PROGRAM SNAPSHOTS

Following the end of the nearly 30-year long civil war, Sri Lanka had just begun to address the psychosocial impact from the trauma of war until the Easter Sunday attacks of April 2019 and the Covid-19 breakout in March 2020. These events only compounded the nation’s psychosocial concerns. Ten years ago, The Asia Foundation launched the pioneering… Read more

In the Philippines, helping improve people’s lives sometimes requires changes to policies. There are areas that directly and tangibly impact people’s lives and which they want to have a say in—like waste management, consumer protection, biotech research or disaster risk management—but that can be daunting for most citizens and many local leaders wh… Read more

The largely track one dialogue (held as a hybrid event with three live locations linked to one another online and to virtual participants in two other countries) brought together approximately 170 individuals from ACMECS member countries, as well as from other regional partners, multilateral agencies, and the private sector. The policy dialogue foc… Read more

On International Day of Education, The Asia Foundation in Bangladesh and United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Dhaka Office jointly announced the establishment of their partnership to develop and strengthen reading contents and reading activities on Cultural Heritage of Bangladesh. The partnership aims to utilize l… Read more

As part of an EU-funded initiative, The Asia Foundation is implementing a project to address the immediate threat and longer-term implications of Covid-19 for the most vulnerable populations of Bangladesh, India, Maldives, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. The goal is to provide greater awareness of health risks and preventive measures, better access to sup… Read more

Asia’s rise is having a profound impact on the policies and practices of development and South-South cooperation (SSC). Anthea Mulakala’s chapter on “The Asian Century”: The Transformational Potential of Asian-Led Development Cooperation, is featured in The Palgrave Handbook of Development Cooperation for Achieving the 2030 Agenda. This chapter des… Read more

In Cambodia, scholarships provide important pathways to enable girls to achieve both secondary and university education. The Cambodia Tertiary Scholarship Program is a project of The Asia Foundation in close partnership with KAPE. The program has enabled more than 146 female students from vulnerable families in Kampong Cham province to obtain bache… Read more

With support from Google.org, Google’s philanthropic arm, The Asia Foundation partnered with Engineering Good to engage with student teams from high schools and junior colleges to create simple, user-friendly solutions for youth with disabilities to improve their employability. Mentors from Google, Engineering Good, and local community partners gui… Read more

2019 Asia Foundation Development Fellow Farhad Wajdi is a young entrepreneur in Afghanistan whose innovative idea came at a pivotal moment. He started Banu’s Kitchen with the goal of helping women achieve financial independence in a country where women have limited opportunities. Farhad built a fleet of solar-powered rickshaws so women could start… Read more

Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) is attracting increasing attention, especially since Pakistan’s formal legal system is overwhelmed with cases. Many marginalized persons, especially those in impoverished communities and women, find it difficult to access the legal system in Pakistan due to the stigma attached to approaching courts, inability to… Read more