Mekong - U.S. Partnership
USAID and NASA Using Technology for Development in Lower Mekong
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) today announced a five-year project that will promote the use of satellite imagery to help Asia’s Lower Mekong region better predict and cope with floods and other natural disasters and increase resilience to the negative effects of climate…
Lower Mekong Initiative Road Management II Workshop
The Roads Management Workshops aim to provide participants from the ASEAN countries, particularly those in the Lower Mekong with an enhanced understanding of good design and practices in road and traffic management for safe transport and better connectivity between the countries. Improving traffic safety through technical exchanges and harmonization of transportation design standards is planned…
World Rhino Day Video Raises Public Awareness of Rhino Poaching Crisis
In preparation for World Rhino Day, members of the USAID-funded Asia’s Regional Response to Endangered Species Trafficking (ARREST) coalition created a short film calling on the public to stop purchasing rhino horn and to support wildlife protection efforts. Rhino poaching has reached a crisis point. They are now extinct in Vietnam and are being poached…
USAID Mekong ARCC Assesses Livelihoods and Adaptation Needs in Mekong Delta Commune
The USAID Mekong Adaptation and Resilience to Climate Change partner, the Asian Management and Development Institute, has conducted a detailed livelihoods assessment in Thuan Hoa commune in Kien Giang province, Vietnam. The assessment evaluates how existing and potential livelihoods are impacted by climate change and helps identify opportunities to improve local incomes. The work also…
Article: Improving Road Safety in Cambodia
When I sit in Phnom Penh’s traffic, I watch with astonishment as motorbikes (motos), tuk-tuks, bicycles, and pedestrians compete for space on the road with cars and trucks. Cambodians are very resourceful at navigating through traffic, but that has not stopped the country’s number of fatal road accidents from rapidly rising over the past decade.…
USAID/RDMA Signs Agreement with US Environmental Protection Agency to Strengthen Environmental Impact Assessments in Lower Mekong
USAID/RDMA recently finalized a four-year inter-agency agreement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) as part of a Lower Mekong Initiative deliverable announced by Hillary Clinton and the USAID-supported Mekong Partnership for the Environment. Under the agreement, USAID, USEPA and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) partner to promote regional integration by strengthening environmental and social…
USAID M-BRACE Showcases Intervention Projects in Phuket
Provincial officials, city leaders, community members and representatives from a range of stakeholder groups met in Patong, Thailand, last week to learn about intervention projects being conducted in Phuket and to discuss how the outcomes and lessons learned in these projects can help the province better address key challenges related to development, urbanization and climate…
Gender Champions Gain Competencies to Address Strategic Gender Issues in Climate Change
“Men can be true advocates for women’s leadership and this Leadership Program that empowers both men and women for transformative gender relations is a need for this time, both for our work and our lives,” said Dr. Kinnalone Phommasack, Deputy Director of the Laos Department of Forestry at the Equality in Climate Change at the…
Journalists Learn to Use Environmental Impact Assessments in Reporting at the Mekong Partnership for the Environment Workshop
Sifting through a mountain of government technical documents can be daunting to a journalist, but those who participated in “Mekong Matters: Reporting on Development Projects Using Environmental Impact Assessments” now think differently. The USAID-supported Mekong Partnership for the Environment project held the workshop in Chiang Mai from September 15 to 19 to train Mekong-region journalists…
USAID LEAD Trains Asian Policymakers on Low Emission Development Strategies
The USAID Low Emissions Asian Development program, in partnership with the Asian Greenhouse Gas Management Center and the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory, held a course from September 24 to 26 in Bangkok on the fundamentals and benefits of low emission development strategies (LEDS).Participants included a group of 20 policymakers and practitioners…
Banners at Rural Southeast Asian Borders Warn Against Wildlife Trafficking
Large banners warning against wildlife trafficking were recently placed at rural border crossings in Vietnam and Laos, displaying warnings to potential traffickers written in both Laotian and Vietnamese. The rural border crossings between the two countries are not secured and transnational smuggling of illicit goods, including wildlife trafficking, occurs regularly. As the trafficking of timber, primates and…
Lao and Vietnamese Officials Exchange Information on REDD+ Study Tour
In a step forward for cross-border and regional collaborative efforts on reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+),10 officials from Laos visited Hanoi and Vietnam’s Lam Dong Province the week of September 8 to learn and exchange information on the province’s Provincial REDD+ Action Plan. USAID's Lowering Emissions in Asia's Forests (LEAF) program has…
