons of mature electoral systems, and a history of trusted support for Korean institutions and civil society going back to 1954, The Asia Foundation saw a unique opportunity to help South Korea consolidate its democratic gains. Drawing on our global networks and expertise, the Foundation conducted extensive training in international best practices for officials of the Central Election Management Committee, later known as the National Election Commission.
Counting the votes in a presidential election shortly after the end of military rule. (Photo: The Asia Foundation)
To better understand voter behavior, the Foundation supported several programs of electoral research, ranging from voter demographics to party alignments, that attracted notice in the press and political arenas. Our domestic surveys and research programs broadened national understanding of election issues and outcomes, improving election management and enabling candidates to campaign more effectively.
To boost women's participation, the Foundation supported organizations like the Korean League of Women Voters, introducing them to international forums and their counterpart League of Women Voters in the United States. We also supported the Korean Women’s Political Caucus and the Center for Korean Women and Politics, with training programs, foreign observation and study tours, and strategy workshops on women's political engagement.
The Asia Foundation was an early and effective advocate of inclusive elections, working with local organizations to promote women’s political participation. Several leaders of these organizations went on to hold national office, including Assemblymember and Minister of Health and Social Affairs Kim Chung-rye, Minister of Political Affairs Lee Ke-soon, Assembly member and Minister of Culture and Tourism Shin Nakyun, and Assembly member Dr. Sohn Bong-scuk. Dr. Sohn would become the first female member of the National Election Commission and served as commissioner of the UN International Electoral Commission for elections in Timor-Leste in 1999.
A street campaign for fair elections by members of the Korean League of Women Voters (1992). (Photo: The Asia Foundation)
The generation that followed South Korea’s Declaration of Democratization would experience both a democratic political transformation and world-beating economic growth. Ranked 22nd out of 167 nations in TheEconomist Intelligence Unit’s 2023 Democracy Index, South Korea is now sharing the lessons of its success with nations worldwide.
The Korean Civic Education Institute for Democracy has organized observation tours since 2013, in which government officials from around the world visit Korea to learn from their electoral systems. In 2016, South Korea launched the Association of World Election Bodies (A-WEB), headquartered in Incheon. A-WEB is now the world's largest international organization for election management, boasting 109 participating countries and underscoring South Korea's historic democratic achievements.
From Constitution to Country: Helping Mongolia with its Democratic Foundation
Photo courtesy Tom Ginsberg
In early 1990, The Asia Foundation was contacted by the Government of Mongolia, the landlocked country between Russia and China, which had been closely aligned with the Soviet Union for 70 years. With the crumbling of the Berlin Wall, young reformers in the country demanded political change, and the country’s ruling Mongolian People’s Revolutionary Party agreed to reform. Shel Severinghaus and I, who were running the Northeast Asia desk in San Francisco, welcomed the prominent lawyer B. Chimid on a study tour of California and Washington. After discussions with him, we initiated an intense round of programming to engage the country. Thus began a program of technical advice, study tours, fellowships, and expert visits on a wide range of governance issues.
One of the urgent tasks for the Mongolians was drafting a new Constitution for the nascent democratic era. All their earlier constitutions had been more or less copies of Soviet documents. The first step was to amend the prior text to allow for the election of an interim legislature, which then took on the task of drafting the final text. In practice, it delegated the job to a 20-member drafting committee with Chimid as the Secretary. The Asia Foundation was the main foreign organization providing technical advice.
Organizing a series of memos from U.S. and international experts, we also sent two leading constitutional thinkers to Mongolia: Joseph Grodin of Hastings Law School, who was a former Justice of the California Supreme Court, and Martin Shapiro of the University of California at Berkeley. Together, we engaged members of the drafting committee, became intimately familiar with the draft constitutional text, and participated in debates over the structure of government, the provisions on rights, and the role of the constitutional court. Gradually a consensus emerged, led by the inimitable Mr. Chimid, who remained a close friend of the Foundation for many years thereafter.
Asia Foundation staff traveled with Chimid during deliberations as he visited rural locations to explain the text to local herders and provided funds for civic education. The document reflected many international institutions and had a long list of rights drawn from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, but it still retained a local flavor. The Constitutional Court was named the Tsets, a term for a referee in traditional wrestling. The parliament was called a Hural, referring to the assemblies that Mongolians had used since before the time of Chinggis Khan.
Mongolia’s Constitution was promulgated in early 1992, with Foundation staff present. In many ways it marked the birth of an independent country. The Mongolian Constitution turned out pretty well. In my subsequent academic work, I’ve found that most constitutions do not last as long as twenty years, so by the metric of longevity the Mongolian text is certainly a success. But more importantly, the Constitution has worked: it has allowed several changes in power, and has been flexible enough to facilitate an evolution from a semi-presidential system towards one more centered on parliament.
There have been amendments and revisions to improve the document on the basis of experience. Mongolia has remained a democratic country for the last 30 years even though it is situated in a complex geopolitical environment. Mongolians seem to agree on the fundamental rules of the democratic game, even if they fight as hard as anyone for power within it.
From Rigid to Adaptive Policy Reform: Thinking and Working Politically
Photo: The Asia Foundation
For many years the dominant philosophy in international development was that complex development problems required smart technical solutions, and that the correct way to support developing countries was to import policies, systems, and institutions that international experts had deemed “best practices” in developed countries.
Development practitioners eventually began to acknowledge that they were failing to achieve the leaps in growth and prosperity that these “best practices” had promised, and that local political realities often stymied even tried-and-true international expertise.
The Asia Foundation recognized this challenge and worked with local partners, leading universities, development think tanks, and other international NGOs in pioneering a new approach to designing and implementing development programs—one that grapples head-on with local context and the messy political realities in which laws are made, resources are allocated, and policy reform either lives or dies.
This approach became known as “thinking and working politically” (TWP).
TWP emphasizes that effective development strategies require a close reading of local social, political, cultural, and historical dynamics; that they must adapt to the web of interests in the policy environment; and that they must prioritize local leadership over imported solutions. The Foundation’s unique contribution to this revolution in development practice has been to cultivate the entrepreneurial drive, skills, and vision that make local leaders and coalitions uniquely capable of navigating these challenging political contexts.
In the Philippines, the Foundation has applied these insights with remarkable success through its flagship Coalitions for Change (CfC) program, a partnership with the Australian government.
With its relatively stable presidential democracy, high rates of electoral participation, a burgeoning private sector, and a vibrant media and civil society, the Philippines seems poised for upper-middle income status. Yet, poverty and unemployment remain stubbornly high, the distribution of wealth is strikingly unequal, especially in rural communities, and the daily minimum wage is barely sufficient to feed families. These inequalities are reinforced by complex political dynamics—including patronage, corruption, weaknesses in political parties, and populism—that hobble effective policy reform and public service delivery.
To navigate this complex space, Coalitions for Change uses a “development entrepreneurship” approach that engages savvy local leaders, thinking and working politically, to identify and catalyze essential policy reforms. These development entrepreneurs weigh the likelihood of successful reform against three criteria: that a new policy will change the incentives and behavior of stakeholders and lead to better outcomes (impact); that these changes will endure beyond the term of the project (sustainability); and that the desired reform can be introduced in the context of existing political realities (political feasibility).
Foundation program staff work with these local leaders to identify critical development challenges and test potential policy solutions, balancing technical assessment with political economy analysis adjust their strategy to changing circumstances. The CfC team and their coalition partners track emerging information, engage key stakeholders and decision-makers, analyze policies, and monitor the shifting political winds. Through continuous review, reflection, and iteration, CfC builds consensus on the “current best” technical solutions and the most politically feasible policy measures to achieve them. CfC mobilizes cooperation among stakeholder groups and works with local actors in government, the private sector, and civil society to see the reform to completion.
CfC partners have achieved milestone policy reforms that have helped transform the economic security and quality of life of communities across the Philippines. These reforms have strengthened government services and inspired confidence in the ability of government, business, and civil society to work together for reform.
In one notable success, partners gained approval of a combination of legislative and policy measures that simplified the Philippines’ historically dysfunctional land titling system. New rules and registration systems brought a tenfold increase in the number of secure land titles issued each year. With their titles secure, property owners could now get credit to invest in their homes and lands, increasing the market value of their securely titled property in a virtuous cycle.
An elementary school classroom in the Philippines. Coalitions for Change discovered that an astonishing 90 percent of the Philippines’ 46,379 public schools lacked proper title to their land, frustrating new construction and sometimes leading to eviction. (Photo: Philippines Dept. of Education)
The impact of these reforms has extended to public infrastructure. Schools, hospitals, and health centers built on untitled lands or threatened by rival claims have secured clear title to their properties. New administrative titling rules have enabled national and local governments to invest in infrastructure and other improvements and enter joint ventures with private-sector partners. These developments have, in turn, improved public services.
There were laws requiring accessible infrastructure in Philippine public schools. The money was in place. Why was it not getting built? The coalition made a straightforward proposal: add accessible infrastructure to the list of school facilities monitored by the Department of Education.(Photo: Advocates of Inclusion)
Similar reform efforts advanced with support from CfC have dramatically improved active transportation infrastructure, with the creation of 800 kilometers of dedicated bike lanes and the establishment of pedestrian walkways in major cities nationwide, greater public attention to the safety of cyclists and pedestrians, and the myriad benefits that flow to the environment and climate risk reduction.
Other CfC initiatives have improved the collection of cigarette taxes to fund public healthcare services, improved police emergency response, and expanded nationwide internet access by admitting new competitors to the telecom sector.
Cyclists riding the new bike lane along Guadalupe Bridge. With cyclists flooding the streets in record numbers, CfC adopted a multipronged approach to promote new government policies favoring bike lanes. (Photo: Leandro Mangubat / The Asia Foundation)
The Asia Foundation experience across Asia and the Pacific demonstrates the effectiveness of politically informed programming. Reform initiatives by our local partners have contributed to better public services, the inclusion of marginalized groups in public decision-making, better access to justice, greater women’s voice and leadership, and greater inclusion of youth, indigenous communities, religious minorities, people with disabilities, and transgender populations in the design and delivery of essential social services.
The successes of Coalitions for Change and thinking and working politically rest in large part on the knowledge, skills, and confidence of local partners and Foundation program staff, working in close collaboration. They are encouraged to experiment, learn from success, failure, and all points between, and adapt their programs to changing circumstances. Today, The Asia Foundation’s thought leadership role is recognized by donors and implementing partners, and our specialists share their lessons and experience through research, case studies, training curricula, and practitioner gatherings throughout Asia and the Pacific and beyond.
Watch now
Watch now
Watch now
Watch now
Watch now
Watch now
From Disputes to Resolutions: Launching Sri Lanka’s Mediation Boards
Photo: The Asia Foundation
Unlike conventional court decisions, in which one party prevails, mediation yields equitable, win-win outcomes that foster greater harmony and are sensitive to the complex dynamic of community life and relationships. The efficient and lasting settlement of disputes on terms agreeable to all parties has freed women from the specter of violence, restored damaged property, and facilitated commercial lending for improvements to farmland and farming practices and the launch of small businesses. In addition, mediation has helped people to recover from the trauma of devastating events like the Indian Ocean Tsunami, placed marginalized populations on an equal footing with those who would otherwise wield greater power and influence in a dispute, and healed deep societal wounds.
Like many Asian countries, Sri Lanka has long grappled with inequities in its justice system, especially those affecting women, the economically disadvantaged, and marginalized communities. Sri Lanka’s Mediation Boards Act in 1988 established a new process for resolving family, property, financial, and other disputes through mediation—facilitated by three-member panels of trained mediators who guide parties to a dispute toward a mutually satisfactory settlement. The Ministry of Justice turned to The Asia Foundation as a known and trusted partner in prior justice system development efforts, seeking our partnership in implementing the Act. It was clear at the outset that the success of the Community Mediation Boards would depend on the professional skills and sensitivity of mediators, efficient administration, and public awareness of and confidence in the process.
We began small, working with partners and experts to provide an initial group of 22 serving Family Court counselors and probation officers with the specialty skills needed to become Mediator Trainers. They, in turn, spread their expertise by training local volunteers to serve as mediators so that their knowledge and skills could ripple outward. Adapted over time to embrace new training tools and techniques, this professional development process has continued through generations of dedicated mediators and mediator trainers and remains a hallmark of The Asia Foundation’s contributions to the success of the Mediation Boards.
Decades on, our commitment to the Mediation Boards continues to deepen. With Boards now operational in every part of Sri Lanka and more than 8,800 trained mediators in place, Asia Foundation support has been instrumental to the program's growth and success. In addition to continually building the skills and expertise of mediators, we have supported the expansion of the program to the entire country, enabling access for all ethnic and religious minorities and economically and geographically marginalized citizens; responded to unique challenges and needs, including disputes arising from the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami and land conflicts stemming from decades of civil war; refined mediation practices on the basis of thoughtful review and scholarly research; and increased the number of women mediators from 2 percent in the late 1990s to 26 percent today.
In 2023 alone, the Mediation Boards resolved nearly 68,000 disputes, achieving a 69 percent settlement rate and consistently high satisfaction among parties. Building on this performance, we now provide solutions to debt and other post-pandemic economic recovery challenges by supporting the introduction of Sri Lanka’s first commercial mediation system. Over the years, we have helped others to study Sri Lanka’s Mediation Boards Program as a model for adaptation elsewhere, including in Cambodia, China, Nepal, and Mongolia.
The Sri Lanka mediation experience is one of many examples of The Asia Foundation’s commitment to increased public access to formal and informal justice and broader rights protection. We invite you to watch the following slide show, highlighting the Sri Lanka experience through a glimpse of processes followed by Community Mediation Boards.
From Clan Feuds to Dialogues: Conducting Community Research on Rido in Mindanao
Photo: The Asia Foundation
In the predominantly Christian country of the Philippines, the turn of the millennium saw continued unrest in the Muslim areas of Mindanao. Decades of government neglect and perceived injustices have fueled protracted cycles of conflict in the region. Prior to the recent peace agreements, the Philippines had a long-running Muslim separatist conflict which was a major source of instability for the country.
In 2000, the government’s all-out-war policy against the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and subsequent fighting devastated communities and resulted in a humanitarian crisis. Hostilities were further exacerbated by the spate of bombings, kidnappings, and the rise communal violence in various parts of Mindanao. The internal troubles in the country also coincided with major international events such as the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001, further fanning the flames of religious animosity in the region.
Amid the murky nature of the conflict in Mindanao, Philippines, The Asia Foundation sought to better understand the contours of the Mindanao conflict with the aim of providing solutions for it. In 2002, The Foundation conducted a household conflict survey which revealed the pertinence of clan conflict (rido) for local communities in Mindanao. Rido is a local term referring to kinship and community-based feuding in Mindanao, and is characterized by a series of retaliatory acts of violence carried out to avenge a perceived affront or injustice. The survey showed that while the Muslim-Christian conflict in Mindanao dominated the attention of the media, clan conflicts or rido were actually more interwoven in the daily lives of the people. Citizens were more concerned about the prevalence of rido and its negative impact on their communities than the conflict between the state and rebel groups in Mindanao.
The Asia Foundation then supported an in-depth, coordinated study on rido, which was conducted by Mindanao-based academic institutions and civil society groups in 2004. We gained a better understanding of the prevalence, nature, dynamics, and causes and consequences of rido. We also gained deeper insights into how a rido between rival clans can interact in adverse ways with the broader separatist conflict by drawing in the involvement of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, the Moro separatist groups, and other volunteer militias. Crucially, the study was able to unravel and highlight how such conflicts were mitigated and eventually resolved. Results of the study was published in a definitive volume on clan violence in 2007, and won the National Book Award in 2015.
The Foundation and its local partners devised strategic interventions to prevent, mitigate, and resolve rido conflicts. A Cotabato-based youth organization, the United Youth for Peace and Development (UNYPAD), utilized the research findings to successfully resolve a celebrated rido case between the Tayuan and Mangansakan clans of North Cotabato. The pioneering work of UNYPAD highlighted the potential of civil society in peace-making. Their efforts provided critical insights in conflict resolution practice, paving the way for enhancing the capacities of other mediators, and providing models for resolving other types of conflict such as election violence, resource conflicts, and conflicts due to criminality.
The rido study itself provided a process for engaging different peacebuilding stakeholders in Mindanao. It allowed The Asia Foundation and its partners to interact and consult with different local communities, civil society, the military, the police, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, Moro National Liberation Front, government, the peace process actors such as the peace panels, the International Monitoring Team and peace process monitoring mechanisms, the donor community, and the Philippine Congress itself. This process of engagement helped build constituencies for efforts to achieve a just and sustained peace in Mindanao.
The rido study contributed to the demystification of the Mindanao conflict by disentangling the blurred lines of conflict. There is now among all stakeholders a better understanding of the complex and multifaceted nature of conflict in Mindanao. The Foundation’s efforts in increasing attention to the problem of rido have prevented many such conflicts from spilling over into hostilities between the government and various non-state armed groups, as security forces have become more careful in distinguishing between rido and other types of violence in their military operations. The media have also become more nuanced in their reportage of the violence in Mindanao, going beyond the usual state-rebel, Muslim-Christian, or terrorism framing of conflict. All of this has greatly advanced the peace process, as stakeholders have learned to factor in the threat of rido to peace negotiations and in nurturing peace agreements.
Looking back after two decades, our engagement in rido was a leap in the dark, a leap into the unknown. At the time there was little formal study of the origins and nature of local conflict in Mindanao, and much less on documenting what works to resolve these conflicts. What drove us to take a leap of faith into these complex and difficult challenges was our sense of mission. At the heart of this entire process of learning and contributing to peace in Mindanao has been our sincere efforts to engage, to dialogue, and to journey with all stakeholders in Mindanao.
Listen now
A Community Approach to Plastic Pollution in Cambodia
Photo: The Asia Foundation
Polyethylene terephthalate, or PET, is a ubiquitous plastic found everywhere, from polyester shirts to plastic bottles. It is also a poster child for runaway plastic pollution in much of Southeast Asia, where single-use PET bottles can be found choking beaches and waterways, endangering wildlife, and degrading public spaces.
But PET can be recycled.
PET plastic collection site in Cambodia.
In Cambodia, an Asia Foundation initiative to spotlight plastic pollution and streamline PET recycling removed 78 tons of plastic waste from two cities and laid the groundwork for lasting change in how the country manages its recyclable waste.
Cambodia’s plastic problem has several dimensions, and current recycling practices are inefficient. Incentives for collecting and recycling plastic are inadequate, and waste pickers, junk collectors, and users of PET bottles have not been informed about important aspects of the recycling process.
This lack of effective recycling perpetuates reliance on single-use plastics. The resulting plague of discarded PET bottles clogging rural creeks and urban alleyways significantly challenges efforts to build a sustainable, circular economy.
Against this backdrop, the Foundation seized an opportunity to engage stakeholders and community groups to raise awareness across the recycling supply chain and streamline recycling processes to create a more environmentally sustainable Cambodia.
Community members participate in street clean-up efforts.
A key aspect of the program was training for PET bottle collectors and recyclers. The training included sessions for waste pickers, junk dealers, and teachers to help them improve the sorting, cleaning, and grading of PET bottles. The program prioritized gender equality by emphasizing the participation of women waste pickers and teachers.
These hands-on training initiatives have equipped 80 waste pickers (including 53 women) and 31 junkshop workers with new skills and best practices for sorting, cleaning, and grading recyclable PET bottles. This has both improved the efficiency of PET recycling and provided better economic opportunities for the people doing the hands-on work of collection and recycling, contributing to immediate, tangible improvements in the communities’ waste management.
Junkshop owner in Cambodia receives recycling education.
The program also organized study tours to a leading PET bottle recycling factory in Phnom Penh, providing participants from waste pickers to local officials with firsthand exposure to the practices and requirements of modern recycling and fostering a collaborative spirit among stakeholders at all levels of the recycling supply chain. The Foundation also organized various awareness-raising activities, such as clean-up events, school activities, and community training sessions, reaching a broad cross-section of society.
These activities have also had a noticeable impact on public awareness and behavior, with a culture of responsible waste disposal leading to a visible reduction in PET bottle litter and improved environmental health in Battambang Municipality and Phnom Penh.
From Divisiveness to Problem Solving: Harnessing the Power of Dialogue in Nepal
Photo: Conor Ashleigh/The Asia Foundation
After 10 years of simmering conflict and open civil war, the Comprehensive Peace Accord of 2006 brought a formal peace to Nepal, but it would take years to draft a new constitution that decentralized government and acknowledged the great diversity of the Nepali people. A Constituent Assembly was convened to do the drafting, but it dissolved in acrimony in 2012. When a second Constituent Assembly was convened in late 2013, measures were needed to preserve the fragile peace among restive political actors. The Foundation played a key role in this delicate process, through programs that facilitated community mediation, track 1.5 diplomacy, and all-important dialogue.
The Constitution of 2015 gave Nepal a federal system of government, but divisive issues remained unresolved, particularly boundaries and jurisdictions. Areas that had witnessed conflict among identity-based interest groups (gender, class, caste, and historically marginalized communities), and ethnically diverse areas at the confluence of newly created provinces, were especially at risk of fresh violence. Conflict brewed over natural resources, boundary demarcation, taxation, and the powers and jurisdictions of the new local governments. There was an urgent need for dialogue to defuse these disputes.
Our Nepal Peace Support Project (NPSP), with funds from USAID and SDC, had been supporting the conflict-mitigation efforts of the Nepal Transition to Peace forum (NTTP) since 2009. Drawing from the forum’s model of informal, multi-stakeholder dialogue, our Regional Program Partnership Arrangement with (then) DFID launched a subnational dialogue program in three districts in 2012. The program deployed new peacebuilding approaches featuring a mix of dialogue, mediation, and track 1.5 diplomacy. It mobilized actors who were insiders, but had an impartial reputation, to build bridges among the contesting parties.
Sambad Samuha (Dialogue Forum) of Rautahat District in Madhesh Province facilitating a joint dialogue between contesting parties.
The dialogue process relied on continuous in-depth analysis of the issues and extended interaction among the contesting parties. Local facilitators, trained in the process, analyzed the issues before bringing the contesting parties together in a safe space for informal dialogue. The analysis was done throughout the process, and even with the contesting parties, taking account of changing circumstances. The Foundation provided strategic direction, coaching and mentoring for the facilitators, and technical and logistical support to the sambad samuhas (dialogue forums). This facilitated approach helped the parties reach agreement on sensitive and politically charged issues that would produce deadlock in a formal political negotiation.
Since the introduction of federalism in 2015, this informal-dialogue model has evolved into our Multi-Stakeholder Dialogue Program. The program has focused on issues of subnational governance, especially jurisdictional disputes, as Nepal devolves authority to the new provincial and local governments. By 2019, the program had expanded to other districts, ultimately reaching more than 20 locations, and by 2022, it was working at the provincial level in five of Nepal’s seven provinces.
Dialogue facilitators of Dang District in Lumbini Province conducting a separate dialogue with one of the contesting parties.
When two massive earthquakes struck Nepal in close succession in 2015, the dialogue program made a sharp turn to address contentious issues of relief, recovery, and reconstruction. Since 2017, through our Subnational Governance Program, conducted in partnership with DFAT, these dialogues have resolved 391 issues ranging from use of the commons and the property rights of marginalized communities to reconstruction after natural disasters, local backlash to infrastructure projects, and many others.
Working with local facilitators and sambad samuha across the country, our Multi-Stakeholder Dialogue Program has built trust among wary stakeholders and helped develop skills and resources within the local communities to resolve conflicts constructively.
Listen now
Watch now
Watch now
From New Kid on the Block to Global Leaders: Supporting South Korea’s Electoral Framework
Photo: The Asia Foundation
In the late 1980s, The Asia Foundation played a key role in South Korea's dramatic transition from authoritarianism to democracy. After decades of struggle against military rule, the Declaration of Democratization in June 1987 marked a pivotal moment in South Korea's modern history, affirming the right of Koreans to directly elect their national leaders. Local elections followed in 1991.
Having reached this milestone, the nation took up the essential task of building a system to conduct elections. Korea's election officials were dedicated, honest, and competent, but with past elections having failed to follow a consistent set of rules, there were serious gaps and inconsistencies in the elections playbook that threatened to derail Korea’s hard-won democratic progress.
With extensive experience in sharing the lessons of mature electoral systems, and a history of trusted support for Korean institutions and civil society going back to 1954, The Asia Foundation saw a unique opportunity to help South Korea consolidate its democratic gains. Drawing on our global networks and expertise, the Foundation conducted extensive training in international best practices for officials of the Central Election Management Committee, later known as the National Election Commission.
Counting the votes in a presidential election shortly after the end of military rule. (Photo: The Asia Foundation)
To better understand voter behavior, the Foundation supported several programs of electoral research, ranging from voter demographics to party alignments, that attracted notice in the press and political arenas. Our domestic surveys and research programs broadened national understanding of election issues and outcomes, improving election management and enabling candidates to campaign more effectively.
To boost women's participation, the Foundation supported organizations like the Korean League of Women Voters, introducing them to international forums and their counterpart League of Women Voters in the United States. We also supported the Korean Women’s Political Caucus and the Center for Korean Women and Politics, with training programs, foreign observation and study tours, and strategy workshops on women's political engagement.
The Asia Foundation was an early and effective advocate of inclusive elections, working with local organizations to promote women’s political participation. Several leaders of these organizations went on to hold national office, including Assemblymember and Minister of Health and Social Affairs Kim Chung-rye, Minister of Political Affairs Lee Ke-soon, Assembly member and Minister of Culture and Tourism Shin Nakyun, and Assembly member Dr. Sohn Bong-scuk. Dr. Sohn would become the first female member of the National Election Commission and served as commissioner of the UN International Electoral Commission for elections in Timor-Leste in 1999.
A street campaign for fair elections by members of the Korean League of Women Voters (1992). (Photo: The Asia Foundation)
The generation that followed South Korea’s Declaration of Democratization would experience both a democratic political transformation and world-beating economic growth. Ranked 22nd out of 167 nations in TheEconomist Intelligence Unit’s 2023 Democracy Index, South Korea is now sharing the lessons of its success with nations worldwide.
The Korean Civic Education Institute for Democracy has organized observation tours since 2013, in which government officials from around the world visit Korea to learn from their electoral systems. In 2016, South Korea launched the Association of World Election Bodies (A-WEB), headquartered in Incheon. A-WEB is now the world's largest international organization for election management, boasting 109 participating countries and underscoring South Korea's historic democratic achievements.
From Constitution to Country: Helping Mongolia with its Democratic Foundation
Photo courtesy Tom Ginsberg
In early 1990, The Asia Foundation was contacted by the Government of Mongolia, the landlocked country between Russia and China, which had been closely aligned with the Soviet Union for 70 years. With the crumbling of the Berlin Wall, young reformers in the country demanded political change, and the country’s ruling Mongolian People’s Revolutionary Party agreed to reform. Shel Severinghaus and I, who were running the Northeast Asia desk in San Francisco, welcomed the prominent lawyer B. Chimid on a study tour of California and Washington. After discussions with him, we initiated an intense round of programming to engage the country. Thus began a program of technical advice, study tours, fellowships, and expert visits on a wide range of governance issues.
One of the urgent tasks for the Mongolians was drafting a new Constitution for the nascent democratic era. All their earlier constitutions had been more or less copies of Soviet documents. The first step was to amend the prior text to allow for the election of an interim legislature, which then took on the task of drafting the final text. In practice, it delegated the job to a 20-member drafting committee with Chimid as the Secretary. The Asia Foundation was the main foreign organization providing technical advice.
Organizing a series of memos from U.S. and international experts, we also sent two leading constitutional thinkers to Mongolia: Joseph Grodin of Hastings Law School, who was a former Justice of the California Supreme Court, and Martin Shapiro of the University of California at Berkeley. Together, we engaged members of the drafting committee, became intimately familiar with the draft constitutional text, and participated in debates over the structure of government, the provisions on rights, and the role of the constitutional court. Gradually a consensus emerged, led by the inimitable Mr. Chimid, who remained a close friend of the Foundation for many years thereafter.
Asia Foundation staff traveled with Chimid during deliberations as he visited rural locations to explain the text to local herders and provided funds for civic education. The document reflected many international institutions and had a long list of rights drawn from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, but it still retained a local flavor. The Constitutional Court was named the Tsets, a term for a referee in traditional wrestling. The parliament was called a Hural, referring to the assemblies that Mongolians had used since before the time of Chinggis Khan.
Mongolia’s Constitution was promulgated in early 1992, with Foundation staff present. In many ways it marked the birth of an independent country. The Mongolian Constitution turned out pretty well. In my subsequent academic work, I’ve found that most constitutions do not last as long as twenty years, so by the metric of longevity the Mongolian text is certainly a success. But more importantly, the Constitution has worked: it has allowed several changes in power, and has been flexible enough to facilitate an evolution from a semi-presidential system towards one more centered on parliament.
There have been amendments and revisions to improve the document on the basis of experience. Mongolia has remained a democratic country for the last 30 years even though it is situated in a complex geopolitical environment. Mongolians seem to agree on the fundamental rules of the democratic game, even if they fight as hard as anyone for power within it.
From Rigid to Adaptive Policy Reform: Thinking and Working Politically
Photo: The Asia Foundation
For many years the dominant philosophy in international development was that complex development problems required smart technical solutions, and that the correct way to support developing countries was to import policies, systems, and institutions that international experts had deemed “best practices” in developed countries.
Development practitioners eventually began to acknowledge that they were failing to achieve the leaps in growth and prosperity that these “best practices” had promised, and that local political realities often stymied even tried-and-true international expertise.
The Asia Foundation recognized this challenge and worked with local partners, leading universities, development think tanks, and other international NGOs in pioneering a new approach to designing and implementing development programs—one that grapples head-on with local context and the messy political realities in which laws are made, resources are allocated, and policy reform either lives or dies.
This approach became known as “thinking and working politically” (TWP).
TWP emphasizes that effective development strategies require a close reading of local social, political, cultural, and historical dynamics; that they must adapt to the web of interests in the policy environment; and that they must prioritize local leadership over imported solutions. The Foundation’s unique contribution to this revolution in development practice has been to cultivate the entrepreneurial drive, skills, and vision that make local leaders and coalitions uniquely capable of navigating these challenging political contexts.
In the Philippines, the Foundation has applied these insights with remarkable success through its flagship Coalitions for Change (CfC) program, a partnership with the Australian government.
With its relatively stable presidential democracy, high rates of electoral participation, a burgeoning private sector, and a vibrant media and civil society, the Philippines seems poised for upper-middle income status. Yet, poverty and unemployment remain stubbornly high, the distribution of wealth is strikingly unequal, especially in rural communities, and the daily minimum wage is barely sufficient to feed families. These inequalities are reinforced by complex political dynamics—including patronage, corruption, weaknesses in political parties, and populism—that hobble effective policy reform and public service delivery.
To navigate this complex space, Coalitions for Change uses a “development entrepreneurship” approach that engages savvy local leaders, thinking and working politically, to identify and catalyze essential policy reforms. These development entrepreneurs weigh the likelihood of successful reform against three criteria: that a new policy will change the incentives and behavior of stakeholders and lead to better outcomes (impact); that these changes will endure beyond the term of the project (sustainability); and that the desired reform can be introduced in the context of existing political realities (political feasibility).
Foundation program staff work with these local leaders to identify critical development challenges and test potential policy solutions, balancing technical assessment with political economy analysis adjust their strategy to changing circumstances. The CfC team and their coalition partners track emerging information, engage key stakeholders and decision-makers, analyze policies, and monitor the shifting political winds. Through continuous review, reflection, and iteration, CfC builds consensus on the “current best” technical solutions and the most politically feasible policy measures to achieve them. CfC mobilizes cooperation among stakeholder groups and works with local actors in government, the private sector, and civil society to see the reform to completion.
CfC partners have achieved milestone policy reforms that have helped transform the economic security and quality of life of communities across the Philippines. These reforms have strengthened government services and inspired confidence in the ability of government, business, and civil society to work together for reform.
In one notable success, partners gained approval of a combination of legislative and policy measures that simplified the Philippines’ historically dysfunctional land titling system. New rules and registration systems brought a tenfold increase in the number of secure land titles issued each year. With their titles secure, property owners could now get credit to invest in their homes and lands, increasing the market value of their securely titled property in a virtuous cycle.
An elementary school classroom in the Philippines. Coalitions for Change discovered that an astonishing 90 percent of the Philippines’ 46,379 public schools lacked proper title to their land, frustrating new construction and sometimes leading to eviction. (Photo: Philippines Dept. of Education)
The impact of these reforms has extended to public infrastructure. Schools, hospitals, and health centers built on untitled lands or threatened by rival claims have secured clear title to their properties. New administrative titling rules have enabled national and local governments to invest in infrastructure and other improvements and enter joint ventures with private-sector partners. These developments have, in turn, improved public services.
There were laws requiring accessible infrastructure in Philippine public schools. The money was in place. Why was it not getting built? The coalition made a straightforward proposal: add accessible infrastructure to the list of school facilities monitored by the Department of Education.(Photo: Advocates of Inclusion)
Similar reform efforts advanced with support from CfC have dramatically improved active transportation infrastructure, with the creation of 800 kilometers of dedicated bike lanes and the establishment of pedestrian walkways in major cities nationwide, greater public attention to the safety of cyclists and pedestrians, and the myriad benefits that flow to the environment and climate risk reduction.
Other CfC initiatives have improved the collection of cigarette taxes to fund public healthcare services, improved police emergency response, and expanded nationwide internet access by admitting new competitors to the telecom sector.
Cyclists riding the new bike lane along Guadalupe Bridge. With cyclists flooding the streets in record numbers, CfC adopted a multipronged approach to promote new government policies favoring bike lanes. (Photo: Leandro Mangubat / The Asia Foundation)
The Asia Foundation experience across Asia and the Pacific demonstrates the effectiveness of politically informed programming. Reform initiatives by our local partners have contributed to better public services, the inclusion of marginalized groups in public decision-making, better access to justice, greater women’s voice and leadership, and greater inclusion of youth, indigenous communities, religious minorities, people with disabilities, and transgender populations in the design and delivery of essential social services.
The successes of Coalitions for Change and thinking and working politically rest in large part on the knowledge, skills, and confidence of local partners and Foundation program staff, working in close collaboration. They are encouraged to experiment, learn from success, failure, and all points between, and adapt their programs to changing circumstances. Today, The Asia Foundation’s thought leadership role is recognized by donors and implementing partners, and our specialists share their lessons and experience through research, case studies, training curricula, and practitioner gatherings throughout Asia and the Pacific and beyond.
