Pretty Good Podcast Live at DRAPAC23 is a special episode series of Pretty Good Podcast, recorded live at the Digital Rights Asia Pacific Assembly in Chiang Mai, Thailand, last May 22 to 26, 2023.
Together with hundreds of changemakers from a broad range of sectors who have come together to build knowledge, collaboration, and momentum on Digital Rights and the Asia-Pacific, this series features a number of DRAPAC23 participants working across pressing digital rights issues in the region.
In this episode of PGP Live at DRAPAC23, Pyrou Chung, Director of Open Development Initiative at East-West Management Institute (EWMI), shares their initiatives for strengthening the data governance of indigenous communities. Emphasising the vital contributions of indigenous communities to climate change and environmental issues, the discussion centres on the role of women in environmental sectors. Pyrou also addresses gender disparities and highlights a co-creation workshop during the DRAPAC23 Assembly that focused on women’s engagement in online and offline spaces, especially for environmental defenders.
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About East-West Management Institute: EWMI works to strengthen democratic societies by bringing together government, civil society, and the private sector – to build accountable, capable and transparent institutions.
About Open Development Initiative (ODI): Developed by EWMI, it is an open data and information network focused on unveiling development trends in the Lower Mekong Basin. This trans-boundary ecosystem, shared by six countries and supporting 65 million people, serves as the world’s largest inland fishery. ODI aims to enhance public awareness, facilitate individual analysis, foster information sharing, and contribute to informed debates, ultimately promoting sustainable development in the region across social, economic, and environmental dimensions.
Relevant Links
- EWMI focuses on building accountable, capable, and transparent institutions through a collaborative approach involving civil society, government and the private sector. They offer practical solutions tailored to local contexts, addressing challenges such as policy reform, court administration, and economic development. Learn more about EWMI’s work on their website.
- Pyrou is the Director of the Open Development Initiative (ODI), a project established in 2011 that promotes sustainable and equitable development in the Mekong region by transparently sharing and analysing data. ODI’s Open Development Mekong platform launched as an integrated regional open data platform with five national websites and a regional website covering Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam, utilising open data standards and visualisations for increased transparency and accessibility. The initiative involves collaboration with partners to build data-sharing relationships and promote data literacy. Since 2018, it has expanded to regional Asia through a partnership with the Open Data for Development (OD4D) initiative. Read more about their work on this website.
- The Open Development Mekong site posts related stories on their work in Indigenous Data Sovereignty and Co-Creating spaces for women environmental defenders.
- Read about the updates on South, East, and Southeast Asia and the State of Open Data 2023.
- In collaboration with WWF, the ODI mapped the data ecosystem across the Mekong region with the purpose of making recommendations to support CSOs in the region to engage with environmental governance and data. The report “Mapping Knowledge and Gaps in Data, Transparency, and Capacity Building Practices in the Mekong Region” highlights the current barriers and offers case study based recommendations on how to build stronger environmental data ecosystems.
- Examining how new technology could be inclusively leveraged to centre the needs of Indigenous Peoples and ethnic minorities (IEM) communities while protecting their rights and connection to the natural environment, this book chapter explores traditional ecological knowledge and the relationship between IEM and their environment. In the Mekong sub-region, inequalities in digital access remain a key barrier to accessing internet access for all, while low digital literacy underlies inequalities in accessing digital rights.
- Pyrou is the Director of the Open Development Initiative (ODI), a project established in 2011 that promotes sustainable and equitable development in the Mekong region by transparently sharing and analysing data. ODI’s Open Development Mekong platform launched as an integrated regional open data platform with five national websites and a regional website covering Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam, utilising open data standards and visualisations for increased transparency and accessibility. The initiative involves collaboration with partners to build data-sharing relationships and promote data literacy. Since 2018, it has expanded to regional Asia through a partnership with the Open Data for Development (OD4D) initiative. Read more about their work on this website.
