Blogs

The unique challenges posed to the Asia-Pacific region in the face of climate change, poverty and hunger are well known. The region plays a significant role in climate action as both the largest emitter of greenhouse gases on one end and home to the highest number of people most vulnerable to climate shocks on the other.

Maternity protection is a human right enshrined in Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Ponny Lim runs a thriving aquaculture enterprise in Cambodia, growing her business with the support of a United Nations programme that guarantees loans to women entrepreneurs who are beyond microfinance but not yet ready for corporate finance.

Let’s call her Anita. Four years ago, her life took an unexpected turn when the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted everything she knew. As businesses closed and economic uncertainty loomed, Anita, like countless others, found herself forced out of work.

“Everyone is doing it in our daily lives, we just may not realize it,” chuckles Myrah Nerine Butt, a Policy Engagement Advisor at Oxfam International, when asked to define care work. 

Selyn, a women-led handloom business, offers flexible employment and valuable income opportunities to about 1,000 women artisans and persons from marginalized groups in rural Sri Lanka. Selyn develops and exports high-value craft products in global markets. The bigger revenue margins of quality products translate into better incomes for women artisans.

In the bustling financial hub of Singapore, Rhea See, an early-stage fund manager, leads an accelerator platform dedicated to empowering women in technology. She firmly believes that investing in women transcends the conventional paradigm of merely 'doing good.' For Rhea, it represents a strategic move towards smart economics and game-changing innovation. 

The potential of e-commerce to drive inclusive development has been debated for decades. As far back as 2002, then-United Nations Secretary-General Kofi A. Annan, in the publication titled E-Commerce and Development Report 2002, called for leveraging information and communication technology (ICT) for poverty reduction.