A new report by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) leverages data from the Reconnecting Asia project to explore the potential human impacts of mega-infrastructure. With Asia’s infrastructure needs estimated to exceed $26 trillion through 2030, the region is racing to fill the gap with massive connectivity plans, sometimes involving multiple mega-projects across vast areas. But have regional players fully considered the potential challenges that these projects pose for upholding human rights? This OHCHR report explores that important question and its implications for policymakers around the globe.
Jul 25, 2017
Major infrastructure projects… can still fail economically in terms of opportunity costs either because of excessive costs or insufficient demand but their political importance can be very significant, even momentous.
Jul 11, 2017
The guiding principle of the Trans-Siberian Railway was not about the routine moving of people from place-to-place, but sticking a pair of iron rods into bleak territory that had strategic importance in defining Russia’s role in the Far East.
Jul 5, 2017
After the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) was first proposed by Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2013, a number of observers, including within Japan and the United States, questioned its underlying motivations. The intensity with which the bank was both attacked and defended in the period before it opened its doors has thrown a spotlight on debates that existed long before Xi’s 2013 announcement. Chief among them are fundamental questions about who should dictate the rules of global governance and what role multilateral development banks (MDBs) should play in carrying them out. The AIIB concluded its second annual meeting in Jeju Island, South Korea on June 16, yet many of those questions remain open.
Jun 29, 2017
Quotes and Quotas is a weekly digest of phrases and facts that help explain Asia’s infrastructure push.
Jun 26, 2017