The Lower Mekong region is home to some of the world’s most dynamic cities. Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, and Yangon all have populations in excess of 5 million and are still growing. Phnom Penh and Vientiane are smaller but their growth has been ...

In 2016, Thailand was ranked 20th globally in terms of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, producing 0.9% of global emissions or 327 tons of CO2 annually. This corresponds to a per capita CO2 emission rate of 4.7 tons, which is slightly lower than the global rate ...

Importance of Environmental Impact Assessment System Myanmar has relied heavily on natural resource exploitation to sustain economic growth, but this has come at the expense of the environment. Environmental governance is low, and Myanmar ranked 138 out of 180 countries in regard to how well the ...

Inadequate infrastructure is often referred to as a major constraint on the socio-economic development of Laos. Thus, it has been a major goal of the Lao government to upgrade infrastructure in line with meeting the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly SDG 9. This goal is associated with developing built ...

Forest view. Photo by Open Development Cambodia, taken on 05 December 2021. Under license CC BY-SA 4.0.Cambodia is covered with forest, accounting for around 13.1 million hectares in 1973, and it is had fallen to 8.7 million hectares in 2014.156 However, based on the Ministry ...

SDG 15 aims to “Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss”. The goal has a monitoring framework with 12 targets and 14 indicators. It is seen as a ...

Khmer people make up 90% of the Cambodian population, followed by Vietnamese (5%), with the balance being Chinese, Cham (mostly a muslim people) and indigenous ethnic groups sometimes called Khmer Loeu. 245The 1998 Cambodian population census identified 17 different indigenous peoples, but the consensus today is ...

In September 2015, the UN General Assembly released the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, including 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). They were designed to build on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)269  and intended to drive action in important areas by 2030, leaving no one behind. These goals were ...

Sustainable Development Goals 2 (SDG 2) – ‘Zero Hunger’ aims to end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture.325 SDG 2 includes 8 targets, with 14 measuring indicators. Targets 2.1-2.2 focus on eliminating hunger and ensuring access to sufficient and nutritious ...

Climate Change (CC) is the change in weather, and related patterns of oceans, land, surface, and ice sheets such as temperature, ice melt, and sea level rise. While CC has historically been a natural occurrence, current CC is believed to be caused by human activities ...

Since the establishment of the Shenzhen SEZ in China during the 1980s, Special Economic Zones (SEZs) as a development model have grown in popularity in Asia, alongside official development aid. SEZs have been promoted as being a resilient form of economic development, with the potential ...

Deforestation has always been a problem in Cambodia since the 1970s, and it has aggravated in​the last decade. Some protected areas have been deforested. Between 2001 and 2018, Cambodia had lost 557,000 hectares (11.7%) of forest cover in protected areas.492 This loss has had an ...

The National Targeted Program on New Rural Development – 10 years review and way forwardIntroductionIn Vietnam, rural development is nearly synonymous with agricultural sector development. Agriculture itself is crucial in Vietnamese policy, as it forms the backbone of the country’s economy. Thus, rural development has ...

Maina Kiai speaking with journalists outside the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Phnom Penh. Photo by Maina Kiai, taken on 6 February 2014. Licensed under CC BY 2.0The first humanitarian international non-governmental organizations arrived in 1989. After the 1993 election, more and more internal organizations ...

In September 2015, United Nations member states adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The Agenda, to be achieved within 15 years, comprises 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with 169 specific targets and 230 indicators for measurement.628 The SDGs stress the importance of balancing the ...

In September 2015, the UN General Assembly adopted the new 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. This contained 17 items that have become known as the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), intended to drive action in critically important areas to the year 2030. These goals have ...

Phum Doung Bridge over the Tatai River. Photo by Robert Tyabji, taken on  9 December 2010. Licensed under  CC BY-NC-ND 2.0Bilateral aid is assistance given by a government directly to the government of another country or to a local NGO. The Royal Government of Cambodia ...

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) was established in 1966 which headquarter is in Manila and currently has 68 members under its institution. The ADB aims to assist members and partners by providing loans, technical assistance, grants, and investments to promote socio-economic development.766 The ADB has ...

SDG 1 – “End poverty in all its forms everywhere” – is made up of seven targets and 14 indicators. It covers not only income-based measures of poverty (1.1, 1.2) but also other dimensions (1.2), including access to social protection (1.3) and basic services (1.4), ...

International aid plays a significant but decreasing role in Vietnam’s national expenditure. For example in 2013, official development assistance (ODA) as a percentage of the national budget had decreased to 11.2% from 25.4% in 2003.847 The nature of development assistance has changed a lot over ...