Social development

Southeast Asian nations have suffered “unprecedented” employment losses due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the International Labor Organization (ILO) said today, suggesting that the region faces a long road out of its current Delta-variant maelstrom. While the year 2020 marked the high-water mark of the COVID-19 pandemic ...

HCMC has scrapped a requirement for people to make a travel declaration at Covid-19 checkpoints just two days after introducing it. On Saturday it had said everyone out on the streets has to fill in a travel declaration form at suckhoe.dancuquocgia.gov.vn. Created by the Ministry of Public ...

The Open Development Initiative (ODI) first began working with our constituents on data literacy in 2019, with a 3-month data literacy programme for journalists in Myanmar. Since then we have localized our Data Literacy Curriculum, adapted from the World Bank Certificate Program, to meet the ...

Authorities in Vietnam have arrested a Facebook user for posting mild criticism of government COVID-19 policies, while a university fired a lecturer after a student shared on her comments faulting Hanoi’s pandemic response on the social media platform. The Tien Giang People’s Procuracy announced Tuesday that ...

The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and the World Bank have launched a $57 million Lao Landscapes and Livelihoods Project that will generate jobs and income in rural areas by promoting investment in environmentally sustainable and socially-responsible forest and landscape management, and in the preservation of Lao ...

After United States Secretary of State Antony J Blinken announced the US pledge to donate $52 million to Mekong countries for development, NGOs have come forward asking the government to utilise the donation with transparency. NGO Forum executive director Tek Vannara said that the donation will ...

Technology isn’t always a practical solution for Indigenous communities fighting for their land rights. Some technology requires internet access, which often isn’t available in remote areas. And some technology can be needlessly complicated and expensive, alienating some community members. The Earth Defenders Toolkit is working to help overcome ...

Almost two decades ago, Myanmar’s largest coal-fired power plant was built as a joint venture by a group of military-affiliated businessmen and the China National Heavy Machinery Corporation. Since then, it has disrupted the socioeconomic lives of the Pa’O and Taungyo people who are Indigenous ...

As Cambodia marks World Ranger Day on July 31, Khmer Times highlights a handful of bold brave, and resilient women rangers who are standing alongside men to conserve and protect the wildlife and natural resources of the protected forest. Over the years, women have navigated from ...

All populations are vulnerable to human trafficking. This is a low-risk, high-reward criminal activity for male traffickers who benefit from the vulnerabilities of women. Human trafficking is enabled by patchy policing, low levels of prosecution, and underfunded prevention. Traffickers prey upon women and girls with ...