InAsia

A task force of Asian scholars has developed strategic recommendations for the Biden administration on foreign policy towards Asia. Join us in our discussion with report co-chairs Dr. Kirida  Bhaopichtr of the Thailand Development Research Institute, and Dr. C Raja Mohan of the National University of Singapore, and The Asia Foundation's Senior Director of International Relations, John Brandon...

In diverse and often divided Sri Lanka, where memory still lingers of the long and bitter civil war, the “Our Stories” project—part art, part oral history—is working to build a more empathetic future. 

With the spread of illiberalism and identity politics, it’s been a rocky decade for democracy in much of the world. A project in Indonesia is working on a playbook to stem the antidemocratic tide.  Read the full article on our  InAsia blog . 

When the Myanmar military reclaimed power in February after a decade of democratic government, it disrupted the delicate peace process with Myanmar’s ethnic armed organizations, and the situation is still unfolding. https://asiafoundation.org/2021/07/21/podcast-political-unrest-unsettles-myanmars-borderlands/

In 2017, the people of Nepal held their first local elections in 20 years under a new federal system meant to end decades of political unrest. Is it working? A new survey gives us some tantalizing hints. https://asiafoundation.org/2021/06/23/podcast-survey-of-the-nepali-people-a-barometer-for-federalism/

It’s been four years since the terrorist siege of Marawi. It’s been just two years since the president’s pen ratified the creation of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. Now, some young data enthusiasts have offered a tantalizing glimpse of a brighter future in the southern Philippines. 

In the three years before the pandemic, South Asia registered the world’s highest rate of economic growth. Now, as a ruinous second wave of Covid-19 sweeps through the region, all of that appears to be undone.

For decades a Philippine price-support regime caused mounting public debt and the highest rice prices in Southeast Asia, but replacing a system with so many vested interests was too high a hurdle—until now.

A five-nation initiative to blunt the impact of Covid-19 in South Asia combines international scope, local partnerships, and a question: how to prepare the most vulnerable for the next crisis.

Working women in the Pacific Islands face a trifecta of challenges from Covid-19, climate change, and disruptive technology. A new report from The Asia Foundation takes a hard look at the path to a better future.

In honor of International Women’s Day, our hosts John Rieger and Tracie Yang celebrate some of the remarkable women we’ve met in the past year on the InAsia podcast.

A major white paper has laid out China’s new vision for its global role and responsibilities in international development. In this week’s podcast, our analysts discern a China that is poised to become this century's most prominent development actor. Read the full blog piece: https://asiafoundation.org/2021/02/17/insights-on-chinas-2021-white-paper-on-international-development-cooperation/

For a decade, the Victims of Trauma Treatment Program has worked with Sri Lanka to heal the psychic wounds of war and natural disaster. When Covid-19 arrived, the pieces were in place to tackle the trauma of lockdowns. Read the  InAsia  blog piece: https://asiafoundation.org/2021/02/03/pioneering-program-addresses-trauma-head-on/ 

The Myanmar Business Environment Index is a piece of statistical legerdemain that starts as a public perceptions survey and ends as a powerful tool to mobilize both government and the private sector to push for change. Read more: https://asiafoundation.org/2020/12/09/hows-business-we-have-a-benchmark-for-that/

The new head of the Malaysian Institute of Strategic and International Studies (ISIS) is a long-time Asia Foundation hand in Malaysia. As he prepares for his new post, Country Representative Herizal Hazri shares his thoughts on a decade and a half of development.

 The InAsia Podcast takes a field trip to northwestern Thailand, where a small farmer far from the big city learns about online marketing and how to tell the story of her unique avocados.  Read the full blog: https://asiafoundation.org/2020/10/28/how-to-sell-an-avocado-on-facebook/ 

When a Karachi student returning from Iran became Pakistan’s first documented case of Covid-19, the government quickly moved to quarantine thousands of Shia pilgrims at the remote outpost of Taftaan on the Iran-Pakistan border. But Pakistan’s pandemic response soon stumbled in the resource-poor periphery of the borderland. Read the InAsia blog: https://asiafoundation.org/2020/09/30/podcast-the-cri...

She’s part of the new face of leadership in her long-troubled homeland of Mindanao in the southern Philippines. Attorney General Sha Elijah Dumama-Alba sits down with InAsia to talk about the past, the future, and her vision for the Bangsamoro. Read more about her story: https://asiafoundation.org/2020/09/16/podcast-a-woman-attorney-general-for-the-bangsamoro/

Southeast Asia may be mad for social media, but peek behind the smartphone mania and the skills to get a job in the new economy or take a small business online are still in short supply. As the pandemic turns up the pressure to go digital, a new project from The Asia Foundation and Google.org is about to change that. (Read our companion blog piece: https://asiafoundation.org/2020/09/02/podcast-bul...

After 20 years of dazzling growth, Asia is now home to nearly half of the world’s urban population. But this breakneck growth has often bypassed critical investments in public infrastructure. Now, the Covid-19 pandemic is exposing pervasive failures of urban governance that are already starting to exact serious costs. But like pandemics past, the coronavirus crisis is also an opportunity to rethin...

Since early 2012, The Asia Foundation’s Coalitions for Change in the Philippines has been pursuing the emerging discipline of “thinking and working politically,” which is…what, exactly? Jaime Faustino, coauthor of a new book on the subject, answers that question with a tale of unexpected obstacles, surprising solutions, and thinking like an entrepreneur. Learn more about the new book: https://asia...

Mongolia has been a Covid-19 success story, but the early lockdown that kept the virus at bay has also battered the economy, and no one has felt it more than Mongolia’s small businesswomen. We talk to Soomin Jun and Saranzaya Gerelt-Od from The Asia Foundation's Women's Business Center. Read their InAsia blog: https://asiafoundation.org/2020/07/08/funding-women-entrepreneurs-on-mongolias...

Some of the most indelible images of the pandemic have been the brilliant skies that replaced toxic smog as the world stayed home and fossil-fuel use plunged. With renewables now cheaper than coal, green energy’s time has come. We sit down with Anindya Uphadyay, senior technical consultant to The Asia Foundation’s Sustainable Development Investment Program in New Delhi, to discuss the stark choice...

A two-decade push by Bangladesh to reform its leather tanning industry was supposed to clean up pollution and end worker exploitation. So far, it hasn’t quite worked out as planned. We interview Md. Sadat S. Shibli about the industries progress and shortcomings. Read the full blog: https://asiafoundation.org/2020/05/27/in-bangladesh-tanneries-in-trouble/