"The increase in food prices coupled with the financial crisis has reversed the achievements of poverty alleviation programs in many developing countries in Africa and Asia. As a result of the food price hike and the financial crisis, the world's poor have been affected not only by financial poverty but also social and resource poverty.

Estimates by researchers indicate that the financial crisis has added 53 million people to the 2009 count of those living on less than $1.25 a day, and based on growth projections for 2010 this number is likely to swell to an extra 73 million people, with 91 million more living on less than $2 a day by 2010. There is an urgent need to implement strategies to tackle social poverty. For sustainable development we need to build infrastructure to help the poor reach the market with their produce, provide them with education, health and credit facilities."

"Despite the number of unemployed people worldwide reaching 212 million in 2009, up 34 million since the eve of the financial and economic crisis, the unemployment rate in East Asia increased only 0.1 point to 4.4 percent during the period.

According to a study by the International Labor Organization, the global unemployment rate reached 6.6 percent last year, an increase of 0.9 percentage point over 2007. Developed economies -- which contracted 3.5 percent in 2009 -- were the worst hit, with an unemployment rate rising 2.4 points from 2008 to 8.4 percent. These figures are expected to be slightly lower in 2010."

"The Greater Mekong Sub-region cooperation program (GMS) has significantly contributed to the freer flow of people and goods and to the sharing of resources, which is key to the industrial development and modernization of the sub-region. But despite the efforts of GMS governments and international agencies, the quality of human resources in the sub-region is still lower than hoped for.

This is shown by the relatively low literacy rate in the sub-region. In Cambodia the national literacy rate reached up to 75 percent, but in some areas like the Koh Kong province bordering Thailand's Trat province the literacy rate is even lower than that. Without the quality of human resources, people in the sub-region cannot benefit to the maximum from rising economic development."

"Hunger and poverty are two sides of the same coin, and both have a woman's face as they relate to unequal power in gender relations, which still exists at all levels of society, including within families. Among poor families, when food is limited, it is the women who are more likely to give up their right first so that other members of the family can eat. Within families, men -- especially fathers -- are often given privileged access to food, while children come second and mothers eat last and least.

In the wider community, too, women play a crucial role as food producers. Data shows that in Asia 50 to 60 percent of food is grown and sold by women. Yet women are often denied access to farming facilities such as credit, fertilizers, training and ownership to land. Healthy women lead to healthier children and families, and vice versa. Therefore discrimination against women in food distribution must be abolished, and this should start from the family."

"South Asia is one of the least integrated regions of the world. While progress has been made in reducing trade barriers with the rest of the world, intra-regional trade is a mere 5.0 percent of total official trade as compared with 45 percent in East Asia. Capital flows through legal channels are negligible, transit arrangements are cumbersome and expensive, and the physical connectivity is limited and restrictive.

A policy strategy to develop the lagging regions will require a focus on the border areas with a view to raising income and employment opportunities and reducing poverty. A reduction in the gap between lagging and leading regions will also likely help reduce personal income inequality. In addition to domestic policy reforms, public investment and institutions, the lagging regions development strategy must allow better connectivity to growth centers at the regional level by reducing policy and other constraints to goods and factor mobility."

"Indonesia will launch a new private infrastructure financing company within the next two months to speed development of sorely needed infrastructure, but with initial capital of just $170 million. Poor roads, energy and transport infrastructure have limited growth and investment in Southeast Asia's largest economy, but many vital infrastructure project proposals have stalled due to a lack of funding.

The government said on Wednesday it would launch in March PT Indonesia Infrastructure Finance, to provide funding, equity participation or financing guarantees for private infrastructure projects. A need for infrastructure development is one of the reforms seen by analysts as needed to help Indonesia achieve an investment grade sovereign rating, a prospect drawing investors into the country's bond and currency markets."

"Infants born to child brides married before the age of 18 face a higher risk of malnutrition, according to a new research published in the British Medical Journal. The study speculates that child brides get sidelined by husbands and their in-laws and thus cannot lobby for food for their children.

With high incidence of child marriages, India has the highest number of under-five deaths in the world. More than 44% of 20- to 24-year-olds in India marry before they are 18, and almost a quarter of the same age group have given birth by the time they reach 18."

"Laos will sign three Memorandums of Understanding (MOU) with neighboring Mekong region countries and France to increase health cooperation and extend existing agreements. Two of the agreements are with institutions in Kunming, Yunan province, and Shanghai. Under the MOUs, the member parties will arrange exchange programs for medical students and teachers, scholarships and cooperation on scientific research.

The H1N1 virus is an important case study involving Laos; as only two people were killed by the disease in Laos, substantially less than in countries with more advanced medical systems. During four-day Mekong Technical Meeting on Health in Vientiane, at least 30 topics were raised including mother and child-related diseases, dengue fever and other newer diseases occurring in the region."

"The Indonesian government is considering changing the way it subsidizes electricity, eliminating the direct subsidy to state electricity firm PLN and replacing it with subsidies targeted at lower-income consumers. The new subsidy may take the form of a simple reduction in the monthly power bills of those low-income consumers with low installed capacity.

The move would allow PLN to raise its prices for most of its customers, after long complaining about being forced to sell electricity at below production costs. PLN has been mired in red ink for years, mostly as a result of the fact that it has to supply electricity at below cost."

"New laws on health insurance means poor patients in Vietnam will now have to pay five percent of their medical bills, but will they be able to? Among poor patients who buy health insurance, those who suffer from dangerous chronic diseases are among the most influenced by new regulations demanding they pay 5 percent of hospital fees. The longer the treatment process is, the more fees they have to pay.

The Health Insurance Department's chief said that it would suggest the government set up a fund for poor patients. Officials of larger hospitals said that the Health Ministry suggested using the Fund for Treatment and Examination for Poor People to cover the pay for poor patients but this remains undeveloped as an idea."

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