The World Meteorological Organization’s State of the Climate in Asia 2024 report warns that the region is warming nearly twice as fast as the global average, driving more extreme weather and posing serious threats to lives, ecosystems, and economies. In 2024, Asia experienced its warmest or second warmest year on …
After sustained lobbying by non-governmental organisations, ( ngo s) the Asian Development Bank ( adb ) has admitted that the Theun-Hinboun hydropower project is having a negative impact on the livelihoods of thousands of people living in central Laos. The admission is particularly significant because, until recently, the adb was …
The construction of the Jessore-Khulna Drainage Rehabilitation Project (JKDRP) in Bangladesh is progressing at a snail's pace with only 20 per cent of the work completed. The project was designed to bring about 1,00,000 lakh hectares of land under cultivation. It includes building 355 km of canals, reconstruction of 29 …
Two draft documents - Institutionalizing and Strengthening of the Environmental Assessment Process in Bhutan and Environmental Assessment Sectoral Guidelines was released this May by the Bhutan government in collaboration with the Asian Development Bank. The first document sets objectives to provide guidance both for evaluating new projects and existing operations. …
In order to improve the condition of the urban poor and health care facilities in Bangladesh, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) will give US $90 million as micro credit. According to ADB resident mission chief, Bhanuphol Horayangura, the bank would advance the credit in two parts
The Sri Lankan forestry industry is in for a massive improvement with tIle Asian Development Bank approving a $60 million loan and $400,000 technical assistance granrecently. The grants will help the government to initiate reforms in the management of 23 regional plantation conipanies to increase productivity and global competitiv ness. …
The I st phase of a women's small loan project concluded in Deukhuri, Kathmandu recently. Implemented by a group of local NGOs and supervised by the ministry of local development with the Asian Development Bank's finaneial assistance, this phase of the project was geared to encourage women to be thrifty …
A major water crisis seems to be brewing in Asia. Whether it is China, Australia, India or Vietnam the problem is universal as millions of people struggle with droughts or water shortages that have destroyed crops, brought factories to a standstill and provoked political disputes. "It's an economic resource. The …
Activists are pressing the 28-year old Asian Development Bank (ADB) for greater reform of its policies, saying it should do more to reduce poverty instead of just focusing on growth and luring the private sector into the region. NGOS and the ADB differ on issues ranging from indigenous peoples, policies …
THE Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (ireda), the financing arm of the Union ministry of nonconventional energy sources, is finalising a US$ 100 million assistance package from the Manila-based Asian Development Bank (adb). This follows a technical assistance study initiated by adb in August 1994 at a cost US$ 354,000. …
SOON after the euphoria of the Green Revolution in India subsided, it became clear that the high-yielding varieties (HYVs) of rice and wheat were not the answer to the problem of foodgrain scarcity. The planting of HYV seeds, in fact, resulted in more agricultural problems. HYVs of rice required more …
AMIDST the opulence of the Asian Development Bank's (ADB) annual meeting, the representative of at least one government -- a large, poor country in South Asia -- was discovered staying in a hotel room that cost over $1,000 a night. The big prize, more than anything else, was Power. The …
THE developed and the developing countries were locked in yet another standoff at the recent Asian Development Bank (ADB) meeting in Nice, France. At the heart of the dispute lay the insistence of industrialised countries, led by the US, that the ADB's capital increase be linked to a reorientation of …
FOR SOME time now, the Manila-based Asian Development Bank -- the second biggest bank in the world -- has drawn flak from NGOs for its penchant to finance large, capital-intensive projects while ignoring their social and ecological ramifications. When the bank's board of governors met in Hong Kong in May, …
