INASIA
Weekly Insights and Analysis
First President of UN Environment Assembly: Everyone Needs to Be Part of the Solution
Last night in San Francisco, Dr. Oyun Sanjaasuren of Mongolia was awarded The Chang-Lin Tien Distinguished Leadership Award, which honors the late U.C. Berkeley chancellor and chairman of The Asia Foundation’s board of trustees. Dr. Oyun is known...
The Gender Lab Boys Program
From 2018 to 2019, 2,500 boys from 61 schools in Mumbai, Indore, and Delhi, India, took a journey to redefine masculinity and stand up to gender-based violence. The Gender Lab Boys Program is the brainchild of cofounders Akshat Singhal and Ayushi...
Promoting Open Data in Nepal’s Private Sector
The rapid growth, in our era, of data-driven decision-making offers both a challenge and an opportunity for businesses at every level in Nepal. As government agencies, research institutes, and the private sector apply new quantitative tools and the...
A Good Provider Is One Who Leaves
A Conversation with Jason DeParle “The two main themes of Filipino Overseas Worker life are homesickness and money,” writes New York Times reporter and two-time Pulitzer finalist Jason DeParle early in his new book, A Good Provider Is One Who...
Philippines: Capturing the Broadband Satellite Opportunity
It’s a 45-minute drive on unpaved roads from Barangay Mabunao to Panabo, a small Philippine city in the southern province of Davao del Norte. The round trip costs “Joy” (not her real name) about US$2.00—25 percent of her daily income—just to get...
Green Growth in Pakistan: A Necessary Paradigm Shift
With the ratification of an IMF bailout on May 12, Pakistan has now embarked on a difficult journey towards long-term economic stability. Some principal indicators suggest the extent of the pain: Inflation is expected to run around 18 percent in...
Twenty Years of Elections and Democracy in Timor-Leste
Twenty years ago this week, the people of East Timor, now Timor-Leste, went to the polls for the landmark referendum that would determine their nation’s political future. On August 30, 1999, the people voted overwhelmingly to reject Indonesia’s...
Pompeo to ASEAN: The U.S. Is Committed
U.S. secretary of state Mike Pompeo came to the 52nd annual ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Bangkok with one message in mind: that America is committed to engagement with the region, and with Thailand, a treaty ally, in particular. Speaking to...
Fried Frogs in Plaboo: Community Development in Northeast Thailand
We arrived at Plaboo Village, in northeast Thailand’s Maha Sarakam Province, just as a community meeting hosted by the local farmers’ association was coming to a close. It was hot and dusty, but the recently constructed community center was an...