Asia

In Afghanistan, natural resources and conflict have a intimate and complex relationship. In conflict assessment surveys, access to natural resources have been consistently reported as the cause for more than half of local level conflict incidents in Afghanistan. In particular, access to land and access to water are regularly cited by communities across Afghanistan as two top two causes of conflict.

In July 2011, ISAF officially handed over seven areas to Afghan National Security Forces, beginning a process to gradually transition all security responsibility from international to Afghan leadership. Drawing on The Liaison Office’s experience in the region Loya Paktia, this paper examines the shortcomings of a transition strategy that focuses on security, while ignoring important social and political factors that could undermine the strategy. 

At present, Afghanistan has turned into a focal point of agreements between Western and Eastern countries. These Strategic Partnership Agreements (SPAs) that Afghanistan has signed with many countries of the world, including Germany are deemed as vital achievement for the country.

The Kabul Documenta 13 has opened its gates on June 20th, to the Afghan public, preceded by an official opening ceremony that was attended by the Goethe Institute Afghanistan, donors, diplomats, a delegation of the Documenta 13 and, last not least, the artists themselves.

6th June 2012, youth policy in the biggest province of Pakistan is launched officially-- Thanks to Bargad Organization for the youth development, a long time of Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung.

The National Consultation aimed not only at reviewing the global discourse on green economy and ongoing negotiations on the outcome of the Rio+20 Summit but also examining the relevance of this concept to Pakistan. Moreover, the objective of the National Consultation was to review the potential roles and contributions of key stakeholders to promote Green economy in Pakistan.

“Sometimes it seems as if it was all part of a big plan”, says Sulayman Qardesh. He smiles at his band colleague Siddique Ahmad. Number three, drummer Mujtaba Habibi, couldn’t come for our interview. It was a perfect match when these three boys of different origin happened to meet and found Afghanistan’s first indie rock band, the “Kabul Dreams”.

The people of the Association of Southeast Asian Nation (ASEAN) have held their 8th Peoples Forum (APF) /ASEAN Civil Society Conference (ACSC) in Cambodia from March 29-31, 2012 in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia where the ASEAN Summit took place beginning of April. 

The semi-civilian government of Myanmar has begun to initiate first democratic reforms. But the careful change raises major challenges to the country, especially well-trained professionals are a scarce commodity. Zeya Thu talked in an interview with the Heinrich Boell Stiftung about the recent changes in his country.

The definition of "good life" depends mostly on political, economical and cultural circumstances, but due to the effects of climate change and global warming, it also depends on issues of nature and environment. Georg Koessler investigates the relationship between climate change and living conditions.