Publications

Following on from the December 2014 inter-regional Experts’ Meeting on “Realizing a Fair Migration Agenda: Labour flows between Asia and the Arab States Experts’ Meeting”, an Asia Tripartite Meeting was held on May 6-7, 2015, co-organized by ILO with the Ministry of Manpower of the Republic of Indonesia. The Fair Migration Agenda, as outlined by ILO Director General Guy Ryder at the International Labour Conference (ILC) in June 2014, calls for "constructing an agenda for fair migration which not only respects the fundamental rights of migrant workers but also offers them real opportunities for decent work." A Fair Migration Agenda is one in which there is a fair sharing of the prosperity that migrants help to create. This can be achieved through building migration regimes that respond equitably to the interests of countries of origin and destination, migrant workers, employers, and nationals.

Thailand’s fishery and seafood processed products yield a great deal of revenue in international markets and become widespread in several regions around the world. These trends affect the business management and production of Thai seafood processing industry as well as fishery business which lead to the employment of a large number of migrant workers from neighbouring countries such as Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia. However, smong the large scale consumption of seafood and processed seafood, buyers and consumers in many countries push forward the fairness in trade, social responsibility, labour rights protection and legal labour. In 2010 US put a spotlight on Thailand in terms of child labour of shrimp and seafood processing industry. Samut Sakhon becomes the target area which is on the alert for child labour since the province is the migrant labourer reservoir and one of the most significant manufacturing area of fishery and seafood processing industry of Thailand. Migrant labourers immigrate into Thailand and become the main workforce in Samut Sakhon generation after generation in the manner of cycle - like process.

By the end of 2014, there were 501,000 reported cases of people living with HIV/AIDS (including 296,000 people living with HIV and 205,000 AIDS patients) and 159,000 deaths had been reported around the country. The HIV/AIDS epidemic in China presents four major characteristics: first, the national HIV/AIDS epidemic maintains a low-prevalence trend, with higher-prevalence in some areas and among some groups; second, the number of people living with HIV/AIDS continues to increase, with HIV/AIDS showing high differentiation in prevalence among different groups; third, the number of AIDS patients rises markedly, with the number of all-cause deaths becoming stable; and fourth, sexual transmission is the primary mode of transmission with sexual transmission between men increasing markedly. 

This report provides update with respect to the goals agreed upon and progress made in Cambodia’s response on HIV and AIDS using global indicators for the period 1 January 2014 to 31 December 2014. The period under this review falls within the timeframe of implementation of the Third National Strategic Plan for a Comprehensive and Multi-sectoral response to HIV and AIDS 2011-2015 (NSP III) and the Rectangular Strategy Phase II of the Royal Government of Cambodia.  

The meeting built on Papua New Guinea’s participation in the 2013 Pacific Consultation on Legal and Policy Barriers to Access to HIV Services, and on the commitments to conduct such reviews and consultations to advance national efforts to eliminate stigma and discrimination and to achieve universal access to HIV services in the ESCAP Regional Framework for Cooperation to 2015 (agreed by ESCAP Members including PNG in 2012) and the Regional Framework beyond 2015 (agreed by ESCAP Members including PNG in January 2015). The meeting also provided a forum for discussion of steps needed in PNG to implement UNAIDS Fast-Track approach to end AIDS as a public health threat by 2030.

The 2014 Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey (BDHS) is the seventh national-level demographic and health survey designed to provide information on demographic status, family planning, maternal health, and children's health and nutritional status. The BDHS included a household survey of ever married women age 15-49. The survey also included a community questionnaire administered during the listing of households to informants in communities around the sample points from which the households were selected. This report presents major findings from data collected in the household survey using the Household Questionnaire and the Woman's Questionnaire. A more comprehensive and detailed report is scheduled for release later in 2015. The data in the final report are not expected to differ substantially from the findings presented in this key indicators report; however, the results presented here should be regarded as provisional and may be subject to modification. To examine trends, the findings from the 2014 survey have been compared with similar indicators from past surveys.

A survey was conducted in countries in all six WHO regions and focused on the building blocks that are considered prerequisites to combat antimicrobial resistance: a comprehensive national plan, laboratory capacity to undertake surveillance for resistant microorganisms, access to safe, effective antimicrobial medicines, control of the misuse of these medicines, awareness and understanding among the general public and effective infection prevention and control programmes.

This report provides mapping, and biological and behavioral information related to HIV infection among four most at risk populations: Injecting Drug Users (IDUs), Male Sex Workers (MSWs), Hijra Sex Workers (HSWs), and Female Sex Workers (FSWs). The data presented here were collected during Punjab IBBS – Round 2014, conducted between June – November 2014. The IBBS was preceded by mapping among MARPs, across ten cities in Punjab. The cities included Lahore, Faisalabad, Multan, Sargodha, Gujranwala, Sialkot, Gujrat, Sheikhupura, Mandi Bahaudin, and Dera Ghazi Khan. The results from these mapping activities are presented in a separate report1. The mapping data provided sampling frames, diverse sampling techniques were used to draw representative samples of the MARPs from selected cities for IBBS.

This report examines the resource challenges that confront the AIDS response in Asia and the Pacific. It proposes a set of interventions that will help overcome them and steer the region towards ending its AIDS epidemic. The report summarizes the analysis done by an independent, expert advisory panel on AIDS funding in Asia and the Pacific, convened jointly by UNAIDS and the World Bank in August 2013. The Expert Panel was tasked with reviewing the prospects for ending the region’s AIDS epidemic in the context of changing global economy and external funding environment.

This GARPR Report for 2014 demonstrates and summarizes the overall national efforts undertaken in development of relevant policies and progress in programme implementation and their contribution to the overall response to AIDS, as well as further underlying challenges that need to be addressed to halt the spread of HIV/AIDSin our country. This report also reflects the challenges in securing sustainable funding for prevention, treatment, care and support of HIV/AIDS by the Government due to the influence of the economic crisis.