Social development
In Vietnam, Harris must not ignore human rights for geopolitics
On Monday, August 23, US Vice President Kamala Harris started her diplomatic trip to Southeast Asia on a colourful note thanks to a bouquet of hybrid orchids presented as a gift from Singaporean dignitaries. The new variety of purple flowers was even named after the vice president, ...
CAROLYN NASH
US CDC Southeast Asia Regional Office opens in Hanoi
The office, based in Ngo Quyen street in downtown Hanoi, is one of the CDC’s four in the world, together with the East Europe/Central Asia office in Gruzia, the Middle East/North Africa office in Oman, and the South America office in Brazil. It will strengthen the ...
VNA
Journalists Htet Htet Khine and Sithu Aung Myint arrested in Myanmar
Myanmar authorities should immediately release journalists Htet Htet Khine and Sithu Aung Myint and drop all charges against them, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. On August 15, military authorities in Yangon arrested Htet Htet Khine, a freelance producer for BBC Media Action, and Sithu ...
Gender Equality Advocate Retires, Paves Way for Second Wave of Activism
Ros Sopheap was sipping ginger tea and lemonade in July when she decided to retire after more than two decades of activism that pushed for gender inclusivity and women’s empowerment. She will step down as the head of Gender and Development for Cambodia (GADC) later ...
Hean Socheata and Sokummono Khan,VOA Khmer
Myanmar military arrests more journalists
Myanmar’s military government has arrested two more local journalists, army-owned television reported on Saturday, the latest among dozens of detentions in a sweeping crackdown on the media since a Feb. 1 coup. Sithu Aung Myint, a columnist for news site Frontier Myanmar and commentator with Voice ...
Writing by Martin Petty; Editing by Mike Harrison and William Mallard
Cambodian dam a ‘disaster’ for local communities, rights group says
The Lower Sesan 2 hydroelectric scheme was completed in northeast Cambodia in 2018. The reservoir flooded 300 square kilometers (116 square miles) upstream of the confluence of the Sesan and Srepok rivers, two tributaries of the Mekong. Villages, places of worship, ancestral burial grounds and ...
Carolyn Cowan
COVID-19 Has Resulted in Massive Southeast Asian Job Losses
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 ...
Sebastian Strangio
Traffic pileups cause HCMC to hastily revoke Covid travel declaration
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 ...
Gia Minh
Towards Effective Advocacy in Mekong Region with Data Literacy
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 ...
Open Development Initiative (ODI)
Vietnam Punishes Critics of Government’s COVID-19 Response
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 ...
RFA’s Vietnamese Service. Translated by Viet Ha. Written in English by Eugene Whong.
