Inclusive Development

On Thursday, March 24, The Asia Foundation, in partnership with Ramboll, Kore Global, and the Asian Development Bank, brought together more than 120 stakeholders from 14 cities in six Southeast Asian countries for the first in a series of online dialogues under the DFAT-funded ASEAN Australia Smart Cities Trust Fund. The Trust Fund supports city go… Read more

Over the last two decades, the focus of development policy initiatives to reduce poverty in Bangladesh have undergone a significant shift. Known as the “inclusive finance” approach, these new initiatives advocate for a “Finance for All (FFA)” approach to bring excluded populations into the realm of mainstream banking, developing new schemes for ens… Read more

Indonesia’s former Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy, Mari Pangestu, recently visited The Asia Foundation’s headquarters in San Francisco as a 2016 Chang-Lin Tien Distinguished Visiting Fellow. In Asia editor Alma Freeman sat down with her to discuss trade, Indonesia’s infrastructure challenges, the “Beyond Bali” strategy, lessons from… 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

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…

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…