Search

Online marketplaces are growing rapidly globally. They have the potential to significantly benefit women; however, these benefits are not guaranteed. A lack of information on the benefits of or how to participate in online marketplaces could mean womenʼs participation is at an inefficiently low level. Participation could also bring about unintended consequences. We introduce this special issue of Asia and the Pacific Policy Studies on the social and economic benefits of online marketplaces for women in Asia. In this introduction, we set the context for the special issue, then provide an overview of its seven papers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Meat consumption and production in Asia have boomed over the last decade to meet growing regional and global demand. Asia now supplies around 40% of the global broiler or meat chicken industry. Dominant policy frameworks such as 'One Health' aim to manage the health risks associated with factory livestock farming, which has rightly become a major concern because of regular disease outbreaks. Yet this approach provides a limited basis for addressing broader risks and challenges associated with what we term the Asian 'broiler complex'. This includes the intertwined networks of feed production, factory farming and meat distribution nodes through which health and environmental risks can accumulate and be amplified. By applying this broader lens, we highlight the need to better understand the industry's pressing environmental, animal welfare, social and health challenges to inform more integrated policy approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Initiated in 2017 and formally established in 2020, the Multilateral Cooperation Center for Development Finance (MCDF) is the latest addition to the development finance landscape in Asia. This article provides an in‐depth analysis of MCDFʼs potential to offer additionality in development finance and its political legitimacy by comparing it to 18 development finance and capacity‐building organisations. The article finds that while the MCDF contributes to closing the substantial infrastructure financing gap in Asia, it risks overlapping with existing initiatives to such a degree that it may become an inefficient use of resources while lacking legitimacy as a multilateral organisation due to its unclear relationship with Chinaʼs Belt and Road Initiative. From this outset, and given the climate mandates of its multilateral development bank members, this article finds that if the MCDF focuses specifically on green and climate finance, it could carve out an area where it can become a much‐needed new platform for project development and coordination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]