Social development

Local empowerment has become the best prevention measure against diseases and accidents in two Chiang Mai communities, who have learned firsthand how collective grassroots action can keep them safe. Dengue fever has terrorised the communities in tambon Ban Luang in Chom Thong district for years. Locals ...

Paris-based media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has awarded its 2019 Press Freedom Prize to three female journalists, including prominent Vietnamese blogger Pham Doan Trang, who authored a book on political engagement that angered authorities in Hanoi. Trang, who has vowed to remain in Vietnam until ...

ASEAN has embarked on exploring how to implement the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda in the region. It has recently organised “an inaugural inter-sectoral dialogue on WPS issues in the ASEAN region” to support Member States implement the Joint Statement on WPS adopted at ...

Two Cambodian wordsmiths – a short story writer and a poet – have been selected for honours at the 10th Mekong River Literature Awards in Myanmar. This year’s topic was Life and Mekong River Sustainability, and after a strict selection process, Dr Setharin Penn, a professor ...

The Myanmar government has invited the Northern Alliance group of ethnic armies to meet for talks in October to try to persuade their leaders to sign bilateral cease-fire agreements ending escalated armed conflict with the national military in the country’s far-flung ethnic regions, a government ...

In an era of the globalisation and internationalisation of higher education, it is difficult, if not impossible, to disregard the regional and global trend toward building world-class universities. Many governments in Asia and Africa are making significant efforts to establish research-intensive universities to catch up with ...

The NGO Forum on Cambodia and indigenous communities have called for stronger efforts on the conservation of indigenous languages and the development of indigenous peoples in the Kingdom. The request was made as more than 300 million indigenous people in over 90 countries around the world ...

Cambodia has launched a campaign to end child labor in the brick industry by 2020, a move industry observers cautiously welcome while expressing doubts the goal will be achieved, and calling for more structural changes. The industry drew international attention last year when a report, Blood ...

An RFA blogger held in Vietnam on charges of corruption has been allowed to meet with a lawyer for the first time since he was abducted in Thailand earlier this year and forced back to Vietnam, his attorney told RFA on Thursday. Truong Duy Nhat, a ...

More than 250 people faced criminal charges for expressing their opinions on social media in the first half of the year, according to a report by local free speech group Athan.  The report said 70 cases with 250 respondents were filed over opinions expressed on social media ...