AsianNGO Issue #1 - May - June 2013

www.asianngo.org ISSUE #1 | MAY-JUNE 2013

Funds | Partnerships | Learning

FEATURED GRANT

NEWS FEATURE

FEATURED ORGANISATION

The BoP Hub: designing business to end poverty

UPLIFTing environmental capacity and energy efficiency

Enabling PH coffee farm with skills, seeds from DEG, Nestle

Nestle Philippines, DEG, a subsidiary of KfW, one of the largest European development finance institutions, and ASSIST Asia, a regional NGO with its headquarters in Manila launched a Robusta coffee farming project in Surigao del Sur, Philippines, earlier this year to enhance production and farmers’ capabilities and reduce

With the world hitting the seven-billion population mark last year and over two-thirds of that number still living under USD10 a day, Singapore-based NGO BoP (Base of Pyramid) Hub is poised to innovate market solutions to capacitate and improve the lives of the world’s poorest or, well, the base of the pyramid.

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Mindful of the environmental ramifications of infrastructure gaps in Indonesia and aggravated by the threats of climate change to their energy sources, ASSIST Asia and TÜV NORD teamed up to capacitate energy management professionals in Jakarta and Batam regions.

Is the sun setting on the MDGs already?

Barely a thousand days to culminate the 15-year crusade of the United Nations’ fight with poverty, questions are still raised on the effectiveness of the pact that 193 UN member countries and international organisations signed in 2000. Is there a reason to celebrate yet? Cont. page 4 RECENT EVENT

N E WS F EATURE

Website, smartphones as tool to report crimes in India

‘The water sector can’t do it alone’

Smartphones now serve as protection to women in urban India against ‘creeps’ after the reported cases of gang-rape in the country. The December attack of a 23-year old medical student by a group of men heightened interest on the use of technology which also led for four business women to set up www. safety.in—a website where women can channel complaints and sentiments against all forms of harassment.

The site primarily offers a feature where

CSR can be quite controversial: there is a range of definitions and terminologies both in literature and the corporate world that are

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Crouching Tiger No More: India in this month’s country feature page 8

Korea Aid Agency KOICA funds technical assistance in Vietnam page 11

Saudi NGO supports Philippine micro-financing project page 12 Call for papers to the Singapore International Water Week 2014

CSR has nothing to do with Charity: The Economist Debate Series easily misunderstood; and there is another range of interpretations within the business and development sectors overall. This was the gist of the opening statement of The Economist’s Sarah Murray, moderator of the debate, saying “those who see it as a company’s efforts to act responsibly in the way it conducts its business might see CSR as having nothing to do with charity; yet many also equate [CSR] initiatives with corporate philanthropy and thus argue that

First-ever ASEAN Corporate Sustainability Summit page 3

Japan funds Vietnam irrigation network upgrade page 11

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With an overwhelming majority of 79% of respondents agreeing with the motion that corporate social responsibility has nothing to do with charity, this year’s first edition of The Economist’s debate series got the corporate world and online community abuzz with varied responses from members and visitors of the forum.

T OP S T OR I E S

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Coinciding with the Asian Development Bank’s recent report that over half of Asia does not have proper access to secure household supply of water, the ADB hosted in March the Asia Water Week in Manila to discuss compounding issues and identify solutions. The three-day summit pooled together experts and engineers, water industry leaders both in the public and private sectors, government officials, advocates and civil society groups, researchers and representatives of international organisations. Cont. page 16

Critical factors in running your NGO page 15 10 young entrepreneurs awarded in Laos page 16 Find out more about available grants across the region page 15

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EDITORIAL From the Publisher

Enablers of development—across all levels Welcome to the launch issue of AsianNGO! We at ASSIST Asia are very proud to pioneer this publication of such scope, where we not only provide news updates and information; even more importantly, we bring all our stakeholders and fellow development workers together in bridging the development gap in the region.

AsianNGO is the prime source of information on grants and funding opportunities, learning tools Sreenivas Narayanan and knowledge resources, sreeni@asianngo.org partnerships, news, events and policy updates in the development sector across Asia. As the new social enterprise venture of ASSIST (Asia Society for Social Improvement and Sustainable Transformation), and with its presence in Asia and Africa through various projects, AsianNGO will also be reaching out to partners in Africa and South America.

This is a very timely initiative for all of us—here in Manila and in many other emerging economies. As Asia is attaining optimum buildup and opportunities are made more available through the breakneck evolution of information exchange, we want to reach out to as many partners as possible: aid providers, multi-lateral agencies, donor countries, multi-national corporations and corporate foundations, NGOs—local and international—and civil society organisations. In particular, we want to capacitate and be able to build relations between small, local NGOs in the region with the funding and grants providers across the globe.

This is also because despite rapid growth in some countries, there is still a great divide between those who have already been enjoying such opportunities and those who have barely any access to even the most basic needs. We have seen and heard how income inequalities still disadvantage various sectors of the community; or that majority of poor people have no access to clean water; or that domestic violence is still rife in many households; or that more and more countries are exposed to the threats of climate change-related disasters. The list goes on.

And this is where we feel we can become enablers, along with

our robust network of partners. As an NGO, ASSIST has long-standing and trusty relations with organisations such as the United Nations, the Asian Development Bank, the GIZ, European Chambers (both the ECC and respective member countries’ Chambers), the World Bank, DEG, TUV, APEC, AusAid, USAid, DANIDA, SIDA, AECID, EuropeAid, ABRD, etc. Similarly, our list of partners with corporate foundations has been steadily growing, considering the rise of CSR initiatives across the developing nations. We find this a strategic jump-off point to connect our stakeholders together—both donors and recipients.

ASSIST’s core principle has always been to communicate, collaborate and capacitate. Our works have always been grounded on strategic partnerships that allow for sustainability across all sectors we work in—whether it’s in the energy, agriculture, gender and women empowerment, education, environment, technology and innovation, child care, governance and justice, or the financial sector. Beyond providing the right strategy for our donor partners and enabling the right project for our beneficiaries, we have always aimed at the sustainability of the empowerment we bring to their communities. After all, our name as an organisation stands for it.

Teach the man how to fish

Mike Saycon mike@asianngo.org

the development sector. Cliché-ish it may be, but with the challenges we face no single organisation can truly achieve efficient and effective development work—let alone addressing cycles of violence, poverty and inequality in many developing societies. This is why there is a need to harmonise our partners: governments, aid-giving bodies, NGOs, corporate foundations/ CSR, advocate groups and civil society organisations. We need re-calibrated strategies in engaging NGOs, the civil society and the non-profit community overall.

Smells like a glowing opportunity. But poverty levels have been barely trimmed, violence and armed conflict continue to ravage transition societies, women still marginalised, education deteriorating in many regions, food security and climate change on red-alert, and access to the most basic human needs still scarce. Clearly, there’s a gap.

There are thousands of active NGOs—mostly operating at grassroots level—in Asia-Pacific alone, not knowing much how to make their initiatives sustainable beyond implementation; even those who are properly provided with grants and technical assistance. Meanwhile, partners and aid donors tend to get lost in the clutter of sifting through millions of bids; grapple with the challenges to match their requirements with the capabilities and credibility of applying/bidding NGOs; and in some cases, find it a challenge to tailor-fit their goals with existing or potentially threatening ground realities. Somewhere in middle is time lost addressing real issues, and rather spent on bureaucratic systems of one or two project partners. In the end, opportunities are lost and intentions are washed away.

This is why we need to rally all our stakeholders together in

The key now, really, is to enable efficiently and capacitate

ODA (Official Development Assistance) may no longer be that sustainable, considering the shifts of economic powers and political positions in the world order in the last half-decade. In the last two decades we also saw the rise of corporate foundations (CSRs), multi-laterals, development agencies and bi-lateral relations come to the fore in advancing global development.

Hosted by the Civil Society and NGO Center of the ADB, the Youth Forum and the Solutions Market share a goal to empower civil society through technology innovations to address problems like poverty, degrading environment, poor education, lack of access to water and sanitation services; while at the same time tapping the talents and passion of the young population in the region.

From the rest of the AsianNGO team and ASSIST Asia, we would like to welcome you to our journey in helping those who wish to help, be able to bring help to those who need it most.

We hope you enjoy reading through this issue and find it helpful; as will the succeeding issues be to you and your organisation.

The magazine is released every two months but comes with a web portal updated daily, and a weekly e-newsletter. Both More aptly, this issue’s main theme focuses on development the newsletter and the magazine are also available in your through empowerment and innovation, in which we highlight tablet and smartphone devices for your convenient reading— civil society participation and NGOs’ active collaboration with anytime, anywhere. Our reach to the modern technologies different sectors in nation-building through our main stories and in communication is attuned to the demands of real-time features. We are also writing about the update of the Millennium development work, so wherever you may be, with as easy as just Development Goals; and a closer look at India’s domestic a swipe on your screen you are updated of the developments in progress as a rising star in international development through its the industry. hosting of the ADB’s Annual Governors’ Meeting this year in New Delhi in May. Again, we are delighted to be your partner in your works in enabling development across all sectors and at all levels of the Our first official participation in a platform of such community; and we hope to hear from you. ■ magnanimity, of course, will be the Annual Meeting—which

Editorial

…and how to paddle and probably even build the boat, too— one step at a time, with not just one person doing the teaching part.

is also where we are first launching AsianNGO. Among other partners, the ADB has been very generous in extending its support and cooperation in the various projects that we’ve had in the past and will be having in the future. Thus, we at ASSIST and AsianNGO are more than happy to support the Youth Forum and co-organise the Solutions Market—both happening at the Annual Meeting.

effectively. Beyond providing aid money, facilities and technical capacities, we all will have a share on making our works sustainable. Because apart from simply implementing projects and writing reports after the closing ceremonies, we must ask ourselves: how far can that community last with what we had just achieved?

Proponents and critiques of development alike can agree on one thing: that development is no longer confined to powerful governments and influential corporations across the globe. That it has transcended traditional ideologies of imposed variables is no longer applicable states the obvious; and the challenges of bringing about real development to the grassroots level remains at odds with how vertical—rather than horizontal—approach in engaging NGOs and CSOs is now questionable.

Nothing screams of the need to further cooperate louder than how 21st-century development has progressed into the hands of multiple stakeholders. Development has not only naturally evolved into a moral obligation for donors to developing countries; it has morphed into an opportunity for [donor] countries and organisations to advance business and political interests. This can be good or bad, depending on who we ask.

But the clear bottom line is, for a start, to become effective partners in uplifting the lives of so many. This is the real opportunity: to communicate our resources well, capacitate communities, and empower by collaboration.

Then that man we just taught can now enhance his fishing techniques for more of them to maximise. ■

EDITORIAL TEAM Sreenivas Narayanan CEO & PUBLISHER

Mike Saycon EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Karthikeyan Subburaman SENIOR EDITOR

Yatheender PM

WEB ADMINISTRATOR

Edward Rey

SUBSCRIPTIONS ASSOCIATE

Marivic Barsaga

PARTNERSHIPS ASSOCIATE

Camille Lumbang LAYOUT ARTIST

MANAGING EDITOR

Kelvin Tee

Robert Ferguson

CREATIVE TEAM

DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR

Chris Hemmings CONSULTING EDITOR

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V. Selvanarayanan Karolina Trofiniak Erwin Ancheta Marion Aron Osal Kendrick Bautista

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AsianNGO is a publication of Asian Development Media, with address in 21B, Kwong Fat Hong Bldg No.1, Ramsey St. Central, Hong Kong 1226. Republic of China.

The print edition of AsianNGO is released on a bi-monthly basis. Opinions expressed in this magazine are solely those of the writers and not necessarily endorsed by Asian Development Media.

For contributions, please get in contact with the editorial team at info@asianngo.org.

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RECENT EVENTS

Success Over Survival: the first ASEAN Corporate Sustainability Summit Telecom and Manila Water; the Energy Development Corporation (EDC), TeaM Energy and Petron were also among the notable speakers at the summit, sharing their sustainability commitment to the delegates. The summit was augmented into three stream sessions: Stakeholder Engagement for Value Creation, Governance & Strategy, and Competitiveness through Innovation, providing the delegates with a good mix of discussions on implementing sustainability into their core operations.

As the ASEAN business market steers its strategies to face Sustainability Headwinds such as climate change, globalisation, digital explosion and population growth, there has been a notable rise in the number of companies implementing sustainability initiatives. Yet despite this encouraging progress, there is still a clear need for companies to understand the importance of weaving sustainability into their long-term strategy, finances and core operations. This was the resounding message at the first-ever ASEAN Corporate Sustainability Summit in Manila last month.

Themed “Shifting Gears. Mainstreaming Sustainability.”, the summit sought to start a shift in how companies do business by mainstreaming sustainability into their operations and not just as a separate initiative. Organised by APEX Global, the learning solutions arm of ECCI, it brought together 44 speakers from 11 countries and over 200 delegates from the ASEAN region.

“It is imperative for the private sector to learn from each other, benchmark against the best, strive to lead through the maze of risks by turning them into opportunities to innovate. Now more than ever, it is imperative for the private sector to learn from each other and turn risks into opportunities to innovate. Although inclusiveness, partnerships and sustainable development have always made sense, they have now become a cornerstone in the efforts of not only the non-profit sector, but for any organization to operate sustainably,” noted ECCI Chairman, Sreenivas Narayanan.

“We wanted to connect a community of sustainability practitioners who will steward not just their companies but the extended community; and through panel discussions that featured speakers who are experts create a shared value in their respective fields. Among them were sustainability leaders from Credit Suisse, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), by mainstreaming sustainability in Singapore Institute of Planners, Holcim and SAP who share case their operations studies, standards and best practices, and tools and technologies and relations with the needed to effectively implement sustainability practices. The community,” ECCI information imparted by these speakers were eagerly absorbed Country Manager Karthik Subburaman (pictured above) noted of by the delegates who had come from companies such as Aboitiz, Nestle, Del Monte, Smart Communications, San Roque, Meralco, the success of the event.

GIZ, ADB and Toshiba, to name a few.

APEX Global is now working on next year’s event, the 2014 ASEAN Corporate Sustainability Summit and Awards, which Highlights of the summit include a preview of the GRI:G4 will recognise individuals and organisations who have made a Reporting guidelines by Dr. Aditi Haldar, director of GRI Focal significant impact in their respective industries through their Point (India); and Dr. Reiner Hengstmann, global director of commitment to sustainability. For more information on the PUMASafe Supply chain, who presented Puma’s award-winning Environmental Profit and Loss (EP&L) statement. Local industry upcoming summit and of APEX Global’s other events and leaders from the Ayala Group through its subsidiaries BPI, Globe projects, visit their website at www.eccigroup.com. ■

The summit provided the delegates with valuable insights on how to develop viable and sustainable projects through Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs), planning and developing sustainable cities, and adapting to social and economic impacts of climate change

ASSIST holds Financial Literacy Workshop for women entrepreneurs Recognising the role of women in community-building and economic progress, ASSIST Asia hosted The Filipina Entrepreneur: Path for Women Micro-Entrepreneurship last March in Manila, Philippines, to help improve financial literacy of Filipino women micro-entrepreneurs through capacitybuilding and be more sustainable and independent from their support organisations.

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“The workshop is really intended to improve their financial literacy, grow participants’ business and profits, equip them of access to a wider range of resources and learning tools and develop a stronger sense of leadership, self-belief and people management,” says Sreenivas Narayanan, Managing Director of Asia Society for Social Improvement and Sustainable Transformation (ASSIST).

Participants from Rags2Riches, UPLiFT and Gawad Kalinga—ranging from bag-making, eatery, micro-lencing, sari-sari/cooperative stores, handicrafts, internet café, butchery, fashion accessories and merchandising businesses— attended the event.

“This is beyond the usual financial literacy workshops and trainings we have hosted in the past. We brought together participants from varied fields and work interests so they learn different perspectives from their peers. We encourage them to meet people and be more exposed to different businesses, as well as to different facets of these businesses. They learn from each other,” Sreeni notes.

The free workshop was sponsored by Barclays, with speakers coming from Singapore’s Impact Academy, IIX and Shujog.

ASSIST is now in the works for follow-through programmes both for recent participants and incoming new ones. For more information, visit www.assistasia.org. ■ www.asianngo.org asianngo_01.indd 3

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COVER STORY from page 1

(Xinhua/Corbis)

(UN Information/Corbis)

Is the sun setting on the MDGs already?

A Ugandan medical and evacuation mission of the African Union Mission in Somalia (Amisom) to Mogadishu in Somalia, visiting a camp to provide humantarian assistance to those affected by severe drought in the region.

Children from the UNRWA school in Baqaa refugee camp in Jordan knock on empty cans and plates at the launch of "Raise your voice" campaign, which promoted the UN MDGs in Amman in 2010

Let’s start with the critiques: it has been argued there is lack of analysis in the objectives of the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs); that progress has been uneven because some components of development were left out (i.e., no clear-cut plan for the agriculture sector, while majority of the poor are farmers in rural areas); and that the current approach is not sustainable post-2015.

governance and low levels of opportunities for civil society mobilisation; and that there is very limited knowledge on key aspects of delivering aid work— including policy and support network.

Others say the goals for health are “impossible to measure” and studies on which these goals are based are redundant, irrelevant estimates or have been prematurely imposed across all developing nations neglecting societal or cultural differences.

Even the UN Development Programme (UNDP) admits that if little action is taken in achieving all MDGs before its deadline in two years, a fourth of all children in the developing world will still be undernourished; and that half a million prospective mothers will die each year from childbirth and complications from pregnancy.

Zooming in on participatory development, critiques cite that [development] work tends to subject beneficiary communities to a top-down rather than a bottom-up approach. What does this mean? A top-down approach is where development workers “still own the resources, choose the issues and steer the direction of the process”—enforcing mainly-Western ideologies on recipient communities; while bottom-up would take into account the communities’ actual needs based on ground realities.

Then, after an unnecessary war in 2003 and the crash of financial markets in 2008 that shifted donor countries’ priorities, funding capabilities and commitments (including policies) for aid; aggravated by the effects of climate change that threaten the lives and resources of the poor, there is a serious need to shift the international community’s approach of the MDGs. In addition, ensuing economic crises in Europe and the US, the traditional donors, also threatens the progress to achieve the MDGs. But what has it achieved?

On the other hand, five years into the MDG timeline, G8 countries agreed to pour more funds to the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and African Development Bank to add US$55 Billion of debt reprieve for heavily indebted poor countries. The World Bank reported halving the number of people living below US$1 daily has been “successful” in Asia mainly because of the growth of India, China and East Asia. Save the Children, UK-based NGO, cited that countries like Bangladesh reduced child mortality even with modest growth through cost-efficient measures like measles immunisation.

It also got regional governments talking more actively and re-thinking their respective approaches to alleviate the world from poverty.

The kingdom of Jordan recently called in over 200 representatives of the civil society, academe and corporate sector from all over the Arab region to pinpoint priorities and challenges; and get each individual Arab country to identify

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visions for post-2015 development agenda. An MDG conference was also hosted in Bogota, Colombia to do the same, pooling together stakeholders from all over South America; and a high-level panel was commissioned by the UN Secretary-General to meet with all concerned groups—including the national government— in Bali, Indonesia in March.

Across the region, members of that March panel meeting in Bali have recommended ambitious yet “achievable framework for a post-2015 development agenda” with specifics MDG proponents argue on the validity of its goal- on building partnerships to revitalise global setting, saying it provides political and operational governance; sustainable production and frameworks for success; and identifies bestconsumption of goods with concurrent attention practices in pursuing sustainable progress. The on environmental protection; and robust challenge to reduce the population with no access implementation and financing strategies. to clean water at a government level also mobilized civil society groups in many countries to pursue The latter highlights calls for greater commitment the necessary infrastructure, collaborating with to improving country and global systems in NGOs and multi-lateral agencies, to keep the efficient use of resources and honour international, momentum of delivery MDG work alive. regional and national financing commitments and mobilise domestic resources. It also rallies Moving Forward stakeholders through private investment, corporate Earlier this year, the MDG Fund hosted a forum social responsibility, philanthropy; North-South, in Manila to tackle the progress of [MDG] South-South and triangular cooperation; PPPs, work in the Philippines specifically, including a debt swaps, regulation of tax havens and illicit presentation of results from a Needs and Support financial flows; enhanced knowledge sharing, survey based on joint programmes in youth capacity-building, technology transfers, data empowerment, governance and democracy, collection and increased trade. The panel will be climate change, and food security and nutrition. submitting its report to the UN this month.

All parameters accrued, the survey results mirrored what gaps MDG works face across the region.

But with less than a thousand days left, can we achieve all this as a region and as a world together?

The UN will probably not have a single answer to that; nor will each individual state. But all of us do—governments, the civil society, international and multi-lateral players, NGOs, the academe, corporations—together. Will it involve policy changes? Perhaps, especially after a recent report of a Professor in the London School of Economics and Political Science that argues “the richest 2% of the world population earns what over half of the rest of the world does combined together; and that 80% of [world population] shares barely 6% of total global wealth.” That’s another disparity the G8 club might have to re-think.

Is it too late? Not necessarily, but it’s also a bit late to ask that now. Even if critiques will not stop arguing how MDG and UN meetings pay nothing but lip service to diplomats and do nothing more than give a tiny bit of attention to NGOs and civil society representatives, the world will have to move forward. At the rate the MDGs are being achieved, a thousand days to achieve all the goals may be a sensitive question to ask but our only chances of providing real answer is real cooperation. Let’s hope it’s not too late for that, either. ■

MO VE R S A N D S H A KE R S

At a country level there is a need for national and local governments, along with multi-lateral donors and third-party stakeholders, to harmonise resources and engagement strategies—which also holds true across Asia and the world. The gaps identified in the forum call for wider participatory work without railroading local capacities; and highlight the fact that sustainable capacitybuilding is more important than the resources provided in the delivery of aid work.

More than just, say, getting a job in the city, those in rural areas are also very highly interested in being capacitated into making full use of what limited skills (or education, resource or opportunity) they have. Beyond being given the funds or equipment in responding to natural disasters, they seek capabilities to actively mobilise their own community members in localised warning and response systems to stay safe and salvage their sources of livelihood. Or that food security and proper child nutrition are the core elements of sustaining a healthy population.

Overall, the delivery of all these basic social services and public infrastructure has been, in fact, seen as very closely tied to good governance and efficient public services—and that the capacities communities need are important for them not only throughout the project implementation; but also to sustain them beyond after the [project] donors and implementing agencies have left their villages.

In the end, the forum yielded a few key issues that are vital to achieving MDG works across Asia, not just in the Philippines: it’s that no single institution is able to effectively provide all the information and resources to address poverty, violence and natural disasters; more often a weak

Development has new Editor: Tariq Banuri The Society for International Development (SID) has appointed Professor Tariq Banuri as Editor of its official journal, Development, last March. Banuri replaces Wendy Harcourt, who explored contemporary issues of development expansively; weaving separate issues to a coherent whole. Banuri is professor in the Department of Metropolitan Planning at the University of Utah and is an expert on sustainable development policy and institutional design. He was also Director for the UN Division for Sustainable Development; and provided policy advice to the government of Pakistan and international agencies such as the UN, World Bank, Asian Development Bank, the EU, USAid, South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA) and the UK’s Department for International Development. ■

Rags to Riches, Literally: Reese Fernandez Founding Partner and President of Rags2Riches Reese Fernandez, whose social enterprise is in this issue’s Featured Organisation, has recently been awarded as one of the “40 under 40” by Devex, a tribute to forty of the under-40 (years old) movers and shakers in the development industry in the Philippines. Through R2R, Fernandez has rallied the upscale fashion market and prominent designers in the Philippines to patronise her products made from upcycled scrap fabric—providing poor communities with decent working environments, more permanent livelihoods and thus, improved living conditions and the ability to actively participate in community-building. “Our products sell not because buyers pity them or the people who made them; but because they are really of high quality, artistically made and have a story to tell,” she says of her R2R goods. ■

Community Organiser for Cambodia Project Wins Award Lay Savorn has been awarded a US$10,000 prize from the Students Rebuild and Half the Sky Movement, with which she plans to open an agri-supply shop for her farm village at reduced prices; the proceeds to benefit local elderly, women and children. She was a community facilitator in Dak Sor Sor, organising 597 families into self-help groups for a Heifer International project; and now leads a cooperative of 120 families named “Poleu Strey” (which means “Women’s Light” in English). Half the Sky Movement was initiated by “Half the Sky” authors Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn; in partnership with Students Rebuild, an initiative of the Bezos Family Foundation mobilising the youth worldwide to connect and tackle critical global issues. ■

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F E AT U R E S F EATURED NGO s

The 'social' in Social Enterprise From stories of those finally able to send kids to school, to someone who finally serves roast chicken for dinner, to a Typhoon Ondoy victim who volunteered for the relief operations to somebody from the mountains of Mindanao weaving this amazing tapestry of their dreams and their lives—it gives you so much hope that this is really what humanity is about. It’s what being Christian, Muslim, Buddhist or whatever religion or spirituality gives you. Life always wins; hope always wins.

Thus says Rags2Riches Founding Partner and President Reese Fernandez. R2R, a social enterprise group founded less than a decade ago, has changed tens of thousands lives of what traditional societal stereotypes would label as the hopeless in the community—in a business so stereotypically dominated by the elite: fashion. It has empowered men and women to working on high-value goods for top-tier markets in the Philippines who actually pay a premium for it.

Fast forward to 2013 and R2R is on top of their game: they have increased community artisans to include other communities in Metro Manila and are ready to take on the region with their concept—still braving through a cut-throat industry, replicating the R2R concept of social enterprise.

“Rags2Riches is a platform. It is one system, one model to do things. It's not the only model but it's one of the working ones that people can easily adapt with. We have a working formula of how to do it, and we would love to share that model because it works and can work anywhere else. We could do so much more if we can spread ourselves throughout the world. And I know our partners are also ready to take it on,” Fernandez says.

But why not? They have commissioned some of the most seasoned and internationally renowned designers and artists to lend their creativity to their products—which in turn make for not only an interesting sales pitch to a potential A-Lister client; but on its own, every product is a striking In 2007 Fernandez, along with a group of friends, started R2R to conversation piece so hard to miss even in glitzy high-society create fashion accessories from upcycled scrap fabric. Among these gatherings. They have even rallied local and multi-national giants communities is Payatas, one of the biggest garbage dumpsites in as partners-in-change. Names like Starbucks, United Laboratories the country where residents earn less than a dollar per day. R2R’s (UniLab) and IBM have partnered with R2R to empower more core premise is to get the poor to rise above poverty and work with artisan communities. Proof of how, in the world of fashion, R2R what they have. Of course, they did not stop in Payatas. has broken through an entirely different approach to business.

Which translates to a deeper feeling appreciation. “They love it! Not only because of the quality, the art and the handwork put into it; but because it’s not nameless or faceless. When they have it with them, they have a story to tell,” says Fernandez of how her buyers and clients feel about buying from R2R, saying some would even make reservations for the first release of their finished products.

Starting R2R was not as rosy, however. She admits many of their potential artisan communities were wary of their intentions.

“The culture of poverty is very complex; people are very untrusting. They have been through a lot; been with project proponents who simply lie to them. But our intentions are clean; and we were not afraid of rejection. We had [have] to accept that we don't have all the answers to their problems; and got together with them to really listen to their problems: what they think could be the best way for them to get out of poverty and we had to bridge that knowledge gap,” she shares.

“Many of the problems we are facing are ones we simply cannot throw money at. It can’t just stop at the profits or the amount of money given back to the community. There has to be a good balance of how we empower our people, maximise their earnings, look after the environment and keep our products top-quality. The world is just so big and we can’t do it alone; this is how we do our share. We have to have more positive influence on changemakers and rally our communities across all levels,” Fernandez explains.

So beyond empowerment, that’s what makes for the social in social enterprise. While R2R brought in an innovative way to create jobs and harmonise a marginalised segment of the society, it has deeply contributed to revolutionising the upper-market consumer’s appreciation of purchasing. Right there in the middle, R2R has closed the gap between rags and riches—literally and figuratively. ■

from page 1

The BoP Hub: designing business to end poverty “Majority of the poor have no access to basic products and services such as electricity, water and sanitation, education and health care that many in the middle-class expect from governments or have easy access to. To make the situation worse, the poor is portrayed by many platforms as destitute, and hence creates the perception that they are helpless, hopeless and useless by themselves unless we donate money to help them—creating a misguided sense of charity-buying,” says BoP Founder Jack Sim. In response, Sim founded BoP to diagnose companies’ capabilities and suitability and educate SMEs on product price points, product ideations and market entry modes; match businesses and stakeholders to local partners with existing distribution chains and monitoring the progress of the business partnership; and develop and capacitate CSR work on ICT to help the agriculture sector. They also provide trainings to SMEs on micro-franchise models complete with visual branding, training programs, tool-kits, and revenue model designs; and field trials for products with its extensive networks of social entrepreneurs and NGOs on the ground.

“Charity-buying does not solve poverty in a sustainable manner, as it often creates dependency, distorts market prices and results in the opposite by removing the pride from the people to build up their lives themselves. We can start by building their capacity to become entrepreneurs and workers in the value chain so in the process they increase their income and purchasing power,” Sim accedes. He added that the poor—whom he calls the base of the pyramid—are actually “very much like everyone else: hard working, entrepreneurial and wanting to give their next generation a better future.”

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BoP believes SMEs now have to find new niche markets where agility and adaptive business models are required. To create a center of excellence for the BOP sector in Asia, BoP Hub has invested in a Design Center at a prime district in Singapore, which will be completed in end 2014. It will run on the Timeless Zone model operating 24/7, working with overseas BOP centers and partners, cutting turnaround times shorter and making available resources highly competitive, the services cheaper, faster, better and more accessible.

As social entrepreneurs and SMEs may not (yet) have robust back-office human resources to adapt to their marketplace, the BoP Hub also offers the [back-office] support until they are ready to do it themselves. Sim himself has founded 16 successful SMEs ranging from manufacturing, franchising, distribution, logistics, housing development, and education; and thus believes his past experiences can now be usefully deployed for development and humanitarian work. ■

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GUEST WRITER

Francesco Obino f.obino@lse.ac.uk

Localising development work and decentralising INGOs: the case in India Francesco Obino uncovers what Indian civil society organisations and bureaucrats think of international NGOs’ decision to become ‘fully Indian’—an analysis which could directly mirror similar situations in and the role and engagement strategies of INGOs in Asia and Africa.

If concepts such as participation and ownership in the development sector are to be anything more than buzzwords, particularly after they have been fully embraced at the Busan High Level Forum in 2011, international development NGOs (INGOs) today need to show that they ‘belong’ to the society where they work. For INGOs, this shift poses radical implications for their legitimate presence in domestic settings and their role in world politics as the legitimate vehicle of the voice and interests of the world’s disenfranchised.

This decentralisation process has two components: designing national institutions capable of resisting accusations of being an ‘international hand’, and building the credibility and capacity to speak with a legitimate Indian voice both nationally and internationally. A critical part of this strategy is building national institutions that become an integral part of domestic civil society.

If the goal is clear and the motivations compelling, being recognised as one of the ‘locals’ in a development landscape as vast, politicised and complex as India’s is clearly easier said than done.

Voluntary and non-governmental activity has a very long history in South Asia, and deep roots in religious as much as secular ideologies: non-governmental actors have always been an essential part to the running of India’s social and political life, as of its transformation.

Also, domestic non-governmental actors have always lived in a complex relationship with the state power and political parties.

During and after the Emergency, NGOs became a site of political opposition to the government, hosting those left intellectuals, former Naxalites, liberation theology Christians and members of the Sarvodaya movement who decided not to go underground.

The NGOs movement, revamped in the emergency relief from the droughts, famines and floods that hit India in the 1960s, grew into a considerable social and political force able to challenge and destabilise mainstream politics.

The dual identity of Indian NGOs as embracing an open political role and welfare delivery functions lived on, and since the mid-1990s is reflected in the emergence of hybrid organisational forms merging the features of a movement and that of NGOs. Today, in the lack of official figures, estimates of the number of NGOs in India vary from 800,000 to 2 million; and their focus is extremely comprehensive: from education to health and immunisation, water infrastructure, land rights and agriculture, women’s and human rights, political inclusion of minorities and environmental activism.

Central to the rhetoric of the sector is the idea that legitimate social action only emerges from within. The historiography of the sector shows that the idea of social change and mobilisation has always revolved around the notion of an inside and outside—from the anti-colonial state to the anti-imperialist critique, and government policies of the 80s that tried to limit foreign funding with legislation which is still binding today.

diversity of India’s NGOs make the country a quintessential development context, offering large opportunities for funding (and now fundraising), implementation, research and advocacy, the role of international organisation in this landscape can never be taken for granted.

So what do domestic development actors think of decentralised INGOs’ ambitions of crafting a national or local identity?

Here I present, in a few vignettes, a sample of the range of reactions emerging from my own fieldwork on INGOs’ transition to national organisations. These positions emerge from semistructured interviews with staff from a number of INGOs operating out of New Delhi (including Plan, Oxfam, ActionAid, Save the Children, Care, CAFOD, ChristianAid) and with more than 40 Indian civil society organisations (CSOs) and NGO leaders, government officials and politicians. Unsurprisingly, there is a lot of confusion about the rationale, aims and implications of INGOs’ ‘Indianisation’, and a large front of opposition: “Indian INGOs? Since when?”

Many interviewees, including high-ranking government officials and politicians, are yet not aware most INGOs in Delhi had registered as Indian organisations, with Indian boards, management and staff, and with full autonomy to determine the scope of their operations and advocacy. The change, nevertheless, was often perceived as long overdue and virtually beneficial, particularly if the competence of the Indian offices remained that of bringing issues to the international level where independent Indian organisations could not reach as easily as INGOs.

"India offers an illuminating perspective on INGOs' efforts to rescue their legitimacy as political actors (domestically and internationally) by becoming 'fully national' themselves."

“National chapters, but far from being Indian organisations” Among those who were aware of the transition, particularly civil society leaders with a long experience of partnering with INGOs, the perception is that the INGOs’ shift is more rhetorical than substantive. INGOs retain most of the features that made them international: higher salary scales, impressive corporate offices, a partnership model based on funding of domestic organisations and weak political contacts. In other words, business as usual.

“They have irresponsible aspirations” INGOs’ reincarnation as national organisations came with a In sum, if the first challenge INGOs face in India is that of an renewed self-confidence about the public role they can play. overdeveloped development, with the Indian state at its forefront Increasingly, INGOs seek to establish themselves as credible and a vast Indian NGO sector, the second most relevant actors in the public sphere and privileged interlocutors with challenge is the overt acknowledgement that development state institutions, bridging an assumed gap between Indian work is political and institutional in nature. If the number and CSOs and institutions. This aspiration is highly contentious

and was often described as irresponsible, particularly for its implication for smaller and more vulnerable organisations that INGOs have thus far supported. Among others, the head of India’s largest NGO umbrella organisation (VANI) argued that INGOs’ new confidence in their role as actors rather than donors meant that INGOs are scaling down their funding to smaller organisations. At the same time, they are eager to raise publicly contentious issues that are likely to provoke a backlash.

Smaller organisations thus risk double exposure when INGO campaigns backfire.

“It’s all about their logo and ego” Another group of interviewees, particularly from CSOs heavily engaged in national networks, developed the previous critique further by arguing that the idea that INGOs are filling any ‘gap’ beyond that of funding is preposterous. With the Right to Food campaign, for example, CSOs claim to have established strong working relationships with the country’s political institutions while INGOs—notwithstanding their commitment to a highprofile engagement on the issue—are “nowhere to be found or seen”. At a time of shrinking funding opportunities, INGOs’ failure to work collaboratively translated for many into unfair competition.

“They are usurpers” A related critique points to the overwhelming capacity of INGOs to attract highly skilled and experienced staff and funding, thereby diverting critical human and financial resources away from Indian CSOs. This ‘usurpation’, along with the aspiration to be a strong ‘national’ voice, was perceived as depriving domestic actors of critical spaces that naturally belong to them.

“From foreign hand to horse of neoliberalism” Some even denounced the incompatibility of INGOs’ mode of operation with the deeply political culture of India’s development sector. In the eyes of their harshest critics, INGOs are turning development into a technical domain of professional action, rather than an arena of activism. Along with their selective approach to critiquing government action, this makes INGOs incapable of facilitating the social and political change that is the ultimate solution to India’s development issues.

These critiques offer just a glimpse of the ongoing debates within and alongside INGOs in India, and they are not necessarily new or justified: some are polemical attempts to delegitimise INGOs while others echo concerns shared by INGOs’ own staff and management.

If the decision to decentralise is a strategic response to calls for downward accountability of INGOs, a political statement about the need to allow Southern intellectual authorship and ownership of development agendas, and a deliberate attempt to rescue the legitimacy of INGOs’ ‘voice’ in global politics, then even the harshest critiques could be a proof that INGOs are now more than ever a part of India’s development landscape and politics. What remains to be seen is if INGOs are fully ready to take on the challenges this new position entails, or whether they will keep to their image as facilitator on the fringes of domestic civil society—in India as much as elsewhere. ■

About the Author: Francesco Obino has collaborated in various capacities with INGOs in the UK and in India, including Amnesty International, Oxfam India, Plan India, WIEGO and the Micro Insurance Academy. He specialises in Indian politics, development and international relations; and has been editor of Millennium: Journal of International Studies. Currently he is completing his PhD on the legitimacy politics of INGO decentralisation in India and the changing grounds of INGOs' legitimacy in world politics, at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He is also a Bagri Fellow at the Asia Research Centre. A previous version of this article was published on the India at LSE blog in March 2013.

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EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW

Power to the People Perhaps one of the most important multi-lateral agencies in bringing about development from the Caucasus region in the west all the way to Pacific Islands in the east, the Asian Development Bank’s role in civil society and its terms of engagement is still easily misunderstood in the clutter of politics in countries it works with and the people therein. In this edition Christopher Ian Morris opens up on the challenges and opportunities in working with NGOs and civil society organisations across the region; and assures of the Bank’s continuing commitment for progress, regional development and cooperation with the civil society.

Last year's ADB Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors in Manila acknowledged the need for inclusive growth in Asia, through good governance and PPP platforms of the government. Where is Asia, particularly the development sector, headed from that jump-off point? The ADB does not change directions on an annual basis. Inclusive growth, development and environmental sustainability are constant key messages of recent Annual Meetings. They are key features of our mid-term development plan as defined in Strategy 2020.

[Editor’s note: Strategy 2020 is the ADB’s overarching strategy to guide its operations from 2008 to 2020, reaffirming the ADB's vision for an Asia-Pacific free of poverty and the Bank’s mission to help developing member countries improve their people’s living conditions and quality of life.] So you will always find these messages in our engagement with CSOs, governments and our private-sector partners.

Have CSOs always been empowered under transparency and public accountability or does the ADB have to integrate strategies to ensure accountability when executing their projects for the Bank? Our processes of engaging CSOs use the same governance and procurement procedures as any other consultant or service provider. Recently there have been discussions within the Bank in terms of whether our current procedures are appropriate to maximise the opportunities and effectiveness of our engagement with CSOs. We’d like to work more with CSOs to see how we can improve on the mechanisms for engagement as we believe these can be further improved.

There are different approaches the ADB could take and, as you point out, procurement raises accountability issues. The ADB is very conscious of the fact that we are accountable for the funds that we use utilise.

Despite professional project directors and field experts out there, some projects could run the risk of possible threats and erratic ground realities. Is the term “risk” acceptable in your strategies? There are risk management procedures within the ADB. All projects go through due diligence and capacity development assessment, and we undertake procurement planning to mitigate risks of delays. Our project management system has quarterly assessments of risks on projects during the project design: possible delays, financial risks, risks to compliance, critical issues. The ADB is very much aware of the risk issues and the environment we work in.

About the Interviewee Christopher Ian Morris is head of the NGO and Civil Society Center (NGOC) for the Regional and Sustainable Development Department of the Asian Development Bank, overseeing the planning, implementation, and monitoring of the ADB's overall engagement with civil society organizations (CSO); and coordinates the NGOC work plan and leading its external and internal relations and CSO cooperation initiatives.

Prior to NGOC, Chris served as Senior Water Resources Specialist, mainly responsible for the processing and administration of water projects in the Philippines and Indonesia; and led a multi-disciplinary teams processing the ADB's first Integrated Water Resources Management, MFF program that combines large water infrastructure with innovative community implementation approaches.

Before joining the ADB, Chris was Vice-President of the water division of the global engineering firm Black and Veatch, where he was responsible for projects and initiatives on water supply, sanitation, and water resources infrastructure with public and private sector clients in Indonesia.

Site visit with partner community, Technical Assistance Organization (TAO)–Pilipinas, in Navotas City, Metro Manila, Philippines for the pilot and demonstration activity on Building Resilient Communities in FloodProne Areas: A Demonstration and Pilot Testing of Local Design Innovations for Housing and Small Community Infrastructures.

governance embedded in the governance policy in ADB. We believe that more participation of the civil society in our projects leads to better governance.

Chris is an active member of the Water Community of Practice and has presented papers on water resources at international conferences in Indonesia, Philippines, South Korea, and Sweden. Originally from the United Kingdom, Chris holds a MSc degree in irrigation engineering from the University of Southampton and a BSc in Civil Engineering from the University of Birmingham, both in the UK.

The ADB works across all sectors in the society—agriculture, education, transport, infrastructure, women, children.

Which sectors or subsectors are developmental CSOs most receptive with or are most eager to work on or participate in? In terms of infrastructure investments, the big sectors are water, transport and energy. Developmental NGOs who wish to participate in implementation are more widespread in the water sector, which has has many facets where the ADB benefits from the participation of civil society, such as village water supply, community irrigation or health projects with sanitation activities. This is where we encounter high levels of involvement in both community-based groups and NGOs supporting Is sustainability a challenge with CSOs in developing Can the NGOC also intervene in terms of monitoring them. Environment, agriculture and natural resources are also countries?

With respect to institutional sustainability there tends and evaluation projects, whether these are adhering to areas with significant civil society inputs. NGO partnerships to be a lot of movement particularly in smaller groups, with accountability or are they transparent enough with the ADB members often moving from one organisation to another. When on HIV-AIDS and migration-related issues on the ADB’s through the course of the implementation? The NGOC is not transport projects have been very successful with a high level of the ADB engages CSOs or NGOs with a certain amount of a policing group, and operations departments have standard participation of civil society groups. experience it's interesting to look at the organisation’s history, for procedures to follow. But we monitor projects for the nature or example; if it has grown through the influence of international depth of CSO participation. Our corporate results framework Does the ADB work more with advocacy NGOs or is it NGOs from the outside or internally from grassroots civil has a particular indicator that measures the participation of mostly engaging only developmental NGOs? Our cooperation society groups. In terms of longevity, one challenge in terms of CSOs. In 2012, 98% of our new sovereign projects has some policy uses terminology to differentiate between advocacy and the ADB’s contracting criteria may be that an organisation must type of involvement of CSOs; either in the planning, monitoring developmental NGOs, but we do realise that there are groups have years of experience; but some groups working in the field or implementation. We look at the depth of their participation that could be described as in either camp; some NGOs who do have only been formed in the last three years. Due diligence in within different approaches: whether in communications, this situation is a bit of a challenge and additional risk mitigation both types of work out of necessity. For example, some NGOs consultations, collaborations and/or partnerships. This is support developmental activities but they are also political important because participation is one of the four pillars of good measures may be required. advocates who try to influence governments and policy-making.

In the field, local groups tend to be developmental. Anti-debt groups we often meet here at the HQ are usually advocacy NGOs. In projects, where the ADB requires developmental NGOs to implement, it is encouraged to involve the civil society in the entire project cycle: from the early days of the project cycle through design and implementation. How successful a project is in ensuring adequate participation (of stakeholders) depends on the country environment.

Give us an appreciation of civil society’s significance and involvement in any ADB undertaking, considering much of the works is channeled through governments. It is recognised that civil society will be a partner in development in the region.

There are different views on the future civil society landscape.

Some people see it as the traditional third sector of the society; after the government and private sectors. Another view expressed recently at the World Economic Forum is that civil society shouldn't be viewed only as the third sector; but as the glue binding the government and the private sector together.

Addressing the youth during the Preliminary Rounds of the Youth Debate: “The Voice of Youth” at the ADB Headquarters last year.

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How would you put to tangible terms the ADB's commitment to positive sustainable change through development using CSOs and NGOs? There's a great opportunity for NGOs to ensure that there is inclusive development, as the region gets richer. It's important moving-forward for development in the region and that's a role that CSOs can actively take. Because of the rapid growth, there are many areas where CSOs bring added value to the table in terms of ensuring sustainable development and adequate involvement of stakeholders. CSOs need to be a constructive partner to the ADB and our clients, to ensure they participate in the development in the region. There are CSOs and developmental groups who are very passionate and have courageous members but they need to be selective and smart in their engagement strategies, demonstrate their effectiveness and strengthen their resources and capacities. Also, 60% of the region’s population is under age of 25, so engaging the youth is also a great opportunity. Our engagement with CSOs and NGOs is a crucial factor in achieving our vision of eradicating poverty in Asia and the Pacific. ■ 7 4/22/13 5:20 PM

C O U N T R Y F E AT U R E states—let alone keep its billion-plus population feeling secure about its leadership and ability to protect.

Back to the matter of development, although the Indian government could hope the increased trade with its neighbours might improve relations, any erratic attack on the border could still hamper the track to progress: from the stock market’s rosy rise to the infrastructure build-ups to providing all the basic social services to the delivery of development aid work from outside.

So it would not come as a surprise if and when these troubles in India’s history pop from audiences’ questions or comments at the summit. Against a backdrop of empowerment, the meeting is awash with discussions on disaster risk management, volatile capital flows, innovation, sustainability in the banking and financial sector, universal health care, regional cooperation and integration, publicprivate partnerships; and civil society panel discussions on food security, social investments, public governance and the Millennium Development Goals. Most, if not all, closely intertwined to the need for a peaceful and stable econo-political environment.

Crouching Tiger No More With the staging of the ADB’s Annual Governors’ Meeting in New Delhi in May, India is poised to flex its political and economic muscle to solidify its position in regional and global development. But how it will translate the opportunities that come with this event, and how it will benefit its population overall, is a matter beyond hard cash—which requires much diplomacy and strategic alliances.

Onto the massive success of the Philippine government’s hosting of the Asian Development Bank’s Annual Meeting of Board of Governors in 2012, India’s then-Finance Minister and now President Pranab Mukherjee harked at the news that his country would take the turn in hosting the event this year: "This will provide a valuable opportunity for brainstorming and cross-fertilisation of ideas among intellectuals and policy makers from across Asia and the world," he said, adding that the meeting would bring Asia closer to each other and facilitate the formulation of policies that can lead us towards greater prosperity and well-being."

have to take on a deeper, broader meaning and more active call: that of close collaboration between the private sector, the government and the civil society as a whole. After all, thenMinister Mukherjee was blatant to describe the annual meeting: "This is the first time such a public-private partnership approach has been adopted for an event of this scale in India."

Yes, it will tackle strategies for these aims using hard cash; but no, hard cash will not be the only keyword to watch out for. Equally important is how this summit can turn into a springboard for cooperation—with the public sector, the corporate community and the non-profit and development sectors together—among global powers. It will be the kind of PPP (public-private partnerships) Mr. Mukherjee referred to in his speech last year. Then perhaps, the hard cash shall only become a clear secondary issue, next to actual engagement strategies that India should really be working on.

Prospects, post-Annual Meeting Investors—both bi-lateral governmental and the corporate multi-nationals—will take notice of India’s potentials up-close, unabridged and hugely magnified. No to mention, diplomats, powerful INGOs, influential think-tanks and assertive CSOs from across the region will be extra-eager to get their hands on India’s players. It will then bask in superstar glory amidst media hype.

Critics may see this as an outright opportunity for the current administration to piggy-back on the summit’s success (and its post-event results) into next year’s general elections, but that’s a different point altogether.

Kachhpur Village in Agra, India, where people from the ‘Untouchable’ class of the caste system live. Many projects are under way to help support them with food and sanitation.

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An expo visitor looks at Tata Motor's then-cheapest car model 'Nano' at the 10th India Auto Expo in New Delhi. The seven-day event, attended by over 2,000 car manufacturers, draws almost 2 million visitors.

(Corbis)

(Xinhua/Partha Sarkar/Corbis)

(Amy Toensing/Corbis)

Not Just Hard Cash India’s free-market growth has largely been driven by expanding services specifically growing more consistently faster than other sectors, which arguably makes for a unique pattern of In the Manila event, Mr. Mukherjee also told the delegation that “in development; allowing it to skip intermediate industrialisation in 2011 developing Asia grew at an average rate of 7.2%. To sustain transforming its current economic structure. Despite this, NGOs No less than the UNCTAD’s World Investment Prospects Survey economic growth we need to focus on the development agenda; and the brutally-vocal media constantly bark their serious concerns for 2012-2014 has clearly pointed India out as the “third most make sure our growth is environmentally sustainable; pursue about unemployment in the midst of this economic growth. attractive destination for FDI” (just after China and the US) in the renewable energy technologies; and invest in education and skills world. The markets in India—across all sectors—have significant development.” Quite straightforward, albeit clouded by a rather Sure it positions itself as “one of the most attractive investment potential and thus offer higher prospects of profitability. As such, generic tone; as he may have also hinted on this year’s event. destinations with a large manpower base, diversified natural there is and will always be a favourable regulatory regime for resources and strong macroeconomic fundamentals;” but in investors in place.

The theme of Delhi 2013 happens to be Development through nominal terms India still lags behind China with respect to wealth, Empowerment, wherein both the ADB and his government are military strategy and economic dynamism. In 2012 the World Bank Overall, India’s hosting of several multi-national giants that are poised to showcase an assurance to the region, their integrated ranked India 132nd in its Ease of Doing Business Index, trailing its leaders in their respective fields is a clear indication of how much strategies for cooperation and innovative approaches to BRIC contemporaries China (91st) and Brazil (126th); while the more it has to offer. The Global Competitive Report of 2011-2012 development. This year that event takes centrestage in New Delhi Index for Economic Freedom of the same year put India at 123rd. ranked India at 56th among the 142 countries rated; even higher on 2-5 May, gathering the heads of state, central bank governors than many countries in key parameters such as market size (3rd) and finance ministers of its 67 member countries; along with over Despite all that, India more than makes up for it with a massive and innovation (38th).

4,000 economists, investment bankers, corporate leaders, civil abundance of soft power capabilities and diplomacy—which society groups, NGOs and the region’s media. So what’s in store can sadly present yet another staggering paradox: considering its And then there are talks of setting up a BRIC Bank—a lot more for the world’s largest democracy and rising tiger of the new BRIC massive population base and pool of talented professionals, it has specific and strategised to seal Brazil, Russia, India and China’s bloc? Is it ready for global dominance? How will this hosting be of just about the same number of diplomats in its Foreign Ministry growth, economic and political influence, international presence significance to the ordinary Indian citizen? as Singapore has. and ultimately, the full rise [no longer emerging] of this bloc to global dominance. One can only imagine the interface of wealth In the latter half of the last decade alone India's growth had reached India’s move to join the elite club of the UN Security Council’s running through this bloc’s veins, ready to take on the traditional 7.5%, foreseen to double the country’s average income for this permanent members—being one of the most consistent donors and influencers and establish a solid, more clear-cut role in decade. Sustaining this momentum will, analysts argue, require what contributors—is practically supported by the five veto powers international development. they call “fundamental market reforms.” India’s states have also been thanks to its billion-plus population and economic potentials. given a large share of responsibilities over their economies, making It also has worked fairly hard on maintaining a commitment Also, the World Bank has always been consistent in urging that it overall the 10th largest economy in the world; but on a GDP per- to democratic institutions, at least on paper, and human rights India, above all, needs public sector reforms, infrastructure, capita basis it just ranks 140th. This is glaring disparity, which now and the rule of law. But many in the NGOs and the media like agriculture and rural development, public health, the removal of puts our question to perspective: how will average Indian citizens to question this; and its status is still largely viewed as a nearlysome unnecessarily strict labour regulations and drastic reforms feel the benefits of development—from the working class living in power, not just quite as stellar as that of China. in its states lagging behind its traditional commercial centres. The the slums of Mumbai to families living in constant threats of armed convergence at the Delhi 2013 event could potentially translate to conflict in Kashmir to the overpopulated households with no access More deeply, its glitches with its neighbours—Pakistan, for outright results for India, given the emergence of different markets to drinking water across the sub-continent? obvious historical circumstances; and China, implicitly as both a in the region; and, suffice it to say, with a growing middle class, fellow contender in the cash and arms race in the region—begs a high cost-competitiveness and strong domestic consumption, This year’s Annual Meeting, invoking development through for the question of security and stability in its [internal] regions this year’s guests to the Annual Meeting will see why India is a empowerment, will not be a sheer expo of India’s capacities as often not talked about in the news. India’s perceived lack of preferred destination for MNCs from across the world, attracting an economic powerhouse. At the close of the curtain, Indians [defence] strategy could be costly, too, as nuclear Pakistan and US$48 Billion in FDI in 2012 alone. themselves will put into question what the event meant and its vulnerable army poses a danger that can easily spell doom to what the theme would have told them. Empowerment will thus India’s prospects of cascading economic success to its outlaying That’s impressive feat, seen against the spectra of how the rest

One of the medical relief operations at the Ramakrishna Mission, with doctors and nurses taking the blood pressure of the poor, most of them sick with diabetes. Other missions include HIV/AIDS testing. www.asianngo.org 4/22/13 5:20 PM

C O U N T R Y F E AT U R E of what with and how India’s base of the pyramid will (directly or indirectly) benefit from the foreseen growth; let alone from the investments as by-product of this month’s event.

(Corbis)

(Corbis)

The Economist recently ran a series on whether—and how—India would ascend to becoming not only regional but a global military power: “It has shifted towards the West; voting America’s way in the UN, cutting purchase of oil from Iran, cooperates with NATO in the case of Afghanistan and collaborates with the West on regional issues like Myanmar and Sri Lanka—albeit surreptitiously. […]

Making its shift more explicit by signing up with Western-backed alliances would be good for the region, and the world, to promote democracy in Asia. It might not be in India’s short-term interest, but Earlier this year, people from Bhopal gathered in a rally dubbed as ‘One looking beyond short-term self-interest is the kind of thing a great Billion Rising’ The event called for awareness of sexual violence to women power does. That India can become a great power is not in doubt. and children.

The real question is whether it wants to,” it concluded. its careful grip on Asia (sensitively along with China); and what’s left of its Western leanings? Perhaps the more proper question to It will be exactly the same question both the Indian people and the ask is how the government will steer the country to a direction that region will be asking. In the last five years it became the world’s leads ultimately to the development it had time and again promised largest importer of weapons and, apart from China, has the most its billion-plus community. Will this gathering purely promote active military personnel in Asia. It is now the world’s seventhlargest military spender and, pundits put it, by 2020 it will overtake investments into India’s economy; or will it turn into a networking of allies for political reasons just as well? Either way, it will have to the UK, France and Japan. carefully tread the direction the ADB’s board of governors wants to take the event and, as a government, India is taking charge.

On the flip side, its literacy rate of 75% is well below the global average of 84%; whereas last year it spent roughly 12% of its GDP Rightfully so, Mr. Mukherjee’s ministers and business leaders on arms and bombs; while only 4% was allocated for education, will probably have to talk more than just about cash inflows and 4% for health care and 8% for infrastructure. Meanwhile, global profits this month. There’s going to be an even longer thread of consulting firm McKinsey & Co. predicts that if India adds just talks of sustainability, equity and opportunity long after the event 1% of its GDP’s infrastructure spending, it could generate at least is finished. But for now, India is staging not only an event, but 3.4 million new direct and indirect jobs to lay down a more robust a message that captures the call of time: enduring development public transport, power grid, water system and telecom networks. through empowerment and innovation, all needs and challenges accounted for.

Where will and can India take the country after Delhi 2013; and how will it make use of its gears? Will it strike the right balance The world will be watching this tiger. ■ between its BRIC ambitions and consequent rise to global power;

Indian women walking past a health clinic in Tehkhand Slum in New Delhi. The ‘Operation Asha’ aims to eliminate tuberculosis (TB) in the country and improve patients’ adherence to the long and usually difficult treatment programs through a low-cost biometric system requiring only a laptop and mobile phone. Internet access is not required.

of the BRIC bloc and the other “emerging” markets have taken the time to attain their status now—economics, politics and everything in between rolled together. Perhaps this is the most strategic take-off point India could make use of for this decade?

Besides, it’s an ADB Summit; not the UN General Assembly.

It’s where the host country engages not only government leaders and diplomats (as in the case of the much-anticipated UNGA in New York every year to much fanfare); but also industry leaders, business partners, investors, NGOs and think-tanks just as well. It’s where engagement is not limited to war, peace talks and regional security; but more importantly on development in tangible terms and strategic alliances targeted to benefit the region’s grassroots communities. All communities where there is room for improvement, to be sure.

The official logo, designed by the National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad, is said to signify the cycle of life based on the tribal motifs of central India. It’s also one that would, to a greater extent, symbolise the “cross-fertilisation of ideas among intellectuals and policy makers from across Asia and the world” Mr. Mukherjee promised in Manila last year, in tune with the Manila 2012’s overall theme of inclusive growth—yet still resonating to how empowerment and development are trumpeted this year.

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This is the third time India is hosting the event; it did in 1990 also in Delhi and in 2006 in Hyderabad. But this time around, it will not be all economic development—as development here takes into the context of overall societal progress. It will beg for the question from page 1

Website, smartphones as tool to report crimes in India reports of harassment and abuse can be added to an online map and sent to those requesting alerts. Mumbai-based Elsa D’Silva, the site’s founder, acknowledges the role of social media in encouraging women to speak out and warn others despite being reluctant of disclosing their identity or taking the complaints to proper authorities.

The website is now joined with other various mobile applications that share similar advocacies such as SafeTrac, developed by tech Firm KritiLabs and downloadable for free.

It provides SOS button to send alerts to emergency contacts and let them track the user’s whereabouts.

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4 Collaboration between constituencies on how

Various other steps are already being undertaken to support the use of innovation in battling abuse against women in the country. An IT competition was launched by NASSCOM, India’s IT trade body, to find the best app for women’s safety alongside its awarding for social innovation earlier this year to free app STIPATOR (Latin for “bodyguard”). A government commission recommended the development of mobile apps to send distress signals to police; and even in one of India’s safest cities, Mumbai, police launched ICE (In Case of Emergency) app that saw thousands of downloads despite criticisms.

4 A selection of expert voices:

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4 1500 delegates from 80 countries

One of the very first such Indian App was FightBack launched by non-profit trust Whypoll in 2011. The founder, Hindol Sengupta, said they are now developing a new app that includes guidance for reporting abuse. According to him, most women often are not aware of their legal rights. “When they go to police station where they can be further violated,” he said.

Stipator creator Ratnesh Desai and three Microsoft employees in Hyderabad have also been working on a "lipstick-sized" safety device for women. "If word gets out there are such apps, people wanting to molest someone will have to be more careful," said Desai. (With reports from Business Insider and the AFP.)

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CN O TURNYT R COU FY E AFTEUARTEU R E NEW S FROM INDIA

R OU N D - U P S

Effecting Change: a success story in India

London school launches green research in India

Only in 1995, Hiware Bazar, a village in the district of Ahmednagar in Maharashtra, India, was grappling with problems like drought and lack of water, poverty, a nonfunctioning school, domestic violence, crime-infested streets and a degraded ecosystem. Now, the village’s per-capita monthly income has soared to more than INR30,000; and out of the 1,250 residents 60 became millionaires.

The London School of Economics (LSE), along with experts from partners in India has launched a US$1 million research project to address climate change and attain sustainable development in Karnataka. The Bangalore Climate Change Initiative-Karnataka (BCCI-K) will be implemented by academics from LSE, the state government, Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI), Indian Institute of Science, C-STEP, Institute for Social and Economic Change, and the University of Agricultural Sciences. The program is aimed at setting precedence to other states in India on combining growth and poverty reduction with practices that are sustainable and environmentally friendly. (LSE Blog)

Hiware Bazar was able to overcome poverty when Popatrao Pawar, village head, started addressing the problems by banning liquors, tobacco and gutka (a mix of crushed betel nut, tobacco, paraffin, lime and flavourings for chewing). He encouraged villagers to help construct their water infrastructures: they built 52 earthen bunds, 32 stone bunds, nine check dams and two percolation tanks —all with just what government funding was available to any other village.

As agriculture flourished from improved water management systems, farmers invested in cattle producing milk, which then generated higher incomes for the residents. In 1995, milk production was at 150 litres daily; now it has surpassed a 4,000-litre daily mark. Suddenly, those who had migrated to other cities in India returned and started their own farms again.

Pawar rallied residents to plant over a million trees like Babool.

Gum harvested from them, priced at INR2,000 per kilo, has became a significant source of income. Residents have also taken full control in maintaining cleanliness in their households and in the village: they avoid previous habits to defecate or urinate in public; which has averted the spread of contagious diseases.

Education has greatly improved with an innovative child-teacher learning system, giving students specific roles in monitoring

Government sets up R10 B fund for women's safety their learning processes and active engagement among teachers.

Couples are given free HIV testing prior to marriage (the first in India) and more women are given roles in the community— with Pawar stepping down from one of his official roles to give way to a woman leader.

Indeed, empowerment and transformation in Hiware Bazar has transcended the financial status of some successful families.

Pawar has effected social transformation breaking traditional barriers of the caste system, with even religious divides becoming a thing of the past. At least in Hiware Bazar.

(Yahoo! News)

In response to the rising number of gang-rape cases in recent years, the Indian government is setting up INR10.4 Billion funds to improve measures on women’s safety in the country. "The government clearly felt they had to do something but this money is inadequate. It will only work out at as a few rupees for each woman in the country," said Ranjana Kumari, director of Delhibased Centre for Social Research. Kumar also said the money had been insufficient in spite of them asking more for laws on domestic violence and mortality rates to be properly implemented. Activists see this move simply as tokenism. (The Guardian)

Trade groups wary of India's new tech-import policy

First bank for women to open An Indian bank will open its first bank intended exclusively for women in October. According to Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, the government will provide over INR10 Billion as initial capital to commence the venture. The minister said ‘”it is and should be possible to put a bank solely intended for women their businesses, livelihood, self-help groups, and cooperatives.” He further explained that the creation for this special bank is intended to debunk the idea that women are not receiving equal rights in making transactions with financial institutions and even in the public sector.

“The government needs to set this up because there is a clear bias to lend to men rather than to women. Yet although a public bank for women will predominantly be serving and employing women, men are also welcome. The core premise is that this will address issues of gender bias,” the minister added.

Some critics, however, look at this as a strategy for the upcoming general election in 2014, with the Congress Party being perceived to be wooing women and young voters. They contend India already has enough financial services for women, citing

cooperative organisations run exclusively by women such as the Shri Mahila Sewa Sahakari Bank in Ahmedabad and the Mann Deshi Mahila Sahakari Bank.

Vijay Mahajan, Founder of Basix, the country’s oldest livelihood promotion group, said the creation of women’s bank is not the answer to address gender discrimination in the banking industry. “To be able to get the right solution for gender discrimination, the government must understand the source of the problem. Majority of the Indian women are not participating in Indian’s formal economy. They don’t even have title rights over property, hence have no say in financial matters,” he added.

On the other hand, Meera Sanyal, country executive of Royal Bank of Scotland-India, supports the concept, saying “even though India has existing cooperatives and commercial banks, women’s needs are not their focus. They have other competing priorities and targets. There is a real need for women empowerment in India.” (LiveMint/WSJ)

NGOs report schools charging hidden fees Education advocates and NGOs in India have reported that schools appear to bypass the Prohibition of Capitation Fee Act, 1987 and Right to Education Act 2009 in the form of exorbitant fees charged under non-prescribed heads. They say schools ask parents to pay dues ranging from “voluntary contribution” for PTA, staff welfare, infrastructure, fees for school maintenance, activity fees, annual day functions, among others. Various complaints, particularly on schools in the western suburbs that charge admission fees ranging from INR50,000 to INR200,000; security deposits of the same range; and additional INR30,00080,000 for unexplained ‘other fees’ or miscellaneous fees.’

According to both the Right to Education and the Prohibition of Capitation Fee Act, charging capitation fees not prescribed by the education department is unlawful and schools, if caught, will have to pay 10 times the amount charged. NB Chavan, Deputy Director of School Education in Mumbai said they are investigating the complaints they receive. "We have seen that there is a growing tendency among some institutions to gain profit through education. Stringent action will be initiated against schools if proven they are charging capitation fees," he said. Furthermore, Chavan clarified based on the 1987 Act

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that charges such as INR1,800-2,500 for computer fees and INR100-500 for ‘fines’ are all capitation fees, and therefore are illegal.

Furthermore, Jayant Jain, president of the Forum for Fairness in Education, an educational NGO, said there is not much action done to address the issue due to the reluctance of police to investigate such occurrences. "Even if parents manage to register a case, no investigation is conducted," said Jain.

Nana Kute-Patil of Buland Chhawa, also an education NGO, reported that apart from additional fees, schools make it mandatory for parents to buy books, uniforms and other supplies from the school itself for double the price. “There is a school in Mazgaon, which used to charge lifetime membership fees for PTA," he added.

But a principal of an aided school in south Mumbai said that "development and infrastructure fees are capitation fees.

Schools provide facilities to students and these do not come for free. If they cannot afford the fees, they are free to send their kids to municipal schools." (Indian Express)

Recent policy drafts of India’s technology imports raise concerns from global trade groups fearing the Buy Indian mandate would affect foreign business ventures in the South, including cost implications to CSR initiatives and international aid work. About 39 international organisations have conveyed their sentiments to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh regarding the issue.

New restrictions on products such as Wi-Fi devices, set-top boxes, laptops, printers, telephone handsets and switches and routers of corporate networks would potentially impose that a specified share of each product’s market—anywhere from 25% to 100% of sales— to go to local suppliers. Foreign companies will also be required to put up local factories in the country for them to be allowed to market their product. It will also cover private-sector purchases taking into account the possible existence of spy-wares in foreign equipment that may threaten national security.

Washington-based President and CEO of the Information Technology Industry Council (ITIC), Dean Garfield, raised his concern before the trade subcommittee of the US House of Representatives asking the [US] government to facilitate talks between private companies or between governments. ITIC represents global ICT companies such as Nokia, Qualcomm, Microsoft, Accenture, Google and Intel, among others. This mandate may spark tension in the commercial relations of the US and India.

On the other hand, the local industry sees it as a positive development: that companies from Western countries, in exchange for the permit to market products in India, will be compelled to build state-of-the-art factories and, eventually, complement this with addressing the lack of proper roads, power and water infrastructures in many regions. However, with the inclusion of national security issues in the subject as grounds for laying restrictions on tech-imports by private companies, US lobbyist and tech industries fear it might set a precedent for other countries. India’s Department of Telecommunications said concerns by various stakeholders shall be considered in finalising the rules. (The Times/WSJ)

www.asianngo.org 4/22/13 5:20 PM

ACRO S SR OASSSI AA S I A AC

Mobile banking services making a leap in Afghanistan Poorly-maintained infrastructure with very few modern facilities, untouched by latest technological advances, financial services and telecommunications—this is what war-torn Afghanistan is pictured to the rest of the world. Yet despite this image, would one ever think Afghanistan is on the verge of a mobile banking revolution sweeping through developing countries from Kenya to Indonesia?

But more than just addressing corruption, M-Paisa’s greatest contribution remains in its role as catalyst for economic development. M-Paisa—a joint venture between Roshan and British multinational Vodafone, two of Afghanistan’s biggest telecom provider—has attracted over 1.2 million subscribers as reported by the Afghan Mobile Money Operators Association; and is seeing double-digit growth with 40% of Afghans owning mobile phones, according to Citi.

It is no longer unusual to see Afghan policemen on Kabul’s security cordon, also dubbed Ring of Steel, checking their phone if their monthly salary has been transferred to their ‘mobile wallet.’ With just a SMS away, they can send a sum of money to their families in rural Afghanistan.

Services offered have also expanded from direct-payroll deposits in the public sector to include mobile person-to-person transfers, point-of-safe merchant payments and microfinance loan disbursements and payments. International money transfers to M-Paisa mobile subscribers are also made possible with the signing of agreement between Roshan and Western Union.

“It’s a success, no question about it,” says Tomasz Smilowicz, managing director of Citi’s Global Transaction Services in New York, on Afghanistan’s mobile-money service known locally as M-Paisa. In a country of 30 million people, 70% of which is considered ‘illiterate’ and no more than 5% have a bank account, Afghanistan seems to make an impression—when such is not even apparent in larger economies like most of the G-7 countries. “I’m not aware of any such deployment in the US,” he added.

M-Paisa was first introduced in 2009 as a trial to replace salaries of Afghan national police in cash with mobile money, which immediately resulted to enforcers receiving a 30% increase in their salary due to the elimination of phantom payments to nonexistent officers by corrupt middlemen done by skimming cash from legitimate salaries.

“M-Paisa has greatly contributed in eliminating corruption and theft in Afghanistan’s public sector,” says Laurence Chandy, analyst at Brookings Institution in Washington, DC;

considering that Afghanistan is deemed to be the third most corrupt country in the world. The same issue also crippled the country’s banking system pushing M-Paisa to devise a way by which transactions are made in the absence of bank accounts, at least in the early stages. Government donors and charities are also spared from possibilities of corruption from middlemen and local banks with M-Paisa providing opportunity of distributing aid directly to Afghans.

Yet despite M-Paisa’s success, there still remains plenty of room for improvement. Roshan is currently integrating Afghan banks to creating new services like e-payment of monthly utility bills. However, the reputation of banks also needs to be ironed first to get fully integrated. M-Paisa also needs to expand its network of retail agents outside Kabul for sustainability of transactions in rural Afghanistan, since only a very few banks operate outside the city to fill the gaps in cases where retail agents run out of cash.

Also in 2012, Roshan’s three main competitors—Afghan Wireless, Etisalat and MTN—launched their own mobilemoney services. This can be a hurdle to growth unless these companies find way in sorting out interoperability issues as they roll out their services. Smilowicz said, “The challenge will now be to convert mobile money in Afghanistan into an open system.”

(With reports from TIME)

KOICA aids pilot vocational exam in Vietnam The Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) has recently provided technical assistance and a USD1.5 Million grant for a pilot examination for national vocational certificates in Hanoi. The exam, ran from March to April, serves as a benchmark to evaluate the vocational skills and competence of the Vietnamese workforce across different sectors. It also helps the country to develop high-quality technical human resources.

The exam was bheld at Hanoi Vocational College for ElectroMechanics and two other colleges in Ho Chi Minh City and Vinh city of central Nghe An province, culminating last 12 April. The system is expected to help Vietnam manage human resources effectively and improve capacity for technical workforce, thus boosting the country’s socio-economic development as well as increasing its position in the international arena.

The Republic of Korea (South Korea) has repeated its commitment of not changing its development assistance policies with Vietnam. The South Korean government, through the Korean office of the ODA, has funded and implemented projects across Vietnam ranging from the agriculture, education and infrastructure sectors. (TalkVietnam)

Japan funds Vietnam irrigation network upgrade

Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has committed almost US$210million for an irrigation network upgrade worth US$247 million in the province of Nghe An. The irrigation network has been in serious decay since it was built in 1930. Upon conclusion of the upgrade, estimated to last from 2013 to 2019, it is expected to serve 29% of the province’s agricultural area. Ho Duc Phoc, provincial chair of the People’s Committee, said “upgrading the irrigation network is a key milestone to beef up the province’s agricultural development, to benefit the local community.” He was speaking at a working session with JICA representatives on 5 April.

Some officials of the JICA and the Japanese Embassy in Vietnam have made a number of fact-finding missions to Nghe An. They concluded that the province’s economic development and poverty reduction and climate change adaption needs are instrumental to their decision to grant the loan. The ODA provision agreement for the project was signed by the Vietnamese and Japanese governments last March. (VOV Online) www.asianngo.org asianngo_01.indd 11

11 4/22/13 5:20 PM

C OA UC NRT O RY S SF E AA S TI AU R E

Saudi NGO taps PH microfinance partners

China project pursues capacitybuilding for environment management China’s boom expanding its influence on international economics and policy sees a development and industrialisation beyond compare. But alongside its tremendous economic projections are various environmental and sustainability concerns that in the years to come, may risk putting not just the country’s economy but the entire societal welfare at risk. Thus, certain international organisations in cooperation with China’s industries are implementing sustainable and environmentally friendly approaches in managing commercial activities.

Project AIM (Awareness and Capacity-Building to Improve Quality and Environmental Management Standards) is a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) project funded by German Development Bank (DEG); jointly implemented by Vossloh Fastening Systems (China) Co. Ltd, TUV Nord China and ASSIST Asia. The project aims to contribute to more sustainable industrial systems in China starting with the supply chain of Vossloh at Kunshan Industrial estate. It seeks to achieve this goal through a three-level methodology: Level 1 includes promotional campaigns, project launch and awareness sessions that will tackle the importance of quality (ISO 9001) and environment management (ISO 14001) systems. Level 2 develops Body of Knowledge benchmarking ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 standards; ToT (Training of

The Arab Gulf Program for Development (Agfund), a Riyadhbased non-profit organization, seeks to tap partnerships in the Philippines to set up a US$5-million microfinance bank in the country, the first of its branch outside the Middle East and Africa. It aims to cater to the poor bringing in 40% of financing from Agfund and the rest from a local partner.

TÜV Nord-Shanghai Office (for East Asia) General Manager Harvey Jia, presenting to guests, stakeholders and project proponents at the launch of Project AIM in January in Kunshan, China.

Trainers); Certification Training Program; and Technical Assistance to build up the local capacity. Devising e-tools (e-newsletters and e-learning kits), a set of competitions/tests to generate participants interest and closing ceremony, will mark the last level of the project.

Launched in January 2012 at Kunshan, China participated by over a hundred stakeholders of Vossloh and other industries located within the Kunshan Industrial estate, AIM is currently at its final phase of its 18-month run. More sustainable industrial systems are seen to be achieved and implemented beyond this project duration. Similar initiatives are also projected to come and link organisations and industries into joint efforts addressing prevailing industrialisation issues while achieving sustainable growth. (ASSIST Asia, www.assistasia.org)

Timor-Leste to build better roads Manila Water to take over with World Bank Jakarta water management Under the World Bank Country Partnership Strategy (CPS), Timor-Leste will see major developments in infrastructure in 20132016. The CPS will provide the framework for the Bank’s future engagement in the country to connect communities to markets and services, particularly highlighting the importance of road infrastructures for development.

“Building better roads will give more access to people in rural areas, particularly farmers, to sell their products to the markets,” said Luis Constantino, WB Country Manager for Timor-Leste. “This will positively impact the economic development of the Timorese nation, especially rural communities who are often cut off from opportunities by the most basic lack of infrastructure”.

Having an economy highly driven by commercial activities that require road networks, Timor-Leste had always been strained by its poor road conditions worsened by rains and landslides.

Agriculture, particularly the coffee industry that accounts for about 90% of the country’s non-oil exports, constantly struggles when moving goods even through its 110-km main highway that is still undergoing repairs.

The World Bank and the government of Timor-Leste, through The Road Climate Resilience Project, aims to improve road conditions starting with emergency works on drainage. In addition, the WB’s The Road for Cultural Heritage Project, in cooperation with the Ministry of Tourism, highlights the country’s cultural heritage sites to give way for potential tourism opportunities. (WB)

WB report: on improving Mongolia’s infrastructure Infrastructure spending in Mongolia increased by 35 times bigger in the last decade primarily because of the success of the country’s mining industry. Ironically, this progress is not evident particularly in the ger areas of Ulaanbaatar, accounting for over 40% of the total population and much of its economic activity. A new report released by the World Bank points out why this increased spending is not equally felt by all citizens of Mongolia in terms of improving the road networks, water systems and sanitation services.

The problem boils down to the skewed appropriations of funds towards areas and activities of low priority as well as to poor project planning and implementation. Ample research states that cities can become engines powering economic growth if proper infrastructure and favourable regulations exist to foster innovations and raise the livings standard for the country as a whole. Despite the 60% population increase in Ulaanbaatar due to migrants in search for better-paying jobs the city’s infrastructure remain underprioritised, receiving less than 20% of the budget for national roads. Strangely enough, the future government’s plans are geared towards spending twice as much for rural roads even though such roads will not generate anywhere near the traffic volume needed to steer positive economic returns.

Regular and adequate maintenance is also seen as a major

Philippine-based Manila Water, a private water utility company, has been approved by the Jakarta government to take over the Indonesian capital’s water management by purchasing over half of the shares in one of the major water utility operators in the city.

Basuki Thahaja Purnama, deputy governor says that “the Jakarta government has traced Manila Water’s track record in Manila and Vietnam, and it is good.”

Despite criticisms, a Share Purchasing Agreement (SPA) was signed between Ayala Corporation (mother company of Manila Water) and Suez Environment entitling the former 51% of shares in PAM Lyonnase Jaya under a 25-year concession contract with the local government. PALYJA has been operating in Western Jakarta since 1997.

Firdaus Ali, executive director of the Indonesia Water Institute, says “a proper tariff adjustment must be in place to spare the people from enduring all the taxes as was the case before; and that Jakarta must start looking for more sources of water besides Jatiluhur and Tangerang, which are of substandard quality and unreliable.”

Nasser Al-Kahtani, Agfund executive director, is in talks with representatives of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI), although saying nothing definite about the bank has been decided aside from equity structure and the intent of locating in the Philippines.

Prince Talal bin Adbdul Aziz, Agfund president and brother of the King of Saudi Arabia, said that “the plan to expand the initiative does not only cover the Philippines but also Sudan, Palestine and Mauritania; adding to six other branches in Jordan, Yemen, Bahrain, Syria, Sierra Leone and Lebanon.” The royal recently presided their annual three-day Agfund Conference at the Fairmont Makati stating their confidence in the Philippine government’s effort of overcoming bureaucratic obstacles that deter the bank’s activities in order for a broader segment of the poor to benefit from the products and services of this financial institution. (Philippine Daily Inquirer)

China provides loan for Sri Lanka rail project China’s Export-Import Bank has granted Sri Lanka a loan of US$278.2 Million for its 27-km rail track construction, connecting Hambantota to Mantara, which is the biggest coastal town in the South. Out of this loan, $200 M will be provided under a preferential buyer’s credit facility; the rest will be a Chinese government concessional loan facility, offered with a 2% annual interest rate and a repayment period of 20 years, including a five-year grace period.

"The need for transport between the south and other provinces will increase due to developments in the Southern region and operations of the Hambantota Port," a statement released by the Sri Lankan finance ministry said. Apart from this new railway loan, China has also loaned $1.5 billion for the construction of the Hambantota port; and another $209 M for a nearby airport launched March 18.

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa had been pushing for development of infrastructure projects in the South since 2009 after the end of civil war. However, due to the country’s increasing dependence on China both for financial and technical assistance for reconstruction projects, neighbouring nations, particularly India begin to see China’s expanding influence on a more political rather than business standpoint. Rajapaksa rejected the idea. (Reuters)

GIZ, DTI promote green economic development

A group of civil society organisations, under the umbrella of the Coalition Against Jakarta Water Privatization (KMMSAJ), opposes such motion saying Suez Environment “is a corrupt company” and that the government should be focusing on its ongoing legal The Private Sector Promotion (PSP SMEDSEP) under the proceedings. KMMSAJ, having filed a lawsuit against Suez last year, also demands for the contract to be annulled until the central Philippine-German cooperation programme, through the Deutsche Gesselschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), Jakarta District Court has issued a verdict. (Jakarta Globe) is assisting the Department of Trade and Industry in framing green strategies for the private sector development in the Philippines. predicament with only a fifth of the actual needed fund is spent by the government on routine road maintenance. Therefore, it ProGED (Promotion is of no surprise that 60 percent of the national road network is of Green Economic in poor condition requiring costly reconstruction. Infrastructure Development) seeks projects also lack proper planning and construction ranging from to address the growing unrealistically low cost estimates, significant political interference in concern among micro, the award of contracts, compromised quality due to inefficiencies small and medium of construction companies to a stagnant growth in the construction enterprises on the sector in the absence of skilled engineers and workers. effects of climate change through the pursuit of Thus, to ensure quality results of the government’s expensive green growth and development. It aims to prevent costly effects spending plans, such flaws must be addressed. Spending plans environmental degradation, climate-change related natural must set a balance between the government’s capacity as well as the disasters, loss of biodiversity and depletion of natural resources. construction sector’s capacity to avoid wastage. Ulaanbaatar also has to be given enough priority particularly on its infrastructure “The Philippines is the world’s third most threatened country maintenance so it yields the maximum economic returns. The by climate change, and environmental stresses such as pollution government needs invest more on its human resources particularly of water, air, soil, deforestation erode its potential for economic in the ministries and local governments to conduct the necessary development. As such, our strategy for green economic technical analyses. Transparency must also be observed to avoid development will drive better competitiveness, innovation, new risks of corruption and wastage. markets, create jobs and attain inclusive growth, and reduce poverty,” says GIZ Project Manager Volker Steigerwald.

Finally, Mongolia should consider providing opportunities for foreign workers and companies to make up for the shortage of Running from January 2013 to December 2015 with pilot skilled workers. Partnerships between the government and foreign projects in Cebu and Bohol, ProGED focuses on the tourism companies can be a medium for sharing and exchanging of sector, with its high potentials for investment and employment expertise to help improve the capacity of both the government and through its linkages with many other sectors and industries. For the [private] construction sectors. (WB) more information on ProGED, visit www.greeneconomy.ph. ■

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CSR C AO CR N O ES R S ASIA from page 1

from page 1

UPLIFTing environmental capacity and energy efficiency

CSR has nothing to do with Charity CSR and charity are inextricably linked.”

Peter Lacy, Accenture managing director, taking the affirmative side of the debate, stressed that CSR, by both bringing value to the society and giving companies a competitive advantage, no longer means charitable giving. He went on to cite the works of companies such as Vodaphone UK’s project M-PESA in developing countries (See related story on Afghanistan on page 11); and how companies in the UK form closer relations with NGOs and charities, like Marks & Spencer’s collaboration with Oxfam to encourage recycling among buyers. He emphasised that companies treat “responsibility as a real business issue.”

Looking at the bigger picture, CSR can be taken only as corporations’ business-to-society interface. Instead of simply assuming that the only responsibility of a corporation is to maximise profits, items on the checklist such as the environment and social issues have surfaced. Companies use charity and create foundations separate from their core business, for which certain shares of their profit is spent on their specific societal thrusts.

Foundations are often seen as a way of outsourcing the company’s responsibility to an external body that is managed separately from the firm itself and are therefore not included in the overall business strategy of the firm.

On the other hand, Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy Executive Director Margaret Coady took the negative side, acknowledging the fact that companies make a significant contribution to the society by providing goods and services, job creation and revenue generation. She explained that social issues are relevant to companies and that philanthropic investments help build trust in communities where companies operate; giving them access to new markets, opportunities to create new products, understand untapped consumer segments better and introduce new technologies.

Advocates of charity being inherent to CSR argue that [charity] is sometimes the only way to make positive impact in the society by engaging in areas not impacted by their core business. Historically,

The Train-the-Trainer workshops will be conducted from 1 August to 31 December of this year. Dubbed Project UPLIFT from page 1 (Upgrading and Leveraging Indonesia to Fortify Energy Efficiency through Academic and Technical Training for Energy Management Professionals), it is a cooperation between ASSSIT, TÜV NORD, University of Indonesia, Swiss-German University, National Chamber of Industry and Commerce the country’s dependence on imported coffee. Dubbed (Kadin) and German-Indonesian Chamber of Industry and Project CoFFEE, it harmonises the funding from the DEG; Commerce (EKONID). technical skills, facilities, high-yielding robusta seedlings and ASSIST Asia Group Managing Director Sreenivas Narayanan trade partnerships from Nestle; and capacity-building and community relations from ASSIST. says “the project sets short courses on basic industrial energy management using modules of the two participating “There is a problem of low-yielding crops and low fertilisation universities; and provide training programmes for energy rates, coupled with a lack of farmer training and unavailability managers and professionals working in such industries cement and textiles production.” As part of capacity-building, of upgraded facilities, which means the local coffee industry struggles to keep up with exporting countries in Asia and South ASSIST and TÜV NORD will gather representatives from America. We are now importing 70% of our coffee despite government agencies, chambers of industry and commerce, universities, industry associations and multi-lateral donors for having fertile land, robust manpower. This project will turn that trend around,” explained Sreenivas “Sreeni”Narayanan, consultation sessions.

Managing Director of the Asia Society for Social Improvement Prior to the Training series this year, assessment programmes, and Sustainable Transformation (ASSIST). interviews, surveys and on-site visits have also been simultaneously conducted to ensure discussions are corollary Project CoFFEE aims to create sustainable coffee communities in the country; develop farm entrepreneurs through successful with ground realities. ASSIST and TÜV NORD take the lead in pooling together consultants across different levels for the discussions, planning and implementation; including validation programmes at different stages of the project.

charity has been a way for corporations to give back to their immediate communities. Philanthropy in US corporate history, for instance, has had a preeminent role: corporations like Ford set trends in the paternalistic approach of firms’ social responsibilities by providing accommodations, schools and hospitals for their employees and thus improving their well-being—which achieved more efficiency. By investing in their employees, a return on investment through increased productivity is expected.

Free markets, through mainstream technology and the information highway, have driven the civil society’s increased awareness on the impact of corporations in their communities— triggering laws in response to the push and raised expectations of pressure groups like the NGOs and international organisations. By acknowledging that shareholders and managers are not the only ones involved in a company’s strategy, stakeholder management has gradually been pushing through; highlighting a larger interaction between corporations and the society.

Yet most importantly to us listeners, as moderator Murray posed in her opening statement, are even more serious questions: did respondents consider charity as part of being a responsible business? Should companies address their social environment footprints through philanthropic donations and community investment programmes—or should they stick to their business operations, thereby stimulating the economic activity creating jobs and producing the goods and services people need?

The debate will not have ended with the report summary released

by The Economist. By examining the role of CSR in communitybuilding with charity as a tool for development, The Economist posed a premise that yielded varied, if not necessarily opposing views from different industries; sufficient for even the civil society and the non-profit sector to also look into. After all, we’re all working towards the same direction: community development.

For more of the results and insights, the report of this edition of The Economist’s debate series is at http://ccdebates.eiu.com/; or visit their Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/ccdebates. ■

Capacitating PH coffee farm with tech skills, hybrid seedlings from DEG, Nestle

“This validation is intended to define the current programs based on its integrity, relevance and applicability to local setting. It is also meant to assess the key players on their capability to implement the programs; and identify if there are significant players that can become future partners,” Sreeni added.

Upon validation, five companies in Indonesia will be tapped

by ASSIST and TÜV NORD to undergo the pilot run of the energy management efficiency programmes to capacitate them for the demands and needs of their local energy sectors.

They will thus be given technical assistance to implement their improved energy management programmes respectively.

Apart from the training series for energy managers and professionals, a basic industrial management course will be introduced to students in different universities, to enhance the development of the programme modules used in their curriculum.

To foster continued communications and sharing of best practices between the academe, the energy managers and professionals, government agencies, different industries and the energy sector as a whole, a web portal will be launched to showcase the highlights of the project and to provide the different materials from the concluded Energy Management Programmes; as well as to serve as a forum for users and interested members of the community for further learning. ■ www.asianngo.org asianngo_01.indd 13

cooperatives; introduce new Robusta coffee-technologies with innovative fertiliser technologies and post-harvest drying technologies; and knowledge-sharing with stakeholders and institutions on Robusta coffee technology in the region. Nestle pledges to buy bulk of the harvest for its local processing and manufacturing of coffee-based products—most notably Nescafe.

The remaining harvest will be consumed or packaged locally in Tagbina using a local brand; trainings for which will also be provided by Nestle and ASSIST. Project CoFFEE is intended to run initially from May 2013 to December 2014 and spur three cycles of production and harvest. The success of the project will determine whether this approach can be further mainstreamed and extended into the CARAGA region.

Present at the launching program last week in Tagbina were Arthur Baria, Angela Wassmer, Rico Yee and JP Bayangos of Nestle Philippines; Ruby Manalo and Mike Saycon for ASSIST and the DEG; and Surigao del Sur Governor Johnny Pimentel along with municipal officials and regional heads of the Departments of Trade and Industry (DTI), Agriculture (DA) and Environment and Natural Resources (DENR). Some 200 local farmers and cooperative members were present.

“This generous funding from the DEG and Nestle is a very timely opportunity to start resurrecting the country’s coffee industry. We already have successful coffee farms in Luzon; it is time to maximise our resources in Mindanao. The barako brand of Batangas has solidified its place in the local coffee market; our farmers in Surigao (and eventually in Mindanao) One of the local farmers visiting the current site of the robusta coffee farm, just will now have their own brand of coffee that Filipinos can be after the launching rites and ceremonial planting in Tabgina, Surigao del Sur. proud of,” Sreeni concluded. ■

Philippine schools to start using digitised books The Philippines’ Vibal Publishing House Inc. (VPHI) has partnered with Procter and Gamble (P&G) and Samsung to assist the move to integrate digital technology to the public education system, especially in remote areas.

Under the agreement, Vibal will provide digitized books and the learning cart that carries 45 tablets per classroom coupled with outlets for charging, a fan for keeping the units cool while charging and a projector for classroom use. It will also make use of the “Vibe” reader, a Filipino Technology developed by VPHI’s in-house programmers that enables users to connect not only to their books prescribed in the curriculum but also to resources

from foreign authors and subjects online. Students can also take quizzes using the book where answers can be readily graded by the teachers and sent back for feedback.

Gaspar Vibal, VPHI executive director said that a test run of such digitised books have already been initiated in Oranbo Elementary School in Pasig through 900 tablets donated by P&G under its CSR ‘eStudyante Program’ that aims to donate 1 million digital devices until its centennial in 2035. The learning cart shall be rolled out at the Philippine Normal University on the third week of May for testing prior to the launch in the public schools this coming school year. ■ 13 4/22/13 5:21 PM

UCPO CU ONMTI RNYG FEEVAETN U TRSE

Call for papers to the Singapore International Water Week 2014 Amidst a backdrop of water crisis in the region, the Singapore International Water Week calls for papers and application to the Water Convention in its annual summit on 1-5 June 2014 to tackle the challenges in the water sector across AsiaPacific. The SIWW 2014 is guided by the themes delivering water from source to tap, effective and efficient wastewater management, water for liveability and resilience, water quality and health, and water for industries. The Water Convention seeks to identify suitable technologies, processes, systems and approaches to tackle issues in the water sector across the region.

“The water woes we face today are the result of mismanagement; and these challenges require all of us water professionals to think creatively, work collaboratively and act swiftly. We must work with professionals from other fields such as urban planners, water resources engineers and health authorities because water is a complex issue that cuts through every strata of society,” says Glen Daigger, president of the International Water Association.

Data from the Asian Development Bank’s most recent report on water sustainability in the region show that 65% of the region’s population does not have what should be considered secure household water supply; and 1.74 billion people in Asia and the Pacific continue to live without access to water sanitation.

This translates to poor health environment susceptible to diseases, aggravated by lack of access to health care. Furthermore, in the Asia-Pacific, proper access to water is largely tied to the growing income disparity between the rich and the poor: the wealthy have better access than the poor. Among the most striking inequalities is in the access to sanitation, with differences between richer and poorer communities amounting to 96% in Nepal and 92% in Cambodia, India, and Pakistan.

Aside from participating in high-level and in-depth discussions on water technologies and mitigation measures, “the Water Convention will provide an oasis of networking opportunities for industry practitioners,” according to Chew Men Leon, executive director of the Environment and Water Industry Programme Office.

The Call for Papers for 2014 is built on the four discussion themes of next year’s Water Convention: municipal water, industrial water, integrated city-environment-water, and the future of water. The Convention aims to spur discussions on the latest water treatment technologies and management strategies through sharing experiences, case studies and practical application of solutions. Authors may submit abstracts for either oral or poster presentations, which are to be inclusive of supporting figures and tables and must contain adequate information to allow a sound referee review.

Submission deadline for abstracts is on 5 July 2013. All submissions will be reviewed and accepted authors will be notified on or before 2 December 2013. Accepted oral and poster presentations must register and bear conference fees for the Convention independently. More information on the call and submission of papers and registration can be found at www.siss.com. sg/water-convention. (From the Singapore International Water Week information pack.) ■

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Nominations open for the Lee Kwan Yew Water Prize 2014 Highlighting the Singapore International Water Week 2014 is the Lee Kwan Yew Water Prize, named after the Singapore’s first prime minister whose foresight and leadership enabled Singapore to rise above poverty and attain— even now—a sustainable water supply system.

A very prestigious international award, the Prize is awarded to individuals or organisations who contribute to solving the world’s water problems through innovative technologies, policies and programmes.

a backdrop of soaring health and live risks due to water pollution and the lack of access to clean water across the region. The Asian Development Bank’s most recent report on water sustainability in the region, for example, shows that over 60% of households in AsiaPacific live without safe, piped water supply; and that 88% of all diarrhea cases worldwide have been attributed to lack of adequate access to water and sanitation.

Last year Prof. Mark van Loosdrecht was awarded the Prize for his breakthrough, the Anammox—an innovative biological process providing cost-effective, robust and sustainable ways to remove unwanted pollutants from used water. His groundbreaking work in marrying nature and engineering has become the basis for The Prize comes at a very timely fashion, amidst many of the known water treatment processes Nominations have been opened to water industry or water utilities leaders; academics in the field of water research, policy and management; heads of international organisations; or members of government across the region.

today, which also continues to be adopted across the globe.

The Singapore Millennium Foundation (SMF), a philanthropic organisation supported by the Temasek Holdings, is the sponsor of the Lee Kwan Yew Water Prize. The SMF partners with universities and research institutes in Singapore such as the Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory, National Cancer Centre, the National Neuroscience Institute, the Institute of Mental Health and the Singapore General Hospital.

Deadline for nominations is 31 May 2013.

For more information or enquiries on the submission of nominees visit www.siww.com.sg or send an email directly to leekwanyewwaterprize@siww.com.sg. (From the Lee Kwan Yew Water Prize information pack.) ■

Regional peacebuilding through common understanding The Northeast Asia Regional Peacebuilding Institute (NARPI), now on its third year of hosting the event, will have its annual Summer Training in August 2013 in Inje, South Korea. It will be attended by NGO workers, university students, teachers, and religious workers. With a backdrop of escalating tensions between North and South Korea and issues of territorial disputes and military build-up in the region, NARPI seeks to transform the culture of militarism and communities of fear and violence into peaceful ones through peacebuilding trainings and connecting and empowering people in Northeast Asia.

This year’s training programme will include visits to the demilitarized zone (DMZ) between the North and the South and to the House of Sharing (a museum and home to the survivors of sexual slavery during the Asia-Pacific War in 1932-1945). The participants will attend courses on Conflict and Peace Framework, Trauma Awareness and Healing, Restorative Justice,

Gender, Sexuality and Peacebuilding, Theory and Practice of Peace Education and Nonviolent Communication and Facilitation Skills.

NARPI Director Jae Young Lee notes: “We aim for Northeast Asia to be a region of active non-violence, mutual cooperation, and lasting peace. Participants share the skills they develop at NARPI with their local communities and bring new understandings and practices to their local contexts.”

but if dialogue is pursued we can begin to transform the culture of fear into a culture of peace.” NARPI’s Steering Committee, with representatives from partner organizations in China, Japan, Mongolia, South Korea and Taiwan, works and is responsible for recruiting participants and promoting the vision of NARPI within their respective areas.

Partners of NARPI include the Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict (GPPAC), Korea Peacebuilding In 2011, NARPI hosted its first annual summer Institute (KOPI), PeaceBoat, Peace in China, training in South Korea. Last year, the training Transcend Japan, Global Campaign for Peace hosted 37 participants in Hiroshima, Japan to Education, Nonviolent Peaceforce Japan, Peace study peacebuilding through courses and field Missions Center, Blue Banner and Taiwan trips. Most of the participants were from China, Grassroots Alliance for Peace. The admin team Japan, Korea, Mongolia and Taiwan; with a few for NARPI works out of the KOPI office in participants from Canada, Nepal and Pakistan. Namyangju, South Korea.

Lee added that “historical conflicts and remaining structures from the Cold War era have led to continued distrust and militarism;

For more information on the application or to get in contact with the organisers visit www.narpi.net. ■

CA L E ND A R OF E V E N T S

2 - 5 May 2013

22 - 24 May 2013

20 - 23 June 2013

India India Expo Centre and Mart (IECM), Greater Noida, Delhi National Capital Region

Netherlands Amsterdam (Noord-Holland)

Thailand BITEC - Bangkok International Trade & Exhibition Centre, 88 Bangna-Trad Road, Bangna

Delhi 2013: 46th Annual Meeting of the Asian Development Bank

6 - 8 May 2013

2013 Global Conference on Sustainability and Reporting

28 - 30 May 2013

Vienna Energy Forum 2013

Myanmar Urban Development Conference 2013

Austria Vienna

Myanmar Yangon

29 - 31 May 2013

8 - 10 May 2013

9th South-East European Congress & Exhibition on Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy

Japan Tokyo Big Sight

South-East European Conference & Exhibition “SAVE the Planet” - Waste Management, Recycling, Environment

BIOtech 2013 in Japan

9th Asia Gas Congress 2013

Bulgaria Inter Expo Center, Sofia, Bulgaria, 147, Tzarigradsko shosse, Sofia

China Beijing

29 - 31 May 2013

9 - 10 May 2013

20 - 21 May 2013

EE Global 2013 - Energy Efficiency Global Forum USA Walter E. Washington Convention Center Washington, D.C

5th Delft Symposium on Water Capacity Development Netherlands UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education, Westvest 7, Delft (ZuidHolland)

Industrial Energy Efficiency 2013

24 - 27 June 2013

Global Training of Trainers on CSO Development Effectiveness Johannesburg

24 - 28 June 2013

International Human Rights Network: Monitoring and Evaluation - Applying Human Rights Based Approaches Ireland National University of Ireland, Maynooth

25 - 28 June 2013

8th Asia Clean Energy Forum 2013 Philippines ADB Headquarters, Manila

8 - 9 July 2013

2nd Annual Global Healthcare Conference (GHC 2013) Singapore

6 - 9 June 2013

24 - 28 June 2013

22 - 24 May 2013

Offshore Technology Asia 2013

ACSEE 2013 - The Third Asian Conference on Sustainability, Energy and the Environment

Vietnam Ho Chi Minh City

Japan Osaka

Malaysia Bandar Sunway, Selangor

International symposium on green technology -towards a sustainable future (ISGT2013)

www.asianngo.org 4/22/13 5:21 PM

T O O L S AA NCDR R OESSSOAUSRI C AE S

Critical factors to consider for your NGO Just like any organisation, NGOs must have the awareness of the different factors that have significant impact on their existence.

Such awareness provides guidance and direction on how strategies must be done for the NGO to survive and thrive for the upcoming years.

Here are some very important factors that must be considered to ensure your NGO is sustainable: Goals.

It is vital to go back to the basics to review why the NGO is founded to have a better understanding what it intends and who are its target beneficiaries. This serves as a check and balance if the short- and long-term goals set are still aligned with the Mission and Vision of the organisation. It is also necessary that the Mission and Vision of the organisation are inculcated in the employees’ minds so that they are guided and can perform accordingly.

Having a clear purpose can also help in making a better strategic plan for the sustenance of the NGO. Again, the strategies must be aligned accordingly so no one gets lost as they set and meet their milestones. This makes it easier for the NGO to go and present its funding requirements to a possible funder and how it is going to cater the needs of its beneficiaries.

Projects.

They vary depending on the NGO’s targets and goals. As such, projects are dependent on the kind of support they are linked with. There are projects that can only be implemented once proper funding is allocated; the ones dependent on donors.

Others are self-supporting wherein incomegenerating activities are implemented to sustain and support its needs.

www.asianngo.org asianngo_01.indd 15

Workforce.

The greatest asset in any organisation is their people. NGOs must consider the individuals who will work for them and handle specific functions and projects in their institution. They are the ones who can make or break their projects’ success. NGOs may also establish partnerships with other organisations, and this can be a shared work from both parties wherein the NGO doesn’t need to hire additional staff to accomplish its project. The partner organisation may even donate additional funds as part of their CSR. Network.

NGOs must be able to establish a network with different organisations and individuals.

This can help them build future partnerships and projects; and they can learn from the stories of successes and mistakes of these new partners.

Fiscal Management.

NGOs can get funding from different means. It may come from international or local donors or grant-giving organisations; or may be derived from private companies, community or individual supporters, income generating projects or fund raising activities.

NGOs must find ways on how they can keep their cash flow as this is crucial in keeping the organisation alive.

AVA I L A B L E G R A N T S Power Supply and Transformer Installation

Central Tajik Water Rehabilitation

Country: Vietnam Donor: World Bank Grant: Not specified Area(s) of Interest: Energy, Infrastructure Deadline: 4 June 2013

Country: Tajikistan Donor: European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) Grant: US$18,000,000 Area(s) of Interest: Water, Environment Deadline: 25 July 2013

Widening and Strengthening of Theog-Kothkai-Hatkoti-Rohru Road

Supporting Indonesia’s Tertiary Education

Support for European Businesses in South-East Asian MarketsPhilippines (SEBSEAM-P)

Shymkent-Tashkent Road Reconstruction Project

Country: Philippines Donor: EuropeAid Grant: EUR3,500,000 Area(s) of Interest: Varied Deadline: 17 June 2013

Country: Kazakhstan Donor: European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) Grant: US$231,000,000 Area(s) of Interest: Transportation Deadline: 15 August 2013

Maternal and Newborn Health and Nutrition Program

Pakistan Private Investment Initiative (PPII)

Country: India Donor: World Bank Grant: Not specified Area(s) of Interest: Infrastructure Deadline: 4 June 2013

Country: Indonesia Donor: AusAID Grant: AU$200,000,000 Area(s) of Interest: Health Deadline: 30 June 2013

Country: Indonesia Donor: AusAID Grant: AU$110,000,000 Area(s) of Interest: Education Deadline: 31 July 2013

Country: Pakistan Donor: USAid Grant: US$76,000,000 Area(s) of Interest: Finance and Trade Deadline: 12 September 2013

For further information and more grants, visit www.asianngo.org

NGOs must be clear on its targets and goals for them to be able to survive in the long run.

Their advocacy together with their strong desire to help their beneficiaries will definitely help them to drive more efforts in achieving their endeavors. It won’t be easy but if enough attention is given to the important factors affecting their organization, at least a clear direction can be set. ■

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RECENT EVENTS from page 1

‘The water sector can’t do it alone’ Dr. Mohamed Ait Kadi, Chair of the Global Water Partnership Technical Committee, showed the top five global risks in terms of impact: economic, environmental, geopolitical, technological and societal gaps. “The economic factor easily trumps all others, with respect to the fiscal crises and bouts of economic recession, asset price collapse and overall price volatility of energy costs,” Kadi said in his presentation.

In layman’s terms, while the rich can generally brave through these woes, the poor, on the other hand, have less chances of coping—especially on the issue of access to water.

The summit could not have come at a better time.

About the same time, the ADB released a report citing that although 91% of the population in Asia has improved access to clean water, the region’s richest are the ones who are able to pay for this success. Similarly, “developed nations with a robust water infrastructure (i.e., Singapore) obviously have more disaster-preparedness systems than Laos, Nepal, Cambodia and Bangladesh.”

Mapping non-cognitive skills in education in Bangkok

Transversal or non-cognitive skills in education has been the primary focus in the recently play a role to help serve more people with less, conducted Asia-Pacific Education Research that good governance is critical to operationalise Institutes Network (ERI-Net) Seminar in our goals and that we must always involve and Bangkok last March. It tackled two important integrate all our stakeholders in the decisiontopics: the integration of the so called making process. Similarly, let’s also explore diverse “transversal/non-cognitive skills” in education and flexible options for water sources, match water and the transition from secondary to higher quality with its use and maximise the potentials education. for water and energy,” Vairavamoorthy said.

Satoko Yano, ERI-net Coordinator explained For Kadi, it is clear that to addressing this gap, that “transversal skills can be a number of there must be policy instruments that complement important skills such as social, behavioral and the economic, social and environmental facets emotional competencies as opposed to cognitive of development. Fiscal policies that capacitate skills, which are abilities such as numeracy, governments and the private sector to put emphasis literacy, logic and scientific knowledge used to on technology investments, environmental comprehend, retain and utilise formal education protection and sustainable infrastructure are also competencies.” needed; and risk assessment, skills development and management reforms be provided to the experts But such definition still swims in a pool of and practitioners in the water industry. ■ many other terms and descriptions used

interchangeably with ones identified by ERI-net as “transversal/non-cognitive skills;” paying particular emphasis on different understandings of skills from one country to another, especially in the diverse Asia-Pacific region. “Because of this complexity, research first focuses on mapping how countries of the region define these skills and integrate them to their education policies and curriculum, while being fully aware of technical problems with the term ‘non-cognitive’ itself,” Yano said.

10 young entrepreneurs win business tilt in Laos

handicrafts), Chanthalith Khamvongsa (goats for sale) and Palamy Phounsavath and partner (housekeeping training center). Lone male awardee, Oudtakhone Singthong, runs an organic pig farm with his partners.

Kala Vairavamoorthy, of the Global Water Partnership, warned that while Asian countries have the fastest growing economies, by 2050 the growing population in the region will also be ‘growing up’ and that 90% of populations in developing countries combined will be living in major cities. Water will become an even more critical concern with respect to this growth.

One of the key findings in this year’s Asia Water Week was that developing countries require tailored frameworks to address issues such as highly polluted water bodies, water scarcity, intermittent power supply, irregular (and expensive) energy supply, lack of wastewater collection and treatment, high levels of leakage, poor solid waste management all rising as cities are growing rapidly.

“When designing urban systems, we should all keep in mind that innovative technologies always

The World Bank, AusAid and the Young Entrepreneurs Association of Laos (YEAL) awarded 10 budding entrepreneurs in the 2012-2013 Young Entrepreneur Market Place Competition with a seed grant of USD5,000 each and business mentorship support, in ceremonies in Vientiane in March.

Nine of the winners are women, who come

from Vientiane Capital, Vientiane Province, Luang Prabang, Champasak and Savannakhet.

They are Kaesone Norsouvanh (manufacturing sesame oil), Alee Senethichack (traditional thatch roofs), Vanhde Phengsathip (organic strawberries), Malavong Maniseng (recycled art), Manothip Siripaphanh (handbag designs), Keophouthong Bouphavanh (growing organic vegetables), Noimaniphone Lorbiayao (Hmong

Supported by Korea Funds-in-Trust in partnership with the Global Scientific Information and Computing Center (GSIC), and Tokyo Institute of Technology, the meeting ended with a challenge to all participants to undertake this study in their home countries and deliver the findings by October 2014 taking the ERI-net Seminar’s platform in developing the research framework. (UNESCO-Bangkok)

Keiko Miwa, WB Country Manager in Laos believes it is ‘smart economics’ to invest in young people’s potentials, adding that since half of the country’s population is below 20 years of age, the [Bank] has made it a goal to support and harness youth’s entrepreneurial skills and creativity, especially women, to pave way to greater income for their families, employment for their communities and economic growth of the country.

According to the World Bank, 60% of the shortlisted applicants from the 2011 competition have already started and expanded business creating over 140 new jobs with three quarters of such businesses said to have reported lucrative. (World Bank)

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