Open Development Mekong | Sharing information about Mekong and its development with the world.

Mekong Women in Open Data

Gender inequality underscores the lives of women all over the world. At the Open Development Initiative, we wanted to understand how this impacted women in the Mekong countries of Cambodia, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Myanmar, and Vietnam (CLMV) in their access to open data. In 2019, we conducted and completed a study on this topic, the results of which have now been published on the Open Development Mekong platform.

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Photo by Mimi Thian on Unsplash. Licensed freely on Unsplash.

COVID-19 in the Mekong

The novel coronavirus has triggered a global response of extreme measures. The immediate changes are countable. As of April 15, 2020, over 2 million cases of the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) have been counted globally, with over 100,000 confirmed deaths. Tech tools to track the movement of infected people are being deployed around the world, from Israel to Singapore, with some of the largest historically rival companies globally – Apple and Google – teaming up to develop a tracking system.

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Special Economic Zones in the Lower Mekong Region

Special Economic Zones have been championed in the Lower Mekong Region as a way to increase investment and support sustainable economic development and connectivity in the region. Considered a mega-project, they are complex and have big impacts. Learn more about how it relates to the Lower Mekong Region through our new and ever-evolving Story – including on how they connect with Official Development Aid, relevant regional human rights mechanisms, and a case study looking at Chiang Khong SEZ in Thailand.

About ODM

To learn more about the Open Development Mekong platform and our partners click on the image to view video.

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Infrastructure Development in the Mekong

Infrastructure development has been growing in the Lower Mekong Region, but what does that actually mean? Learn more about the financing and financiers, impacts, and gender issues relevant to infrastructure development in an ever-evolving story feature here.

FLEGT

FLEGT is an EU-led strategy based primarily on Voluntary Partnership Agreements (VPAs) between timber consuming countries in Europe and tropical timber producing countries in developing countries. These agreements are intended to create conditions whereby the market value of legal timber is enhanced and disincentives are created to discourage the trade of illegal timber. Explore this story.

Climate Change and Health

The impact of climate change on health in the Mekong Region is expected to be significant, but there remains limited understanding of exactly what this means. ODM provides a starting point for the exploration of this topic, including a discussion of climate change and health broadly, and case studies on water-borne diseases, Dengue Fever and undernutrition.

Become a data contributor

Join our information ecosystem by contributing important and relevant data on pressing topics related to the Lower Mekong Region and its people. The data you provide will contribute to our expanding datahub repository of various sources and information types from across the Lower Mekong Region.

Mekong ministers approve navigation and environment plans

1 December 2020

The Mekong River Commission (MRC) says environment and water-resource ministers from Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam have approved a navigation plan for the four countries and a regional environmental strategy. In a statement, the MRC said the two documents were among several approved during a virtual ...

New resources for forest protection

1 December 2020

Vietnam has entered the world’s carbon credit trading market after a long period striving for sustainable forest management. This is a major event, marking a positive start in mobilising new resources for forest protection and improving forest quality and sustainable forest management, thereby helping Vietnam ...

Road from HCMC to run along entire Mekong Delta coast

1 December 2020

The government has approved in principle the construction of a 740-km coastal road along the length of the Mekong Delta connecting HCMC. It will start in Ho Chi Minh City and go up to Ha Tien Town in Kien Giang through the coastal provinces of Tien ...

Ministry seeks ideas on Mekong Delta master plan

30 November 2020

The Ministry of Planning and Investment, in coordination with the World Bank, held a conference on November 26 to seek ideas and consultations from leaders of Mekong Delta localities, experts and scientists for the delta’s Integrated Regional Master Plan in 2021-2030 with a vision to 2050. The draft master plan ...

Overwhelming majority approves Myanmar anti-corruption efforts

30 November 2020

An overwhelming majority of the Myanmar people approved of the government’s efforts to stamp down corruption, the international anti-corruption watch group Transparency International said in a report released on November 24. The report said Myanmar has the highest percentage of citizens among the 17 Asia Pacific ...

31 kg Cambodia drug haul captured in Mekong Delta

29 November 2020

Over 31 kg of ketamine, cocaine and morphine were seized in the Mekong Delta’s An Giang Province on Thursday, with one man arrested. Tran Van Uol, 60, at noon Thursday was arrested by border guards while transporting a box containing 10.9 kg of ketamine from Cambodia ...

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Virtual Conference on Sustainable Development and the Future of the Mekong

25 October 2020

The Cambodian Institute for Cooperation and Peace (CICP) is going to organize a virtual conference on “Sustainable Development and the Future of the Mekong” on 26-27 October 2020 via Zoom. For those participants who wish to attend in this virtual event, please complete the reply form ...

Open Development Mekong joined IDRC, OD4D and UNFPA in the 2020 Virtual UN World Data Forum

17 October 2020

The pre-recorded session for the upcoming 2020 Virtual UN World Data Forum on (TA1) Data for Development: towards a more integrated agenda from the global south is now available. About the session: Data is a crucial resource for the 21st century, for monitoring and achieving the SDGs, ...

The 7th Asia-Pacific Adaptation Forum: Virtual Dialogue Series

17 October 2020

The 7th APAN Forum will be held virtually on 8-12 March 2021 under the theme: Enabling Resilience for All: The Critical Decade to Scale-up Action, sharing learnings from actions towards climate-resilient development. Resilience is the unifying theme of the Forum, which is structured around four thematic “streams” focusing on (i) inclusive resilience; (ii) nature-based resilience (iii) economic sector ...

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