Azusa Kubota, UNDP Resident Representative in Bhutan — On a bright and sunny morning of 17 December 2021, in the courtyard of the grandiose Tashichodzong in Bhutan’s capital, Thimphu, we joined the nation in celebrating its 114th National Day. In comparison to other years, the 2021 celebration was humble and solemn with a small crowd due to the…

Catcalling. Revenge porn. Toxic masculinity. Despite increasing awareness of how important feminism is to global development and human rights, hate speech and discrimination against women and girls continues to spread, particularly amongst young men and boys. In Sri Lanka, researchers recently found that a culture of casual sexism, misogyny, and…

We’re inviting UNDP Asia Pacific senior managers to contribute posts for our “Letter From…” blog series. The idea is to have every one of our offices represented through the series, featured in the RBAP Digest and on our soon to be revamped corporate website. Contributions should ideally be planned in…

March marks Women’s History Month, with International Women’s Day aptly themed: ‘Women in Leadership: Achieving an Equal Future in a COVID-19 World’. With the world facing unprecedented health security challenges, women are meeting the new risk with vanguard crisis and security responses. Over 70% of essential workers on the frontlines…

What happened when we connected two sets of communities — those working on climate adaptation plans at the national level — government, academia and research, to talk with those supporting community adaptation on the ground? The topic — how we can build a pathway to long-term resilience at the local…

The costs of climate change loom large for Indonesia, the world’s 4th most populous nation. Rising to the challenge, the Government is forging new and innovative financing instruments, including issuing the world’s first Green Sukuk. On January 1 this year, torrential rain began to fall across Indonesia’s capital Jakarta and…

It was a lesson nine-year-old Kik would not yet have received at her primary school, in the little town of Yord Nguem in the north east of Laos. The town lies in the province of Xieng Khouang, which carries the terrible legacy of being the most heavily bombed place on…

Promoting access and delivery of health technologies through the South-South exchange of innovative technology, knowledge and solutions — By Leslie Ong and Maurice Wee, HIV, Health and Development Team, UNDP Bangkok Regional Hub The Challenge Immunization is a life-saving and cost-effective intervention against many communicable diseases, saving up to three million lives globally every year. However, millions of children still lack access to vaccines in low- and middle-income countries, despite…

The health community in the Western Pacific is adapting to make sure vulnerable populations are not left behind — The COVID-19 pandemic currently sweeping the globe is threatening to derail hard-won gains on HIV, tuberculosis (TB) and malaria, seriously impacting health programmes and causing disruptions to life saving treatment. In these unprecedented times, national partners of HIV, TB and malaria projects in the Western Pacific, supported by the Global…