Dealing with Fragility in Middle-Income Countries
Failure to address challenges in fragile and conflict-affected situations puts the notion of an “Asian Century” at risk.
Digitizing Asia’s Tax Agencies
The tax administration of the future will be digitized and use new technologies which revolutionize tax processes, enhancing speed and accuracy.
Discrimination Driving Gender Wage Gap in Indonesia
The conventional view of wage gaps between men and women is that they have been steadily narrowing over recent decades and this trend will inevitably continue as women achieve higher education levels and enter areas of the workforce which have been dominated by males in the past. Unfortunately recent evidence from Indonesia suggests that pay parity between the sexes remains some way off.
Does Education Equal Wealth?
At an E-Camp: Social Accountability for Better Education Services held in the Philippines on 3-5 December, 2014, students from various countries in the Asia and Pacific region asked, “Is education still a way out of poverty?”
Does Good Governance Matter for Post-Pandemic Economic Growth Recovery?
Post-COVID economic recovery could be delayed in countries with poor track records on governance.
Don't Just Define Fragility – Understand It, Act on It
For our development projects to be effective, we must learn the root causes of conflict and fragility, and use that knowledge to guide our planning and implementation efforts.
Don't Try to Achieve SDGs Without these Governance Building Blocks
Whether the SDGs are focused on public service delivery or infrastructure, governance components are key to the success of the post-2015 agenda.
Ebola: The Weakest Link Jeopardizes Everyone
More than a year ago, I was in Liberia as part of a team looking into its health system and health financing reforms. The country was still recovering from long years of civil strife. But Liberia was eager to be one of a growing number of countries which were aspiring to and pursuing universal health coverage (UHC).
Emerging Asia Should Brace for Higher Global Interest Rates
The US Fed has been winding down its bond purchase program, widely known as “quantitative easing,” since December 2013. The program was introduced in the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis to fight the recession and foster a rapid economic recovery. With the improvement in the US economy, the Fed suggested at its policy meeting in March that the program may end this coming fall and it may start raising interest rates about six months from then.
Environmental Justice in South Asia Goes Green
“The law hath not been dead, though it had slept.” When Shakespeare wrote those lines, he never knew that many, many years down the road, he may actually be referring to the enforcement of environmental law by the judiciary around the world.