Philippines' Green Benches To Deliver Environmental Justice

The Supreme Court of the Philippines in January 2008 designated 117 courts for improved environmental adjudication. The Supreme Court and the Philippine Judicial Academy (PHILJA) also announced plans for specialized training for personnel in those courts. The designation of the new courts is the result of USAID’s ECO-Asia program, which promotes environmental justice through the Asian Environmental Compliance and Enforcement Network (AECEN), an organization of 12 environmental agencies in 10 countries.

Philippines' Green Benches To Deliver Environmental Justice PDF

Program Brings Black Pottery to Market

Dangzhen Pichu’s family has been making Nixi black pottery for more than four centuries in the mountains of China’s Yunnan province, an area best known as Shangri-La.  While the region is as stunning as British author James Hilton described in his 1933 novel “Lost Horizon,” it is equally remote. 

Diqing Tibetan Prefecture’s distance from markets marginalized its residents of made it difficult for Dangzhen’s pottery company to survive.

USAID looked for solutions that would help the residents of Dangzhen’s native village of Tangdui participate in China’s economic boom while preserving their unique Nixi culture. 

Program Brings Black Pottery to Market PDF

Loans Allow Utilities to Expand

Local water districts in the Philippines were caught in a vicious circle.  They wanted to extend water pipes to poor urban neighborhoods, which would improve quality of life and provide new revenue to the utilities.  But their shaky financial status prevented many of them from obtaining the necessary loans.   USAID’s Environmental Cooperation-Asia (ECO-Asia) program helped the Local Water Utilities Administration develop an innovative financial solution for water districts with poor credit. 

Loans Allow Utilities to Expand PDF

Helping Asia Fight Avian Influenza

USAID-sponsored AI programs have helped the governments of China, Burma, Laos, and Vietnam develop the knowledge and skills to fight H5N1 through preparedness, surveillance and speedy response.  USAID has also established the first rapid-response distribution center to ship emergency supplies to AI outbreaks anywhere in Asia in 24 hours.  These new capabilities are protecting the region, and quite possibly the world, from emerging diseases that threaten global health.

Helping Asia Fight Avian Influenza PDF

ASEAN Single Window Closer to Goal

The vision for the ASEAN Single Window (ASW) is simple: Improve the handling of goods at borders so containers clear customs in 30 minutes instead of five days.  Consumers benefit from the secure, timely delivery of goods at lower costs. A major step in achieving this vision is to establish national single windows (NSW) among the Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ 10 member states.

ASEAN Single Window Closer to Goal PDF

Lao Lawmakers Prepare for WTO Accession

For least-developed countries, such as Laos, World Trade Organization (WTO) accession is a daunting task.  To lessen the burden and help Laos succeed in its commitments to the U.S.-Laos Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA), USAID sponsored a workshop for the Lao National Assembly.  The seminar used the experiences of Vietnam and Cambodia to help Lao parliamentarians understand how to clear the hurdles and benefit from WTO accession and BTA implementation.

Lao Lawmakers Prepare for WTO Accession PDF

Launching China's Environmental Leaders

The rapid growth of China’s economy has led to severe environmental problems, including a sharp rise in greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming. In recent years the importance of environmental issues has been increasingly acknowledged by the Chinese government and people. In spite of this recognition, however, environmental law remains a field with few experts and low prestige. In order to improve China’s environmental governance system it is crucial to develop a strong foundation of environmental law centers and skilled leaders.

Launching China's Environmental Leaders PDF

Yak Loans Help Herders Help Themselves

Following a blizzard that decimated livestock herds in remote Yushu Prefecture, in China’s Qinghai Province, the county government established Karchen Village and moved 30 nomadic Tibetan herder families to the village to make it easier to provide government assistance. 

However, with few yaks remaining and little grassland nearby, most of the nomads were not able to adequately feed or clothe themselves.  They depended on other Karchen villagers for their survival.

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), through The Bridge Fund, trained residents to work together to develop solutions. 

Yak Loans Help Herders Help Themselves PDF

Water Springs from Women’s Initiative

The women of Tongda and Drongda villages, in China’s rural Qinghai Province, were spending an hour each day lugging buckets of water to their homes and fields from the closest source, a river one kilometer away.  Many of them suffered from crippling arthritis which they attributed to the water itself or to the punishing act of carrying the heavy buckets to their villages, which are home to 354 Tibetans.

Understanding the need for clean, accessible water, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), through the Bridge Fund, supported a project to pipe water from the surrounding mountains to the two villages.

Water Springs from Women’s Initiative PDF