InAsia

Sri Lanka’s 75th anniversary arrives at a moment of peril and, perhaps, possibility for this nation of about 21 million in the Indian Ocean. 

A year and a half after the Taliban’s return to power, the hardships of daily life in Afghanistan are becoming dire. Yet, the government’s restrictive policies threaten to block even basic humanitarian aid. What is the way forward?  

A new book tells the story of Fazlé Hasan Abed, the “mild-mannered accountant” who helped lift Bangladesh from the ashes of its violent birth and reimagined international development.  

Last week, The Asia Foundation presented our Chang Lin Tien Distinguished Leadership Award to the pioneering Philippine news site Rappler and its founding team, Maria Ressa, Glenda Gloria, Chay Hofileña, and Beth Frondoso, for their courageous online journalism. Once a scrappy startup, Rappler at 10 years old has become a political lightning rod with an average of 40 million page views a month and...

How a two-year program helped vulnerable communities in South Asia protect themselves from Covid-19 and the “fake-news pandemic.”  

Meet twenty young leaders from the U.S. and the Asia-Pacific, the first graduates of The Asia Foundation’s LeadNext Fellowship program. Read the full blog about the LeadNext fellows.

After beating a path to postwar prosperity that’s been the envy of Asia and the world, South Korea suddenly finds itself in a profound malaise, with plummeting birthrates and a generation of disaffected youth who call their country “hell.”  Read the full blog by our Country Representative Kwang Kim. 

In this special episode we present an unabridged version of last week’s conversation with former ambassador Ted Osius about the improbable reconciliation of America and Vietnam.   In our last episode, we spoke with former U.S. ambassador Ted Osius about his latest book, Nothing Is Impossible: America’s Reconciliation with Vietnam , which chronicles the 25-year journey of Vietnam and the United Sta...

This week, former ambassador Ted Osius discusses the remarkable journey of America and Vietnam from bitter adversaries to friends and partners. 

The market town of Torkham stands on the Old Silk Road, with one foot on either side of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. As Islamabad seeks to secure its frontier, Torkham illustrates the tension between trade and security in conflict-affected border towns. Read the full blog post and report. 

In Vietnam, rural women drawn to the booming cities for domestic work are often unprepared and undocumented. A technology that made its public debut with cryptocurrencies offers a solution. Read the full InAsia blog .

A marathon coding competition in Bangkok hatches a winning app that could transform the food supply chain—and your relationship with your refrigerator. Read the full blog now! 

One can lure victims into brothels and across international borders. The other is often hidden in the home. But their tangled relationship holds a key to detection, enforcement, and rehabilitation. Read the full article on the InAsia blog : 

Fourteen thousand women won political office in Nepal’s first local elections in 2017. With the 2022 elections now just days away, our guest, Sumina Karki, asks why so few women ran at the top of the ticket. 

This week, we talk to the BARMM's Attorney Abdel Jamal Disangcopan on how his parliamentary staff is part of a new generation of young professionals building peace in the Bangsamoro. Read the the full blog: https://asiafoundation.org/2022/04/27/a-new-generation-takes-the-drivers-seat-in-bangsamoro/

As poverty and starvation stalk Afghanistan, must the West turn away from a new government whose policies it cannot condone?  Read the full blog post written by Tabasum Akseer: https://asiafoundation.org/2022/04/13/a-path-forward-in-afghanistan-data-for-humanitarian-assistance/

The adventurous Dutch fashion company G-Star, known for its sustainable denim, is also a force for development in Asia through its GSRD Foundation. GSRD will be honored April 6 with an Asia Foundation Lotus Leadership Award. Read more: https://asiafoundation.org/2022/03/30/lotus-leadership-awards-beyond-a-sustainable-supply-chain/

Cambodia has an outsized need for up-to-date research data to anchor effective policymaking and spur development. But women must become a bigger part of this story.

After months of uncertainty, Nepal has announced the second round of local elections under its historic 2015 constitution. In the face of Covid lockdowns and political paralysis, local governments have been a bright spot on the nation’s rocky road to federalism. Read the full article: https://asiafoundation.org/2022/03/02/nepals-federalism-milestone-five-opportunities-and-a-second-round-of-electio...

The Philippines’ pioneering and embattled digital news site just marked a decade of tenacious reporting. A reporter who was there at the beginning recalls the heady early days and the dedication to journalism that led to last year’s Nobel Peace Prize for founder Maria Ressa. Read the full piece: https://asiafoundation.org/2022/02/16/rappler-at-10-there-at-the-creation/

The same processed foods that have fed obesity and diabetes in the West have triggered an epidemic of dietary disease in the Pacific Islands. Now, a runaway hit TV show is pointing the way back to the region’s healthy, traditional cuisine. Read more about the Pacific Island Food Revolution: https://asiafoundation.org/2022/02/02/in-pacific-island-kitchens-the-revolution-is-being-televised/

A comprehensive new policy from the Philippine Department of Education is set to start dismantling barriers that keep students with disabilities out of the classroom. The new policy has some unmistakable fingerprints from The Asia Foundation’s Coalitions for Change .  

A years-long collaboration that’s been working away in Cambodia’s vital Stung Chinit Watershed has found that solutions to water inequality lie at the crossroads of infrastructure and gender. Project principals Laura Forni of the Stockholm Environment Institute and Paula Uniacke of The Asia Foundation hold down the discussion of a powerful new analytic approach in this week’s podcast. 

Has a decade of growing prosperity tamed intercommunal violence in Asia?  A comprehensive new report documents declining levels of conflict, but also warns of the destabilizing influence of social media. Read a comprehensive introduction to the report: https://asiafoundation.org/2021/10/27/podcast-the-state-of-conflict-and-violence-in-asia/

Some much-needed new children’s books from an unlikely team of authors will answer the crying need for kid’s books in Fiji’s native tongues. Read more: https://asiafoundation.org/2021/10/13/stories-for-children-of-the-ocean/