Building on previous and existing efforts to distill and discuss locally-led development and development effectiveness in international cooperation, RoA-AP and CPDE Asia will hold its regular Regional Meeting & Workshop (RMW) from February 19-21, 2025 in Bangkok, Thailand to contribute to the advancing of the EDC agenda in Asia Pacific. The RMW will have the following components:  Observatorio Deep Dives Policy Conference Locally-led Development Strategy Workshop GPEDC 4th Monitoring Round (4MR) Training Organizational and Engagement

In an effort to curb overseas spending and dwell on economic protectionism, the once again elected United States (US) President Donald Trump is attempting to shut down the US Agency for International Development (USAID), an institution that delivers and funds humanitarian programs since the 1960s. After its crackdown on transgender people, women, migrants, and other marginalized groups, the re-elected authoritarian now continues annihilating international relations through its executive orders, with the recent gunpoint to the

We would like to extend our gratitude to the Coalition for Human Rights in Development, FORUM-Asia, and Fair Finance Asia for their valuable inputs to this article.  Context After four long years, the Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) Environmental and Social Framework (ESF) policy review, also and formerly known as Safeguards policy, is approaching its finalization. The Bank had made it clear throughout the entire Safeguard’s review process its commitment to a “risk-based” approach and “do

Decades of politicization largely influenced and inarguably shaped how Official Development Assistance (ODA), or more popularly known as “aid”, is delivered to and received by the Global South. This briefer lifts and synthesizes accounts from the recently published Reality of Aid Report 2023 that dissects patterns and trends in development cooperation over the last 30 years, in the hopes of coming up with alternatives for a future where people’s rights are championed.  This briefer also

The past two weeks saw blood spilled along streets of Dhaka as Bangladeshi students and youth peacefully protested against the quota system for government jobs, only to be greeted with open fire from police forces in return. This government-imposed brutality led to a city-wide and nationwide crackdown on dissent, causing an internet blackout and curfew in an attempt to silence protesters, block communication channels among citizens, and divide public opinion on the national issue. Nearly

The intensifying global conflicts compel Asia Pacific countries to gear up their security forces. Existing instability and fragility in various contexts are further polarizing social and economic inequalities, as well as aggravating maldevelopment across poverty-stricken communities. Rising authoritarianism threatens democracy as leaders gradually resort to their military forces to curb dissent, quell rebellions, and remain in power. In a political perspective, the region itself has yet to face the worst of the already-worsening crises in