Aid and development
Bagan schools slated for solar power
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and Panasonic will provide solar-power systems to schools in the Bagan region to promote educational support aimed at sustainable development. Keep reading ...
EU pledges 70 million euros in project funding
The European Union on 21 December announced an additional 70 million euros (US$76 million) in funding for projects focused on police training, food and nutrition security, and support to the peace process. Roland Kobia, EU ambassador, said in a statement, “Since the start of reforms in 2011, ...
US should withhold trade, aid from Laos barring rights improvements: Advocacy leader
Washington must withhold trade agreements and assistance from Laos until its government can demonstrate concrete progress on human rights and democratic reform in the one party communist country, the head of an advocacy group has recommended to U.S. lawmakers.Mutually beneficial trade arrangements and political exchanges ...
Government must help homeless: UN
The United Nations on 15 December called on the government to do more to protect its homeless after years of so-called street sweeps and a lack of social care have left destitute Cambodians vulnerable to health risks and violence. “Cambodia is growing fast economically, and the signs ...
ADB boosts climate funds
The pool of climate finances available to Southeast Asia is set to expand following an announcement by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) that it plans to double its climate funding to the region by 2020 – a move welcomed by the Cambodian government and climate ...
UN urges Myanmar to tackle causes of opium scourge
Opium production in Myanmar has “stabilised” at stubbornly high levels, the United Nations said on 14 December, adding the government must address poverty and end the conflicts which drive farmers to grow illicit poppies. Myanmar, the world’s second largest opium producer after Afghanistan, has struggled to ...
EU gives boost to nutrition, food security in Xekong
The European Union is assisting the Laos Partnerships for Poverty Reduction and Women’s Empowerment Project in Dakcheung district, Xekong province, with a view to ensuring that children have access to nutritious food. As with other EU funded nutrition and food security projects in many provinces across ...
UN: Poverty, conflict drive opium production in Myanmar-Laos
The U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime’s latest opium survey for Myanmar and Laos, released 15 December, said poverty and conflict are the driving forces behind poppy cultivation, the second largest behind that of Afghanistan. In its latest production assessment, UNDOC said although Southeast Asia’s opium ...
NGOs condemn dam power at COP21
Major hydropower projects like the large-scale dams under way in Cambodia’s waterways are a “false solution” to climate change, according to a global coalition of 300 NGOs who are calling on parties at UN climate talks in Paris (COP21) to bar such schemes from climate ...
Myanmar comes under renewed pressure to ratify key human rights treaties
Myanmar has come under renewed pressure to lift itself from the bottom rung of countries to have ratified key international human rights treaties. Speaking at an event in Yangon yesterday to mark International Human Rights Day, Andrew MacGregor, a senior official from the Office of the ...
