Asia

The following is a list of environmental, human rights, and other special interest organizations whose work is at least partly focused on monitoring activities of one or more international financial institutions in the Asia region. Please note that this list is intended to be a resource and that an organization's inclusion does not necessarily suggest a formal partnership with the Bank Information Center.

Civil Society Organizations

• The NGO Forum on ADB (FORUM) is an Asian-led network of non-government and community-based organization that monitors the projects, programs, and policies of the ADB to ensure accountability of the Bank to the constituents of its member countries. It aims to: stimulate public awareness and action, and consequently develop closer working ties with other Asia-Pacific people's organizations (POs), non-government Organizations (NGOs) and other public interest groups on issues related to Asian Development Bank (ADB); (b) provide a venue for the network to develop a consensus-based overall strategy on its ADB campaign; and (c) sharpen public debate and understanding of the ADB's program and project activities in the Asia-pacific region. The FORUM Secretariat does not accept funds or any other grants from the ADB.
• NGO Forum on Cambodia is made up of non-government organizations grounded in their experience of humanitarian and development assistance to Cambodia. The Forum exists to advocate on issues of concern to the Cambodian people. This partnership of local and international NGOs is working to enhance economic and social justice, respect for human rights and democracy, peace and non-violence, sustainable use of resources, respect for cultural diversity, and development with equity. The NGO Forum currently consists of over sixty organizations, including both local and international NGOs. In addition to working with the Forum’s secretariat, the Bank Information Center also works with two groups that are members of the Forum: the Fisheries Action Coalition Team (FACT), a network of nine grassroots Khmer organizations that gather evidence of fisheries conflicts and develop, advocate, and work toward implementing ecologically sustainable alternatives such as community fisheries; and the Resettlement Action Network (RAN), a coalition of Khmer organizations documenting resettlement impacts in Cambodia and advocating on behalf of communities that have been displaced.
• Mekong Watch Japan is a Japanese NGO based in Tokyo. Their activities focus on the environmental and social problems that result from development projects in the Mekong Region. Most of their work relates to projects that involve funding by the Japanese government. Their advocacy work strives to reform the current decision-making patterns so that the needs of communities are accurately reflected and respected in development decisions.
• Japan Center for Sustainable Environment and Society (JACSES) conducts policy research and public advocacy for a sustainable global environment and society. The concept of an independent center for research of environmental issues and policy options and for the distribution of information arose among Japanese participants at the 1992 Earth Summit conference in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. This led to the establishment of JACSES in June, 1993.
• ActionAid Pakistan is part of a global partnership working in thirty countries of the world in South and South East Asia, Latin America and Africa. ActionAid Pakistan has six primary objectives: promotion of equitable and just social structures; strengthening civil society to make state institutions responsive, accountable, and democratic; promotion of democratic political institutions; campaigning for strengthening equitable economic structures; campaigning for strengthening a just legal system; and strengthening the movement for democratic international power structures.
• SUNGI Development Foundation in Pakistan was established in 1989 as a non-profit, Non-Governmental Organization. Primarily an advocacy oriented NGO prior to 1992, the organization has subsequently developed an integrated multi-sectoral approach to rural development. Such an approach involves a range of inter-linked activities such as community-based institutional development, gender focus initiatives, natural resource management, small sustainable village infrastructure projects, health and sanitation interventions, capacity building, small rural enterprise development through savings, credit and crafts promotion action research and policy advocacy.
• Towards Ecological Recovery and Regional Alliance (TERRA) was established to focus on issues concerning the natural environment and local communities within the Mekong Region. TERRA works to support the network of NGOs and people’s organizations in Burma, Cambodia, Lao PDR, Thailand and Vietnam, encouraging exchange and alliance-building, and drawing on the experience of development and environment issues in Thailand.
• WALHI (FoE-Indonesia) The spirit behind the establishment of WALHI in 1981 was the protection of the environment, justice in the exploitation of the environment for the society at large, and attention for the welfare of future generations. WALHI's main activities are related to the environment, human rights, democracy, urban development, community forestry, and marine development and fishery. Activities include research, education and training, community development and facilitation, publications, advocacy and seminars.
• International NGO Forum on Indonesian Development (INFID) was established in June 1985 based on the initiative of several Indonesian NGOs and their partners in the Netherlands. INFID is an open and pluralistic network of NGOs from Indonesia and various member countries of the Consultative Group for Indonesia (CGI) as well as of international organisations with an interest in and commitment to Indonesia. Since 1985 INFID has given critical input and recommendations to IGGI (Inter-Governmental Group on Indonesia) concerning development issues in Indonesia. The IGGI was a consortium of donor nations to Indonesia, which in 1992 was changed to become the CGI chaired by the World Bank. INFID's aim is to give voice to the perspective and common concerns of the people represented by NGOs involved in Indonesia vis-à-vis governments, multilateral development agencies and the private sector involved in Indonesia. INFID aims at facilitating communication between NGOs inside and outside Indonesia in order to promote policies to alleviate structural poverty and to increase the capacity to improve conditions of the poor and disadvantaged in Indonesia.
• SUJJAK is an activist advocacy organization aiming to strengthen and support the struggles of local communities and disadvantaged groups for their access and control over natural resources in rural areas of Pakistan. A major focus of SUJJAK is to make the international donor community, especially international financial institutions (IFIs), accountable for their policy, programmatic and project level interventions adversely affecting disadvantaged and marginalized groups.
• The Foreign Affairs Training Program was established by the National Council of the Union of Burma's Foreign Affairs Committee to provide a new generation of activists with the knowledge and skills necessary to represent the Burma movement effectively to the international community. The program consists of ten months of intensive study in Chiang Mai followed by three-month internships. The course has covered basic political and economic concepts, the role and function of international organizations, current international issues, and case studies of countries which have undergone successful democracy and human rights struggles. The students have also learned how to work with the media, how to prepare for meetings with diplomats, how to present papers at conferences, how to lobby, and how to write grant proposals.
• Shan Women’s Action Network (SWAN) is a network of Shan women active in Thailand and along the Thai-Burma border. Its mission is to work for gender equality and justice for Shan women in the struggle for social and political change in Burma through community-based actions, research and advocacy. In 2001, SWAN published the report “License to Rape,” which revealed that the Burmese military regime was allowing its troops systematically and on a widespread scale to commit rape with impunity in order to terrorize and subjugate the ethnic peoples of Shan State. The report also illustrated there was a strong case that war crimes and crimes against humanity, in the form of sexual violence, have occurred and continue to occur in Shan State.
• EarthRights International (ERI) has been training environmental and human rights activists since 1998. Each ethnically diverse class of students divides their year of training between classroom and field sessions. Subjects covered include biodiversity, human rights and women's rights, international law, media messaging, and community organizing. Graduates leave the School to work with indigenous nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), where they apply their new skills to promote fundamental freedoms in the region. School alumni started two organizations in Thailand, the Shan Sapawa Environmental Organization and Ethnic Cooperation for Human Rights and the Environment (ECHRE).
• Oxfam Australia is an Australian, independent, not-for-profit, secular, community-based aid and development organisation. Its work includes long-term development projects, responding to emergencies and campaigning for a more just world. Vital issues such as the environment, women, the local economy, culture and community power structures are addressed in detail. One of its main strategies is to influence the Asian Development Bank which it believes to be one of the most powerful institutions affecting the livelihoods and well-being of poor and marginalised communities in the Asia-Pacific region.
• International Rivers Network/ IRN South Asia / IRN Southeast Asia protects rivers and defends the rights of communities that depend on them. IRN opposes destructive dams and the development model they advance, and encourages better ways of meeting people’s needs for water, energy and protection from damaging floods.