Mekong - U.S. Partnership
Seventh Lower Mekong Initiative Regional Working Group Meeting in Bangkok
Water, energy and food security challenges, as well as women’s empowerment and the promotion of gender equality, are among major issues raised for discussion at the Seventh Lower Mekong Initiative (LMI) Regional Working Group Meeting.The meeting took place at the Royal Orchid Sheraton Hotel in Bangkok on 29 – 30 January 2015, and it was…
Extraordinary Friends of the Lower Mekong: Conference on Mekong Sustainability Summary of Joint Discussion
Extraordinary Friends of the Lower Mekong Conference on Mekong SustainabilitySummary of Joint DiscussionOn February 2-3, 2015, the Friends of the Lower Mekong (FLM) – representatives of Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Thailand, Viet Nam, the United States, the Asian Development Bank, Australia, Denmark, the European Union, Finland, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Republic of Korea, Sweden, World…
FACT SHEET: Extraordinary Meeting of the Friends of the Lower Mekong
Office of the SpokespersonWashington, DCOn February 2, Counselor Tom Shannon and Senior Advisor to the Secretary Ambassador David Thorne led a U.S. delegation to the Extraordinary Meeting of the Friends of the Lower Mekong in Pakse, Laos. This is the first time the Friends of the Lower Mekong, a donor coordination group, have come together…
USAID and the U.S. Forest Service Train Fire and Land Managers on Fire Emissions Estimation Techniques
USAID LEAF, the Thailand Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation, the U.S. Forest Service, and the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization’s Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific brought together fire and land managers in Chiang Mai from January 27 to 29 for a training on simple and practical methods for estimating…
USAID Trains Gender Champions in Strategic Planning and Negotiation Skills
More than 30 gender specialists representing government and civil society groups from around the region gathered in Siem Reap, Cambodia from January 26 to 31 to learn strategic planning for safeguards in climate change and REDD+.The workshop was the third in a series of trainings under the USAID Lowering Emissions in Asia’s Forests (USAID LEAF)…
Interfaith Forest Blessing Ceremony Held in Thailand to Preserve Ecosystem Services Important to Climate Change Adaptation
Last week, Kok Klang villagers in Thailand’s Sakon Nakhon Province hosted a unique ceremony that brought Buddhist and Catholic clergy together to bless the forests around their village. The event acknowledged the community and local government’s support for the restoration and preservation of these forest ecosystems.The ceremony also launched a set of climate change adaptation…
Thailand Hosts Regional Meeting on Lower Mekong Initiative
Thailand's Ministry of Foreign Affairs is hosting the 7th Lower Mekong Initiative (LMI) Regional Working Group Meeting to discuss cooperation in several areas, aiming at moving toward the ASEAN integration at year-end.Outcomes of the two-day meeting hosted by the Foreign Affairs Ministry will be used to review a draft of the Master Plan of Action…
Water Supply and Sanitation Assessments in Villages in Thailand and Laos to Inform Communities’ Climate Resilient Adaptation Measures
In late December 2014, the USAID Mekong Adaptation and Resilience to Climate Change project (USAID Mekong ARCC) began water supply studies in communities in Sakon Nakhon, Thailand and Khammouan, Lao PDR to gain a better understanding of water sources and sanitation methods to inform community climate adaptation plans and measures.During previous fieldwork, these communities identified…
Mekong Countries Meet to Address Drivers of Deforestation
USAID LEAF and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations gathered representatives from Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam in Bangkok from January 20 to 21 to develop national action plans on drivers of deforestation and a decision support tool on forestry and climate change policy.Representatives from participating Mekong countries presented the results…
USAID Partners with Johns Hopkins University to Support Off-grid Solar in Cambodia
Over the past several months, USAID’s Private Financing Advisory Network-Asia (PFAN-Asia) has been collaborating with a team of four graduate school consultants from the Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) to research and develop a report, The Business Case For: Off- grid Solar in Cambodia.The purpose of this study is to identify…
Practitioners Advance Fire Management Expertise
More than 25 practitioners working on land and fire management issues came together from January 21 to 22 in Chiang Mai, Thailand for the Regional Training on Fire Management Planning for Northern Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member states.While commonly used in Southeast Asia for agriculture and land clearing, fires in the region can…
Cambodian Universities Introduce Climate Change Curriculum
The Royal University of Phnom Penh (RUPP) and Royal University of Agriculture (RUA) worked with USAID Lowering Emissions in Asia’s Forests (USAID LEAF) and USAID Cambodia Supporting Forests and Biodiversity in Phnom Penh from January 15 to 16 on a national seminar to introduce the USAID LEAF Climate Change Curriculum countrywide.Eighty climate change leaders and…
