With the rising development aggression among rural communities, ballooning national debt of developing countries, and countless violations of peoples’ rights, it is imperative to review the frameworks of new, Southern-led international financial institutions (IFIs) that once promised to shift the paradigm of the financial landscape controlled by the traditional Bretton Woods institutions, the World Bank (WB) and International Monetary Fund (IMF). The Reality of Aid – Asia Pacific (RoA-AP) and CSO Partnership for Development Effectiveness

  This article is part of Reality of Aid – Asia Pacific’s COVID-19 Response Series, “Resisting Repression; Recovering Together”, which aims to document the struggles, best practices, and lessons learned, as well as share recommendations of RoA-AP members as they responded to the pandemic at the national or regional level. Read more stories here.     By Solidarity Foundation “The situation of our community is very dire because stringent restrictions have been implemented due to the

  This article is part of Reality of Aid – Asia Pacific’s COVID-19 Response Series, “Resisting Repression; Recovering Together”, which aims to document the struggles, best practices, and lessons learned, as well as share recommendations of RoA-AP members as they responded to the pandemic at the national or regional level. Read more stories here.     By Christina Lamremdik and Jiten Yumnam, Centre for Research and Advocacy – Manipur (CRAM)  COVID-19 IN MANIPUR: On March 24,

This article is part of Reality of Aid – Asia Pacific’s COVID-19 Response Series, “Resisting Repression; Recovering Together”, which aims to document the struggles, best practices, and lessons learned, as well as share recommendations of RoA-AP members as they responded to the pandemic at the national or regional level. Read more stories here.     By Firas Jaber, Social and Economic Policies Monitor (Al-Marsad) The outbreak of the Coronavirus Disease 19 (COVID-19) showed the vulnerability of

   Developing countries in Asia Pacific are trapped in the vicious cycle of debt. To say that the region is in distress or is in crisis is an understatement, and for decades, developing countries have been spending more of their revenues to pay their dues at the expense of the needs of their peoples. The COVID-19 pandemic heightened the reliance of developing countries to debt and while international finance institutions (IFIs) rapidly provided stimulus

The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) and the New Development Bank (NDB) have touted themselves as the much-needed alternatives to the Western-dominated traditional International Finance Institutions (IFIs) like the World Bank Group (WBG) and International Monetary Fund (IMF). The two new banks entered the development financing landscape to much fanfare with their mandate of catering to the development needs of the South, particularly in building sustainable infrastructure. Five years into their operation, how do they