by Ankita Panda, Jane Sloane, and Britt Robinson | August 30, 2023 | Blog
Crises like the Covid-19 pandemic have demonstrated the need for a more equitable and resilient care economy. (Photo: Akihito Yokoyama / Alamy)
The Asia Pacific region is the most unequal in the world when it comes to unpaid care, where women perform four times more unpaid care work than men. Recent crises like the Covid-19 pandemic have exposed the fragility, the inadequacy, and the injustice of this reality and brought a growing recognition of the urgent need for strategic action to create an equitable and resilient care economy.
Last November, The Asia Foundation and its partners convened the Bali Care Economy Dialogue on the eve of the G20 in Indonesia to highlight the issue of care with G20 countries and to propose critical investments and necessary actions. To ground the discussion, the Foundation prepared a white paper, Toward a Resilient Care Ecosystem in Asia and the Pacific. Emerging from the dialogue was a regional roadmap for action on the care economy, co-created by the participants. Since then, The Asia Foundation has convened or participated in national-level dialogues in several countries in Asia and the Pacific to translate regional advocacy into national-level action. Read more about our work here.
After the success of the Bali initiative, the global women’s rights organization Women Deliver invited The Asia Foundation and its partners to organize a pre-conference on the care economy at Women Deliver 2023 in Kigali, Rwanda.* As the sun rose over Kigali on July 16, more than 100 organizations working on the care economy united to translate the regional roadmap into a global roadmap for action.
Geeta Rao Gupta, U.S. ambassador-at-large for global women’s issues, began the day with a powerful speech:
Today’s gathering is a testament to the progress we want to make, on a global level, toward shining the spotlight on an issue that is so essential to our collective well-being and to stable, prosperous societies, and yet too often goes unnoticed, remaining backstage when it requires top billing.
The opening plenary panel at the care economy pre-conference at Women Deliver 2023, in Kigali, Rwanda. (Photo: Franck Axel Nyabagabo)
The opening plenary session featured a panel discussion of regional care models. Diana Rodríguez Franco, secretary of women’s affairs of Bogotá, Colombia, described that city’s innovative district care system, which organizes care services into regional centers, or “blocks of care,” to bring care services closer to those who need them, reducing the time burden on care providers and giving them a safe and welcoming center of support. Nineteen of the planned 46 care blocks are already in operation across the city.
Lynette Okengo, executive director of the African Early Childhood Network, highlighted the need to map out the care space to ensure that CSOs are complementing and not duplicating each other’s work. “We need to know who can do what, and where, best,” she said, “and we need to collaborate, when we approach government, to have a stronger voice.”
The event attracted funding commitments, including an announcement by Canada’s minister of international development, Harjit Sajjan, that his government would fund two projects: Time to Care, a CA$5.2 million investment in Kenya to change gender norms, care policies, and legislation; and Scaling Care Innovations in Africa, a CA$25 million investment to scale successful African care models.
The second half of the day included discussions of concrete steps to advance the care economy. Roundtable participants developed recommendations and action items for the global roadmap for action. Roadmap topics include care-related migration, engaging men and boys, care and the climate crisis, digitalization, and promoting the disability-care agenda. Recommendations range from expanding childcare facilities in public spaces and male-dominated workplaces to educating migrant care workers about their rights and where to obtain information and services. Other recommendations include investing in existing, replicable community models and encouraging the use of blended finance—using development funds to attract additional, private capital—to bolster emerging care enterprises
There was also a call for intersectional approaches that unite feminist, eldercare, and disability agendas for comprehensive care policies. Since most care workers are women, investing in women-led climate solutions will also center caregiving in addressing the ramifications of climate change.
The Asia Foundation’s Ankita Pandit addresses the conference. (Photo: Franck Axel Nyabagabo)
Effective care policies and delivery systems must be informed by timely data and research. Care advocates and activists must be included in policymaking forums to contribute their grassroots knowledge to the decision-making process. And new media strategies will bring the stories, contributions, and needs of care workers in the informal economy to the broader public.
There was recognition of the urgent need for action and commitments to address the care emergency dominating many countries and communities, costing lives and livelihoods every day. The draft global roadmap for action that emerged from the Kigali conference is designed to propel commitments and investments to transform the care economy and ensure decent care work and dignity of care for all who need it. It’s time.
*We extend our special thanks to the partner organizations that made this event possible. Organizing partners: the Center for Global Development, Women Deliver, the WeProsper Coalition at the International Center for Research on Women, the International Labour Organization, and The Asia Foundation. Cohosting partners: IDRC, Equimundo, Nathan (Cadmus Company), ECDAN, the International Rescue Committee, FEMNET, Pro Mujer, UN Women, the Moving Minds Alliance, Sonke Gender Justice, Men Care, and Hilton.
Britt Robinson is a gender advocate and communications specialist and can be reached at [email protected]. Jane Sloane is senior director, and Ankita Panda is senior program officer, at The Asia Foundation’s Women’s Empowerment and Gender Equality Program. They can be reached at [email protected] and [email protected], respectively. The views and opinions expressed here are those of the authors, not those of The Asia Foundation.
by Dinusha Wickremesekera | August 30, 2023 | Blog
Protesters at the University of Colombo. (Photo: Sunday Times, Sri Lanka)
In 1987–1989, Sri Lanka was in turmoil. In the North and the East, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam were calling for a separate state, while in the South there was an insurrection led by the Janatha Vimukthi Peramunan party (JVP), which had been banned by the government.
Both conflicts were violent.
In the South, JVP insurgents began attacking military camps, seizing weapons, and assassinating key figures in politics and the security forces. The JVP called for hartal, the closure of all business enterprises and places of learning, to bring the economy and everyday life to a halt. The government’s countermeasures were equally fierce, and the period was marked by widespread trauma.
By 1989, the violence had spread to the universities. Militant unions with ties to the JVP and other parties paralyzed the universities as they battled among themselves. The festering grievances, rooted in social and economic inequalities, that had sparked the violence were discussed and debated, but never addressed. Students were tortured and killed. The vice-chancellor of the University of Colombo was shot in his office. Eventually, all the universities were forced to close indefinitely.
In 1990, government forces apprehended the leadership of the JVP, quelling the insurrection in the South and sparking hope for a new beginning. The acting vice-chancellor of the University of Colombo saw that decisive steps were needed to restore the university to normal, and he invited Dr. Siripala Hettige, an alumnus and former head of the Sociology Department, who had just returned from sabbatical, to lead the way. Dr. Hettige returned to a Sri Lanka that was traumatized but hopeful.
Prof. Siripala Hettige, first senior student counselor at the University of Colombo (Photo: Daily Mirror, Sri Lanka)
The crucial questions were these: How could the University of Colombo reopen its gates to students? How could it restore an environment where classes could resume? How could the university once again become an environment for learning? Devising and implementing these steps would draw on the practical and theoretical expertise of the academic staff, the resources of funders and partners of the University, and the networks of university alumni. Together, as a community with an unwavering vision of the rebirth of their institution, the university administration, lecturers from every faculty, development agencies, and alumni marshalled their resources to address the challenges facing the undergraduates of the University of Colombo.
Return to normalcy
In 1990, The Asia Foundation funded the establishment of the university’s new Student Counseling Information Center, which continues today as the Student Counseling Office and Student Resource Center, to provide essential support to the student population. The Student Counseling Information Center was the heart of the university’s answer to the question, “How can we become a learning environment again?”
The Asia Foundation had been working with the university through a number of initiatives, including the Foundation’s Books for Asia program, and providing research support and capacity development for faculty through exchanges, English-language training programs, and curriculum development. The acting vice-chancellor invited the Foundation to assist in reopening the university and reintegrating students in a manner that encouraged learning and helped to heal the trauma that so many students had experienced. There were also the lingering, unaddressed concerns that had first fueled student frustrations: poor job prospects for graduates and their lack of English proficiency at a time when a changing workplace increasingly required it.
The original file for the Foundation’s Pilot Project in Student Counseling in Universities. (Photo: The Asia Foundation)
In response to a request from the vice-chancellor, the Foundation funded the Pilot Project in Student Counseling in Universities to upgrade professional competence and student services at the university as a building block of national development. The grant funds helped to establish both student counseling services and the position of senior student counselor for a period of six months. At the end of the pilot-project period, the university decided to make the position permanent and appointed Dr. Hettige. The service of a faculty member in the position of senior student counselor continues to this date. In 1992, Dr. Hettige published the edited collection Unrest or Revolt: Some Aspects of Youth Unrest in Sri Lanka, based on findings from this period.
The Foundation’s grant also funded a series of faculty consultations to develop strategies to create a more conducive learning environment. These meetings recommended such basic reforms as providing students with safe and sympathetic places to talk about their experiences, and then making sure that those who needed more professional help were referred to faculty in the Department of Psychiatry. The grant also funded training, conducted by the Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, in basic counseling skills for selected academic staff across all departments.
Changing the context
The consultations funded by The Asia Foundation established the scope of the new Student Counseling and Information Center’s activities to address the root causes of student discontent. The student unions at the heart of the ’87–’89 struggle, the alumni associations, and all student interest and affinity groups now came under the purview of the Center. To improve their academic life, the Center provided students with career guidance, coordinated their academic and administrative requirements, and developed an advisory and counseling program to help them manage their personal and academic challenges. A survey system was established to identify students in need of greater academic or psychological support.
The University of Colombo today, a view of the library. (Photo: University of Colombo)
As the founding senior student counselor of the University of Colombo, Dr. Hettige, now retired, looks back on the 1990–1993 period as one of the most rewarding and consequential of his career. He drew on his theoretical knowledge to create programs essential for students who had experienced violent conflict and continued to face economic, social, and psychological challenges to complete their degrees. He worked to unite the whole university community to restore students’ sense of inclusion and belonging. He called on the school’s alumni to start a mentorship program to help undergraduates with their professional development. He placed new emphasis on English proficiency and the university’s English Language Unit. And he courted new donors to support cultural and social programs to improve university life.
Many of the students who benefited from these programs are now leaders in Sri Lanka and beyond. The Office of Student Counseling continues its work at the University of Colombo, and almost all of Sri Lanka’s state universities have now established student counseling centers of their own.
Dinusha Wickremeserkera is a justice and gender consultant for The Asia Foundation in Sri Lanka. She can be reached at [email protected]. The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author, not those of The Asia Foundation.
A view of Singapore. Southeast Asia has prospered since the end of the Cold War. It does not wish to see those tensions return. (Photo Flickr user/flic.kr/p/HgcdWN)
The member states of ASEAN, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, have flourished since the end of the Cold War. But Southeast Asia is rapidly becoming a competitive space for geopolitical rivalries. The growing strategic divide between the United States and China is raising concerns in the region that they may once again be forced to choose sides. But some say we are past the era when superpowers can dictate the regional order, and today small and middle powers can maintain their sovereignty and shape their own destiny. Is Southeast Asia moving towards a multipolar order and greater agency?
Joining us on this week’s podcast with his thoughtful analysis is The Asia Foundation’s Thomas Parks, author of the new book Southeast Asia’s Multipolar Future: Averting a New Cold War. Also joining us is Stanford University’s Scot Marciel, former U.S. ambassador to Myanmar and Indonesia, and the author of Imperfect Partners: The United States and Southeast Asia.
Thomas Parks and Amb. Scot Marciel at The Asia Foundation, July 31, 2023 (Photo: the Asia Foundation)
by Md. Zakaria and Bernard Vimanga | August 9, 2023 | Blog
The nation of Maldives is an archipelago in the Indian Ocean. The Maldives has welcomed migrant labor, from which it has reaped significant benefits.
Abdul—not his real name—is a construction worker from Bangladesh. He works 16 to 18 hours a day laying bricks and doing masonry on a remote island 75km from Malé, the capital of Maldives. He is one of 140 construction workers building a 75-room resort hotel on the island, which was handed over to a Maldives developer.
There are 40 camp beds and five makeshift toilets that Adbul and his colleagues must share. He earns less than $1.40 per day (21.63 rufiyaa) for 16 hours of work, well below the minimum wage of Maldives, which does not cover migrant workers. Abdul and his colleagues have not been paid for two months. He is one of about 20,000 undocumented Bangladeshis currently working in the Maldives.
Labor migration plays a major role in the economies of South Asia, with profound effects on both source and destination countries. It involves millions of skilled and unskilled workers seeking employment opportunities beyond their national borders in pursuit of higher wages, better living conditions, and brighter prospects for their families. This cross-border movement fills workforce gaps in destination countries and generates substantial remittances that serve as a crucial source of foreign currency for countries of origin. Labor migration also fosters a complex interplay of economic, social, and cultural influences that contributes to the region’s overall growth and development, transforming societies and facilitating the exchange of knowledge, skills, and cultures across borders.
The Maldives has welcomed migrant labor from the region, making it an exception in South Asia. Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka are all principally source rather than destination countries. The Maldives, in fact, has a significant dependence on migrant labor. According to the country’s Bureau of Statistics, the nation’s labor force stands at 181,144, of which 177,585 are expatriates. This exceptional reliance on migrant labor has brought significant benefits to the Maldives economy, propelling the nation to a per capita GDP in 2023 of $36,358. But significant loopholes in the laws governing labor migration have resulted in irregular migration and the widespread exploitation of undocumented workers. According to research conducted by the Public Interest Law Centre (PILC), there is a high prevalence of exploitative practices such as wage theft, excessive work schedules, deceptive and fraudulent recruiting, and occupational safety and health violations that have led to injuries and deaths. The current system also significantly limits such basic workers’ rights as freedom of expression and association and the right to strike.
At this resort hotel project on a remote island in the Maldives, 140 construction workers share 40 camp beds and five makeshift toilets. There are 20,000 undocumented Bangladeshis currently working in the Maldives, often under exploitive conditions.
The exact number of labor migrants in the Maldives is unclear. According to the Statistical Yearbook 2020, from the Bureau of Statistics, there were 138,728 migrant workers employed in various sectors of the economy in 2020. This figure only includes documented migrant workers residing in the country. In 2021, the U.S. State Department estimated 169,000 migrant workers in the Maldives, consisting of 109,000 documented workers and 60,000 undocumented workers. The undocumented population is presumed to consist mainly of Bangladeshi and Indian men working in the construction and service sectors. The Bureau of Statistics’ Maldives Population Projections 2014–2054 anticipated that the resident foreign population would amount to 187,290 migrants as of 2022. This uncertainty over the foreign workforce is a serious structural problem for migrant labor in the Maldives that leaves individuals like Abdul invisible and vulnerable to unfair labor practices.
In the face of this complex challenge, civil society organizations have become important advocates for change. The Asia Foundation’s South Asia Governance Fund program, funded by the U.S. State Department’s Bureau for South and Central Asia Affairs, supports the work of the PILC and the Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit (RMMRU) of Bangladesh to develop policies to minimize the impact of irregular migration in the Maldives and stop the exploitation and unlawful detention of migrants.
With the support of the Foundation, the PILC and the RMMRU organized a track 1.5 dialogue in July between governmental and nongovernmental stakeholders. Diplomatic negotiations are typically classified into two tracks: track 1 involves formal negotiations among governmental representatives, while track 2 includes nongovernmental actors like think tanks, academics, and civil society organizations. A track 1.5 dialogue combines the advantages of both tracks and promotes inclusive and participatory decision-making. The track 1.5 dialogue held on July 17 and 18, 2023, brought together a delegation comprising researchers, members of the Bangladesh parliament, government officials and agency representatives from the Maldives and Bangladesh, and representatives from the private sector, the media, and the legal profession.
The dialogue spanned more than two days and generated wide-ranging debate and discussion that produced a consensus on three key issues: (1) Easing restrictions. Considering the demand for Bangladeshi workers in the Maldives, authorities there were asked to withdraw existing restrictions on formal migration. The Maldives government representative agreed to bilateral discussions with Bangladesh to ease those restrictions. (2) Strengthening laws and coordination. The Maldives has comprehensive laws and institutions to regulate the labor sector, but enforcement and coordination among ministries and agencies needs improvement. The Maldives representative agreed that policy correction is necessary to close these loopholes. (3) Enhanced collaboration. To control the flow of workers through irregular channels and combat trafficking, there is a vital need for better coordination between the authorities of Bangladesh and the Maldives. The dialogue reached a consensus that close coordination between the two countries will be key to addressing this issue, and laid the foundation for future bilateral discourse between the two countries.
The collaboration between the PILC and the RMMRU in organizing the track 1.5 dialogue on labor migration represents a commitment to addressing the issue. By joining forces, these organizations have pooled their expertise, resources, and networks, amplifying their voices and their influence. The synergy between these two organizations has attracted greater attention from governments and other stakeholders, leading to a more inclusive and comprehensive dialogue on labor migration to the Maldives.
This kind of collaboration, backed by strategic tools such as track 1.5 dialogues, has proven to be an effective tool for policy advocacy in South Asia. The PILC-RMMRU partnership has focused attention on the humanitarian aspects of labor migration, built trust among stakeholders, and amplified the voices of migrants like Abdul. Inclusive and participatory platforms like track 1.5 dialogues can develop solutions that are more comprehensive and sustainable, paving the way for positive change in addressing public challenges. As we move forward, continued cooperation between governments and civil society will be instrumental in creating a world where migration is approached with empathy, compassion, and pragmatism.
Md. Zakaria is a senior program manager and Bernard Vimanga is a program officer in The Asia Foundation’s South Asia Grants Program. They can be reached at [email protected] and [email protected], respectively. The views and opinions expressed here are those of the authors, not those of The Asia Foundation.
by John Rieger and Tracie Yang | July 26, 2023 | Blog
Philippines Old Growth Forest
This July marks the 30th anniversary of a legal decision in the Philippines that has reverberated far beyond those shores. In 1993, a young attorney named Antonio Oposa sued the Philippine Department of the Environment and Natural Resources and its secretary, “Jun” Factoran, to halt logging in the nation’s vanishing old-growth forests. The remarkable aspect of the case is that he sued on behalf of generations as yet unborn.
The key holding of Minors Oposa vs. Factoran is now known as the Oposa Doctrine. It grants current generations legal standing to bring actions on behalf of future generations with respect to environmental rights.
Joining John and Tracie to talk about his famous case is lawyer and environmentalist Antonio Oposa. Also joining us is his longtime friend Erik Jensen, formerly with The Asia Foundation in Manila and now at Stanford Law School, who had a first-hand view of the event.
Environmental lawyer Antonio Oposa of the Philippines
Andrei Venal is a human rights worker, but he has been called many other things: “We are called terrorists. Dissenters without cause. Rabble-rousers. When we are tagged like that, it actually destroys our strategies to make people care, because people don’t like us anymore.”
Andrei Venal scrolls through their organization’s online platforms.
Andrei is the strategic communications director of the artist-activist organization DAKILA–Philippine Collective for Modern Heroism. During his 15 years in the human rights sector, he has found it increasingly difficult to engage Filipinos in the democratic processes that affect their lives—from simple things like signing up for a newsletter to joining a protest to being part of an advocacy campaign. “Ten years ago, human rights communications [needed] to be ‘attractive’ enough to gather people, because at that time, apathy was your first enemy.” Now, he says, the problem is no longer apathy, but fear.
Striving to Survive
This fear is not unfounded.
Despite robust laws and institutions for protecting human rights, and a vibrant and active civil society, the past few years have witnessed an erosion of public support for human rights in the Philippines. In a commissioned study, Campaigns, Conspiracies, Capacities in the Philippines Human Rights Sector: Toward Digital Resilience and Worker Wellness, human rights workers shared what they’re up against: massive disinformation and fake news, rampant conspiracy theories, targeted harassment, and misogynistic attacks against women activists.
New technology paved the way for these attacks. Targeted campaigns, both offline and online, amplify narratives that portray human rights as an obstacle to peace, order, and the swift delivery of justice. Defenders must continually fend off intimidation tactics that have made their work challenging, if not outright dangerous.
Already on their back foot, defenders must work doubly hard to offer counternarratives and mount campaigns to convince Filipinos to support human rights. Behind the scenes, human rights defenders like Andrei who are focused on communications feel the mental, emotional, and financial toll of a job that requires them to be “always on,” but often receive little support from organizations, donors, and allies.
For some, these challenging times are an opportunity to try new approaches.
Changing Ways
“Awareness is not enough,” says Louie Crismo, cochair and secretary general of Families of Victims of Involuntary Disappearance (FIND). “The younger generation has to do something.”
Crismo himself will be the first to admit that engaging the younger generations is difficult. He heads an organization that was established 38 years ago. Their arsenal of tactics and tools may have been effective in the 80s and 90s, but they are no longer viable in the online spaces where younger Filipinos now get their information. It doesn’t help that FIND has no dedicated communications team.
This predicament is not unique to FIND. Many grassroots organizations do not have the resources to hire full-time communications staff, hampering their public messaging. Communications workers are commonly hired on limited contracts. Populist leaders have been quick to take advantage to distort stories and rewrite human rights narratives, pushing the voices of defenders to the sidelines.
In the report Human Rights in Survival Mode: Rebuilding Trust and Supporting Digital Workers in the Philippines, authors Jonathan Corpus Ong, Jeremy Tintiangko, and Rossine Fallorina highlight a lack of investment in communications infrastructure and professional communications personnel in the human rights sector. Organizations have mostly confined their work to providing services to victims and lobbying for policy change, missing opportunities to use strategic communications to promote new ideas and influence behavior more broadly.
FIND’s campaign and lobby officer, Cecille Baello, has been with the organization for just eight months. She’s aware of the limitations facing FIND when it comes to advocacy. “In our organization, we always talk about initiating actions among our membership and even among the general public,” she says. “But really pointing out what kind of behavior we want to get out of a certain demographic? We haven’t tried that yet.”
Transforming Behaviors
FIND is a grassroots partner in The Asia Foundation’s Initiative for Advancing Community Transformation—I-ACT for short—a project that helps Philippine civil society organizations (CSOs) apply the principles of Social and Behavior Change (SBC) to human rights advocacy. SBC focuses on how organizations like FIND can persuade their target audiences to take concrete actions like donating, volunteering, joining protests, and signing petitions. SBC encourages organizations to understand the environment and the audience so that campaigns and messaging can be designed to lower barriers to positive behaviors.
SBC has been used for many years in public health to encourage concrete behaviors like washing hands, being tested for HIV, or getting vaccinated. Public health programs have used tailored messaging to make it as easy as possible for specific groups or individuals to adopt the desired behaviors. Will the same tactics work in promoting human rights?
Launched in 2019 with funding from USAID, I-ACT is the first program of its scale to apply SBC techniques in the Philippine human rights sector. I-ACT researches and identifies the social factors that discourage or encourage support for human rights, rigorously tests and experiments with messaging to inspire the desired actions, then builds a campaign based on these insights. Succinctly put, this is I-ACT’s SBC approach: diagnosis, prototyping, and scale-up, three phases that provide enough leeway to catch problems and spot opportunities early on. I-ACT works with civil society organizations and human rights defenders, many of them already strategically positioned in their communities, to improve their advocacy using SBC.
“This kind of concept is very new,” says FIND’s Cecille Baello, “but it’s something that we saw as very necessary in human rights organizations, civil society organizations, [and] cause-oriented organizations.”
Families of Victims of Involuntary Disappearance (FIND) joins other I-ACT partners for an SBC workshop identifying their project’s target behaviors.
In June 2023, FIND and I-ACT began their SBC journey to recruit a younger, Gen-Z audience to help put an end to forced disappearances. Utilizing tailored content, FIND plans to spread the stories of the disappeared online. But, as Louie Crismo points out, awareness-raising is not enough. Eventually, FIND must integrate clear calls to action into their campaigns, actions like sharing information, attending events, and signing pledges of support for a national law protecting human rights defenders.
As FIND builds its methodology, it will involve target audiences at every step. What do young people know about forced disappearances and human rights issues? What types of social media content are they drawn to? What messages are effective in getting them to volunteer or sign petitions? The key lies in specificity.
“If you really recognize what kind of behavior you want the participants to [perform], that’s it. Everything will follow,” says Baello.
SBC Now in Action
Like FIND, the Legal Rights and Natural Resources Center (LRC), the Philippine branch of Friends of the Earth, is experimenting with something new.
“The brave plan is to dive into TikTok to identify influencers, young people [who] may be receptive to the cause,” LRC executive director Mai Taqueban says. “We thought of really trying out unfamiliar waters.”
As part of I-ACT’s first batch of CSO partners, who started their SBC projects in October 2022 and have completed their diagnosis and prototyping phases, LRC is preparing to scale-up what they’ve found to be the most effective types of TikTok videos from influencers promoting indigenous rights. Lessons from LRC’s campaign will become part of I-ACT’s growing library of knowledge resources, so that other civil society and human rights organizations interested in expanding their community of volunteer content creators can follow LRC’s steps and adapt as needed.
Now in the fourth of a planned five years, I-ACT and its many partners—academics, activists, and experts in communications and behavior—have produced a trove of research findings on Filipinos’ knowledge, attitudes, and practices regarding human rights, as well as program prototypes that show how SBC can help civil society organizations achieve their campaign plans and advocacy objectives—resources it is now sharing with the broader development community.
I-ACT’s Micheline Rama discusses SBC approaches with human rights communications workers in June 2023. FIND’s Louie Crismo sits in front (in white).
In addition to sharing SBC resources, I-ACT helps partner organizations like FIND and LRC to obtain seed funding, build dedicated communications teams, and make the most of their limited resources by choosing the most effective tools.
I-ACT plans to offer this multilevel support to more than 100 collaborating CSOs. Both FIND and LRC are among the 33 partner organizations designing and testing campaigns to crowdsource content, recruit volunteers, and increase the effectiveness of calls to action such as signature-gathering campaigns. By starting with these small but specific initiatives, civil society organizations can begin to focus on behaviors that will ripple into the public sphere and create more positive attitudes towards human rights.
While human rights defenders must still confront a daunting social landscape, the fear factor is yielding to a new spirit of courage. I-ACT continues to support partners to try untested waters. “We want to debunk the adage that you can’t teach old dogs new tricks,” says LRC’s Mai Taqueban, “so this is an opportunity for us to learn new tricks.”
I-ACT is made possible by the generous support of USAID.
Katherine Gutlay is the communications officer for The Asia Foundation’s Initiative for Advancing Community Transformation. She can be reached at [email protected]. The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author, not those of The Asia Foundation.
by Erandi De Wass Gunawardena and Shannon Razack | July 26, 2023 | Blog
Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in Sri Lanka are increasing, rising 56 percent from 2008 to 2018. The increase in emissions has contributed to air pollution around the island and is a constant threat to the well-being of the population. In December 2022, following cyclonic conditions over the Bay of Bengal, the air quality in Colombo reached the dangerous level of 169 on the air quality index, compelling the government to close schools in smog-choked towns. The air pollution in Jaffna, in the Northern Province, was the nation’s highest, at 294, well above the maximum safe value of 150.
Smog obscures the horizon in Colombo. (Photo: Waruna de Silva)
A combination of local and transboundary pollution was blamed for the drastic decline in air quality, which can cause serious respiratory ailments such as bronchitis, pneumonia, and the exacerbation of asthma. As a safety measure, the public was requested to wear face masks when stepping outdoors. Children, the elderly, and those with preexisting respiratory and heart conditions were advised to stay indoors and avoid prolonged outdoor activity.
Given the importance of this emerging challenge for Sri Lanka, The Asia Foundation conducted a study with Sri Lanka’s Industrial Services Bureau (ISB) to better understand GHG emissions from the transport sector, the industrial sector, and individual households. The study took stock of existing efforts to reduce carbon emissions and improve air quality through monitoring, awareness raising, and public policy discourse. It also noted legal bottlenecks and the need to change public perceptions, knowledge, and attitudes.
Seen from the water, a haze covers Colombo’s skyline. (Photo: Waruna de Silva)
ISB conducted a literature review to fine-tune the design of the primary survey. The survey was followed by a series of household focus group discussions, key informant interviews, and a questionnaire for approximately 3,000 respondents in the industrial and transport sectors and private households.
The study found that 45 percent of household respondents in villages and 46 percent in cities believed that the air in their area was moderately polluted. The study also found that respondents were interested in taking action to improve air quality, with 55 percent saying that they would be willing to pay taxes for emissions controls and air quality improvements. Forty-two percent of respondents said they would agree to drive their own vehicle less for the sake of the environment. The results from the industrial-sector respondents were very different: 73 percent said that they were not willing to pay for air quality improvements.
Industrial air pollution emitted from one of Colombo’s leading hotels. (Photo: Erandi De Wass Gunawardena)
Firewood continues to be Sri Lanka’s predominant household fuel. A majority of the country uses firewood as their primary domestic fuel source, including an estimated 34 percent of the urban population, 84 percent of the rural population, and 96 percent of the “estate” population, consisting primarily of tea plantation workers, of which there are roughly a million.
Most Sri Lankans still rely on firewood for home heating and cooking.
Field visits by ISB during primary data collection documented the improvised fuels that households use to light the hearth for cooking in the absence of firewood or other standard fuels. In the image below, a household fire is kindled with polythene plastic bags, a potent source of GHG emissions.
A household cooking fire fueled by polythene plastic bags.
Just 14 of 480 survey respondents in the industrial and SME sectors—3 percent—said they were aware of the problem of GHG emissions and were actively trying to reduce them. Fifty percent of respondents said they had heard something about GHG emissions, but not much. This is quite alarming, because the industrial sector is one of the key contributors to GHG emissions.
A majority of household respondents (64 percent) had little or no knowledge of the importance of air quality. Thirty percent of respondents stated that air quality is very important to them because they understand environmental health standards, and 6 percent said that air quality in their area was not important to them. It is clear that at the household and community level there is a relatively little understanding of the issue of air quality.
As air pollution increases in Sri Lanka, government, industry, and individuals need to respond. The ISB study proposes several possible solutions to reduce GHG emissions in the transport and industrial sectors and at the household level. Gaps in the implementation of existing emissions policies must be closed. Better policy implementation in the transport sector and at the household level could significantly reduce air pollution—for example, by limiting the use of inappropriate materials for cooking. Public-private partnerships have great potential to develop collaborative solutions.
The study also calls for policy initiatives to raise public awareness about air pollution and create mechanisms to report violations like household burning of plastic waste. It recommends training government officials and NGOs in the “Green SME” concept of adopting green practices and developing green business models. It also recommends training in industrial development for officials who work predominantly with industries and SMEs.
A meeting with members of the household sector.
The researchers noted that younger citizens seemed keen to engage in awareness programs, workshops, and other activities to give them the technical knowledge to reduce GHG emissions and develop solid-waste management models in villages. The Foundation’s long experience working with youth and providing tailored awareness and training programs makes this a potential avenue for future programming.
Taking immediate action to control emissions and reduce air pollution is vital to mitigating climate change. The Foundation encourages the use of this study to stimulate further discourse on the impact of GHG emissions in Sri Lanka and the need to collaborate for better air quality.
Erandi De Wass Gunawardena is a program officer, and Shannon Razack is a program associate, of The Asia Foundation’s Social Cohesion and Community Dialogue unit in Sri Lanka. They can be reached at [email protected] and [email protected], respectively. The views and opinions expressed here are those of the authors, not those of The Asia Foundation.
Fifteen mid-career diplomats from Asia and the Pacific Islands visited the United States last month—from Washington, D.C., and the United Nations in New York to the bayous of Louisiana and the redwood forests of California—as part of The Asia Foundation’s Young Asian Diplomats program.
Coursework in diplomacy and foreign policy at Georgetown University’s Walsh School of Foreign Service (Photo: The Asia Foundation)
The three-week program of dialogue and exchange included coursework at Georgetown University’s Walsh School of Foreign Service, a study tour in the Big Apple, briefings with tech leaders in San Francisco, and a first-hand look at how climate change is affecting the mighty Mississippi in New Orleans.
The participants hailed from Bhutan, Cambodia, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Mongolia, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Timor-Leste, and Vietnam. We caught up with two of them in San Francisco, Ms. Sujana Aryal of Nepal and Mr. Nguyen Dong Anh of Vietnam, and asked them to share their reflections on their U.S. visit and their calling as diplomats.
In this time of rapid change and new diplomatic challenges that range from international law and security to environmental sustainability and economic development, there has never been a greater need to invest in transformative, next-generation leadership. The Young Asian Diplomats program provides a unique opportunity for participants to study the complex issues, processes, and challenges that shape U.S. foreign and domestic policy, and deepens the bonds of understanding among a new generation of leaders.
Highlights of the three-week program included discussions of U.S.–Asia-Pacific relations with high-level officials from the State Department’s Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs and the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs, and skills-building master classes on negotiation and diplomatic communication. Coursework on foreign policy and diplomacy in a global era was offered in partnership with the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy at Georgetown University. The delegation received in-depth briefings on current geopolitical issues from former U.S. ambassadors, government officials, and academics. They met with the chef de cabinet of the president of the United Nations General Assembly and received a briefing on UN priorities and the scientific approach to tackling the Sustainable Development Goals.
The young diplomats with Asia Foundation president Laurel E. Miller, left center, in black. (Photo: The Asia Foundation)
Throughout the program, the delegation considered issues of importance to Americans and U.S. policy, including healthcare access, climate change, and the history and legacy of slavery. The program also connected with everyday Americans through “dinner diplomacy” and people-to-people exchanges.
The program also exposed the young diplomats to a broad panorama of ordinary American life. Between coursework and site visits, the delegation visited New Orleans for a swamp tour and briefings on Mississippi River hydrology, they viewed New York City from the Empire State Building, and they strolled among the giant redwood trees of Northern California.
Viewing the redwoods at Muir Woods National Monument, north of San Francisco. (Photo: The Asia Foundation)
On June 20, the final day of the program, the delegation attended a breakfast in San Francisco with The Asia Foundation’s President’s Leadership Council and the local diplomatic community to share their reflections on the program, followed by final meetings with Meta, to discuss Facebook’s approaches to global threats, and with the San Francisco Mayor’s Office.
The observation study tour introduced the young diplomats to a broad spectrum of Americans from across the United States, helping them to become more adept at communicating outside of customary diplomatic circles. They also shared thoughts about their own countries’ policies and the issues and the concerns of their fellow citizens. The program provided opportunities for the diplomats to develop personal bonds within their cohort and build international perspectives and networks of support and collaboration.
The young diplomats in Washington, D.C. (Photo: The Asia Foundation)
The Young Asian Diplomats program is made possible by generous support from the Henry Luce Foundation and partnerships with foreign ministries across Asia and the Pacific Islands. This year’s Young Diplomats included Mr. Sonam Tobgay, Bhutan; Ms. Hul Thonnak, Cambodia; Ms. Adi Mere Naulu Uluivuda, Fiji; Ms. Udita Gaurav, India; Mr. Andi Sparringa, Indonesia; Mr. Thansamay Sivanna, Laos; Ms. Ili Amirah Sulaiman, Malaysia; Ms. Khulan Ganbattulga, Mongolia; Ms. Sujana Aryal, Nepal; Mr. Jude Roa, Papua New Guinea; Mr. George Mariano A. Soriano, Philippines; Ms. Subashini Silva, Sri Lanka; Ms. Pajaree Varathorn, Thailand; Mr. Crisostomo Castro Martins, Timor-Leste; and Mr. Nguyen Dong Anh, Vietnam.
Julian Rhoads is assistant director of The Asia Foundation’s Leadership and Exchange Programs (LeadEx). He can be reached at [email protected]. The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author, not those of The Asia Foundation.
The cross-border trade ecosystem in India does not include enough women. Women who are a part of India’s export and import value chains are typically confined to the lower levels of production and manufacturing, and virtually excluded from higher levels of trade value chains, policymaking positions, and the executive suite. This is important because India could add US$770 billion to its GDP by 2025 just by offering equal opportunities to women.
While the issue is global, my focus here is on India, whose rapidly evolving cross-border trade ecosystem poses a unique challenge for research practitioners like me trying to understand how trade can work for all.
My observations are based on more than a decade of research, and recent visits to more than 25 ports in India—a mix of seaports, land ports, dry ports, and air cargo complexes—in the last couple of years. During these port visits, I observed that, while infrastructure and operations varied, there was one common thread: missing women.
A discussion with the trade community at Uri, in Jammu and Kashmir, where trade takes place across the Line of Control between India and Pakistan. (Photo: Nikita Singla)
The data I collected confirmed pre-pandemic estimates that the labor-force participation rate (LFPR) of women in India is among the lowest in the world: 20.3 percent in 2019, compared to 75.3 percent for men. To put this in the regional context, female LFPR is 30.5 percent in neighboring Bangladesh and 33.7 percent in Sri Lanka. The participation rate for women in trade is even lower, but uncertain because of lack of data.
In 2018, The Asia Foundation, with support from The World Bank through Australian DFAT, set out to examine women’s low rate of participation in trade in the context of the Bhutan-Bangladesh-India-Nepal (BBIN) Motor Vehicles Agreement. The 2018 report was a first step towards identifying ways in which women could get more benefit from regional trade. A 2020 joint report from the World Bank and the World Trade Organization, Women and Trade: The Role of Trade in Promoting Women’s Equality, further explored how trade has the potential to expand women’s role in the economy, decrease inequality, and expand women’s access to skills and education.
In the absence of gender-disaggregated data from individual firms, my visits to various Indian border areas provided some qualitative insights into this subject and helped better elucidate the limited presence of women in India’s cross-border trade ecosystem.
I observed that women in general are concentrated in the lower levels of trade value chains, with only a limited presence in production and manufacturing and almost none in areas such as research and development, marketing, or distribution. During a visit to Amritsar, for example, along the India-Pakistan border, I met several women who worked hand-cutting dry dates imported from Pakistan. Nearly a thousand of them scraped together a minimal livelihood from this manual labor.
Along the India-Bangladesh border, I met a woman vendor at the border haat (local market) between Srinagar (Tripura) and Chagalnaiya (Chittagong), a former housewife who now made around US$300 every Tuesday, the market’s day of operation. “Women in Bangladesh are no less competent than men,” she told me, “and it is time that they get the highest encouragement and support, not only from the government, but also from their families to get involved in business.”
A woman vendor at one of the border markets between India and Bangladesh. (Photo: Nikita Singla)
The same observation is also documented in research conducted by the World Bank Group in 2020 on the cross-border value chains for spices and agricultural products in India’s northeast. The study found that women’s participation is greater at the bottom of the value chain, in on-farm activities such as cultivation, harvesting, sorting, grading, packaging, and labeling.
On the other hand, during some of my visits, I also found evidence of some noteworthy local initiatives that reflect a commitment to make the local ecosystem more conducive to women’s participation. A small example is the sanitary napkin vending machine at the land port at Agartala, along the India-Bangladesh border, a positive sign that cross-border trade is becoming more attuned to the needs of women.
In Dawki, a newly inaugurated port along the India-Bangladesh border where women now comprise nearly 40 percent of the workforce, the port manager told me of various measures that had been taken to recruit women from the local community.
A discussion at the Dawki-Tamabil line between India and Bangladesh. (Photo: Nikita Singla)
It was through these first-hand observations that I got deeply interested in and concerned about this subject. The invitation to write the recently published policy paper Women’s Inclusion in India’s Trade Ecosystem, supported by the U.S. Embassy in India and The Asia Foundation, gave me another opportunity to dig deeper into this fundamental issue.
Based on my research and direct interactions with government officials, particularly in customs; gender experts in academia; and inclusion officers at multilateral agencies, I concluded in the paper that the trade sector in India had both progress to celebrate and further steps to take with respect to women’s inclusion.
In addition to the anecdotal evidence and research findings shared above, the 2021 UN Global Survey on Digital and Sustainable Trade Facilitation has some telling data showing that India’s implementation rate in the “women in trade facilitation” category is just 66 percent. The data covers trade policies to increase women’s participation in trade, trade facilitation measures to benefit women in trade, and women’s membership in national-level trade committees.
These numbers in no way undermine the existing efforts. For example, India’s high-level commitment to gender-inclusive trade is reflected in the government’s National Trade Facilitation Action Plan 2020–23, in which Action Point 27 is specifically aimed at promoting gender inclusion in trade.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, India also took several steps under the Turant Customs Programme to make the customs clearance process faceless, paperless, and contactless. Reforms like these reduce opportunities for bribery and corruption, which research has shown to disadvantage women-owned businesses disproportionately. Shifting from physical to digital customs procedures can level the playing field for women, if complemented by efforts to enhance women’s awareness and adoption of the new technologies.
As they say, only what gets measured gets done. To continue women’s progress in trade, policymaking needs to be supported by national data collected at the firm level, disaggregated by gender, and made readily accessible to third-party researchers.
With more and better data, policymakers can address areas such as (1) skilling, training, and mentoring of women for higher positions in trade value chains, including leadership; (2) reforming trade institutions to overcome gender financing gaps and enhance women’s participation in port-level decision-making; (3) developing high-level policies such as gender-specific provisions in new trade agreements; and (4) empowering women more generally, particularly through greater investment in the care economy and mandatory gender-tagging of all projects (see figure 1).
Figure 1: Areas of reform for women’s inclusion in India’s trade ecosystem. (Singla, 2023, Women’s Inclusion in India’s Trade Ecosystem)
Each of these reforms also has a role to play in advancing the four pillars of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework—trade, supply chains, clean economies, and fair economies—which aim to increase resilience, sustainability, inclusion, economic growth, fairness, and competitiveness. Women’s empowerment is central to the achievement of these goals.
At present, there are 432 million women of working age in India, of which 343 million are employed in the informal sector. A report by the McKinsey Global Institute has estimated that just by offering equal opportunities to women, India could add US$770 billion to its GDP by 2025. Trade is just one sector!
Nikita Singla is associate director of the New Delhi-based Bureau of Research on Industry and Economic Fundamentals (BRIEF). She can be reached at [email protected]. The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author, not those of The Asia Foundation.
by John Rieger and Tracie Yang | June 28, 2023 | Blog
The 21 member economies of APEC in 2023. (Photo: The Asia Foundation)
The U.S. is taking its turn this year as host of APEC, the 21-member Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, whose membership extends from Russia to the South Pacific and from South America to China.
The official theme for 2023 is Creating a Resilient & Sustainable Future for All, and joining us this week to share his views about how the big job is coming along—among other things—is U.S. Senior Official for APEC Matt Murray. He’s in San Francisco to plan the APEC Economic Leaders Week, which will be descending on the City in November, and he sits down with us to give us a preview for this edition of the InAsia podcast.
The Foundation’s grant also funded a series of faculty consultations to develop strategies to create a more conducive learning environment. These meetings recommended such basic reforms as providing students with safe and sympathetic places to talk about their experiences, and then making sure that those who needed more professional help were referred to faculty in the Department of Psychiatry. The grant also funded training, conducted by the Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, in basic counseling skills for selected academic staff across all departments.
