APCOM is set to hold its 3rd Asian Development Bank (ADB) Learning Week in Manila, Philippines on 8-9 September 2025. The learning week brings together lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex (LGBTQI) activists, civil society organizations and human rights defenders in Asia and the Pacific for learning sessions with ADB management and staff on development inclusive of sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression and sex characteristics (SOGIESC) issues, needs, and concerns.The learning week is co-organized with regional organizations including ASEAN SOGIE Caucus (ASC), ILGA Asia, Intersex Asia, and Pacific Sexual and Gender Diversity Network (PSGDN).
Supported by Global Affairs Canada, as part of the Supporting LGBTQI Rights in Asia: Connecting Voices for LGBTQI Socio-Economic Inclusion and Human Rights project, the third learning week will include discussions on ADB’s gender and development (GAD) policy, the roll out of ADB’s Environmental and Social Framework (ESF) which includes SOGIESC in its definition of vulnerable and disadvantaged groups, and ADB’s Operational Approach to Sexual and Gender Minorities’ Inclusion: A Road Map for 2025-2030, approved in December 2024, which seeks to give rise to an environment where persons of diverse SOGIESC are fully embraced and empowered and not just accepted.
Unfortunately, the Road Map has been taken down from the ADB website and many lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex (LGBTQI) organizations in Asia and the Pacific including APCOM are urging ADB to make the document of the Road Map available online on ADB’s website in line with their Strategy 2030 which seeks to expand its vision to achieve a prosperous, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable Asia and the Pacific. Making the document accessible online will show ADB’s genuine commitment to inclusive development that embraces everyone in its efforts to eradicate extreme poverty, including the LGBTQI community. It will also be a testament to ADB’s pioneering efforts on this matter, and become a leader within the multilateral development banks (MDBs) that have made an inclusive turn as the ADB.
APCOM has been holding learning weeks with ADB since 2023. According to APCOM Executive Director Midnight Poonkasetwattana:
“It is very important for LGBTQI organizations in the region to continue to raise our collective voice for SOGIESC inclusion, and create an on-going mutual working relationship with key personnel and leadership at the ADB especially now when there’s a strong push against us. The ADB’s 2030 Strategy, and the recently launched Environmental Safeguard Framework, and the SOGIESC Road Map ensures the Bank supports a prosperous, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable Asia and the Pacific, which also means SOGIESC inclusion. For APCOM, bringing community voices to the forefront of discussions, specifically about issues affecting communities of diverse SOGIESC, is of prime importance, given the criminalisation laws in Asia and the Pacific region, and cultural and religious conservatism.”
APCOM is bringing fourty activists and organisations will have sessions and dialogue with key ADB staff, and board members, including the rolling out of the ESF (Environmental and Social Framework), and community strategising sessions in a more challenging environment for LGBTQI.
The first learning week was entitled Gearing the LGBTQI Community in Asia and the Pacific Region to Meaningfully Engage with the Asian Development Bank that happened on 2-6 October 2023. The second learning week was entitled Learning Sessions on Inclusive Development for Sexual and Gender Minorities in ADB Operations that happened on 21-23 October 2024. APCOM has also been supporting the ADB in its commemoration of the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia (IDAHOBIT) since 2019 and has participated in civil society discussions at the 56th ADB Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors in 2023 in Incheon, Korea and at the 58th ADB Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors in 2025 in Milan, Italy.
See also:
2nd
ADB Learning Week
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1st
ADB Learning Week
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