Social Inclusion

The Covid-19 pandemic alone has plunged over 490 million people back into poverty, magnifying inequalities around the world. How can Asia lead the world in harnessing the power of technology for change? The Asia Foundation is pleased to support The Economist’s inaugural Technology for Change Week Asia, a virtual summit bringing together 700+ leadin… Read more

Seventy-five years after the onset of Asia’s Cold War, the world remains focused on the geopolitics of inter-Korean relations. Meanwhile, an emerging community of more than 33,000 refugees from North Korea currently live in South Korea; half aspire to become entrepreneurs. Despite the potential insight the refugee community could offer, there is in… Read more

More than 33,000 refugees from North Korea today live in South Korea, and half of them aspire to become entrepreneurs. To date, there has been limited data and understanding regarding Korean refugee entrepreneurs and their circumstances. North Korean Refugee Entrepreneurs in South Korea: Unveiling Korea’s Hidden Potential, by The Asia Foundation in… Read more

The Asia Foundation opened a resident office in India in 2008. The Foundation collaborates with communities, government, civil society, and other development partners to implement evidence-based programs to advance gender equality and social inclusion and to expand women’s rights, security, and economic opportunities in India. This includes a focus… Read more

Further Reading on Gender and Social Inclusion Philanthropy Interactive Menti Resources As Covid-19 has swept the globe it has had acute impacts on women and girls, especially for Indigenous women, other black and brown women, and those working in informal sectors. The pandemic has threatened progress made across sectors, including health equity, e… Read more

Through the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s (DFAT) Business Partnerships Platform (BPP), The Asia Foundation is collaborating with DFAT, Vietnam Bank for Social Policies (VBSP) and Mastercard to expand an initiative to build Vietnam’s first-ever digital finance platform for low-income clients and women-led microenterprises. The… Read more

9:00 am – 10:00 am ET Despite growing evidence of the unique ways women and men experience transportation services, gender and social inclusion issues have long been overlooked in the transportation sector. Women remain underrepresented in the industry, from decision-makers to transport workers, despite women comprising a large portion of public tr… Read more

This week, the Women’s Economic Empowerment through Strengthening Market Systems program, funded by the Embassy of Sweden and implemented by iDE Bangladesh and The Asia Foundation, organized a successful public-private dialogue in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Examining the challenges rural women entrepreneurs face in accessing loans, the discussion brought t… Read more

Friday, October 10, 2019. Mingling with the roar of airplanes, Azan, the call to prayer, pours forth from the Jami’ Al Akbar Mosque at the Yogyakarta International Airport complex. Amidst the congregation of Friday worshippers, Bahrul Fuad sits quietly in his wheelchair. Until recently, a scene like this was almost impossible to imagine: Bahrul’s w… Read more

Nepal has an age-long patriarchal social, economic, political and cultural setup that is deeply entrenched and widespread in which women and Dalits are the hardest-hit. The recent wave of political change in the country has brought significant progress in addressing these issues, supported by positive national and international commitments and affi… Read more

Early this month, in a landmark decision, the Supreme Court of India overturned a 157-year-old law criminalizing homosexuality. The notorious section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, a relic of British colonial rule that outlawed “carnal intercourse against the order of nature,” was declared unconstitutional by a unanimous five-judge panel. As the cou… Read more

Earlier this year, the G7 launched the Gender Equality Advisory Council to promote the integration of gender equality and gender-based analysis across all G7 activities and outcomes. As part of Canada’s presidency of the G7 during 2018, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said, “Gender equality must play a key role in creating lasting solutions to the ch… Read more

The successful completion of local, provincial, and federal elections in 2017 was a historic milestone for Nepal, coming after almost two decades. A record number of women representatives were elected to office in these elections, and this has presented both opportunities and challenges. This increased number of women, especially from marginalized… Read more

The 2018 Chatham House International Policy Forum convened last week at a time of international angst. Two British cabinet ministers had resigned over Brexit negotiations, creating more uncertainty around the tenure of Prime Minister May. President Trump’s contentious meeting with NATO officials sparked questions about the U.S. commitment to that i… Read more

On May 1, 2018, The Asia Foundation’s Fully Abled Nation (FAN) program, a partnership between the Australian Embassy and The Asia Foundation in the Philippines, launched a new campaign called “May 1% Ka Ba” (Do you have 1%?), a play on the May 1 Labor Day date, that aims to promote inclusive employment and raise the overall percentage of employees… Read more

What can be done to help entrepreneurs with great ideas for positive social change to make their dream a reality? How can small and medium sized enterprises grow and access new trade opportunities? How can technology be used to improve lives across the Asia-Pacific region? The Asia Foundation believes that by investing in new technologies, and crea… Read more

This toolkit is a set of guidelines that can be used to engage people in storytelling in a psychosocially sensitive manner. It was designed by The Asia Foundation for its Promoting Shared Values, Shared Spaces and Building Local Capacities for Dispute Resolution program, the goal of which is to empower and engage marginalized populations, young peo… Read more

2016 will be remembered as a tumultuous year for Bangladesh, rocked by major security incidents involving deadly terrorist attacks that negatively affected the country’s image, both at home and abroad. Despite this, Bangladesh still proved its resilience to such shocking events and continued on with its economic growth trajectory, recording an impr… Read more

This study analyses the reports that resulted from 68 Theory of Change workshops held with NGO and CSO partners as part of the Peduli program. This program addresses the social exclusion of six disadvantaged groups in Indonesia: vulnerable children and youth, remote indigenous communities reliant on natural resources, discriminated religious minori… Read more

Asia’s urban population is growing at an unprecedented rate. It took 130 years for London to grow from 1 million to 8 million, but Bangkok did it in 45 years, Dhaka in 37 years, and Seoul in only 25 years. Asia’s rapid urbanization—driven by entrepreneurial and commercial dynamism—has been pivotal for its stellar growth, but often to the detriment… Read more

The gang rape of a 23-year-old woman on a New Delhi bus in 2012 sparked national outrage in India. Since then, other brutal acts of violence have taken place in India’s cities, including the rape and murder of a 30-year-old law student on April 28 in Kerala. There were 337,922 reported crimes against women in 2014, among them over 36,000 were rape…. Read more

In late December, Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo spoke to over 700 village heads in Boyolali, Central Java, about the implementation of the year-old Village Law – a major campaign platform for both he and his rival during the 2014 presidential election.

At the South Asian Forum for Minorities (SAFM) last week, prominent parliamentarians, government functionaries, civil society activists, and journalists put forward a first-ever call to action to the leaders of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation…

“Nothing About Us Without Us” has become a familiar slogan used by the international disability movement and relies on the principle of full participation for all. However, in Indonesia, where people with disabilities (PWDs) still face enormous barriers…

The last few years have seen some of the most brutal attacks against Pakistan’s religious minority communities, estimated to make up approximately 3-5 percent of the total population of over 190 million.

In Indonesia, stigma around people with disabilities often comes from those closest to them. In many cases, families hide away their disabled family members, communities shun them, and government services and policies…

Like many countries, Indonesia is accelerating efforts to implement its commitment as a 2011 signatory to the International Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities (CRPD), particularly as the newly minted 2030 Sustainable Development Goals…

Over the last four decades, Asia has experienced unprecedented economic growth that has shifted the global economic center of gravity to the region. Asia enters 2015 as the world’s fastest-growing region, with the International Monetary Fund predicting that GDP will increase by 5.5 percent this year.

Asia’s developing economies will continue their steady growth, with GDPs expected to rise by an average of 6.3 percent in each of the next two years, according to the annual flagship report, Asian Development Outlook 2015, from the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

A report from Oxfam released in late January put down on paper what many already feared was true: almost almost half of the world’s wealth is now owned by just one percent of the population. This is also the case in Asia, where income and wealth disparity is growing rapidly.