Geraldine Roman is a Filipino journalist and politician. She was elected as the Representative of the 1st District of Bataan following the 2016 Philippine elections, becoming the first openly transgender woman elected to the Congress of the Philippines. She, along with other elected lawmakers collectively known as 'equality champs', launched the passage of the anti-discrimination bill on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.



In this ADB seminar, she shared her personal story about how she overcame challenges she faced during her electoral campaign.

M. V. Lee Badgett is a professor of economics and the former director of the School of Public Policy at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She is also a Williams Distinguished Scholar at UCLA’s Williams Institute.



In this ADB seminar, she shared insights on the implications of excluding lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in economic development. She highlighted the negative effects of such exclusion at the individual and economic levels and cited the positive correlation of promoting transgender rights to improved Gross Domestic Product.

Can Indonesia's e-procurement system assure an adequate supply of medicine and other healthcare needs? Will the system improve the delivery of vital public health services?

What can business development services do for small and medium enterprises? How can these enterprises leverage more from these services?

While impact evaluation literature of business development services (BDS) on SMEs consistently finds positive effects, BDS usage of small and medium enterprises is still very low. Possible reasons suggested are lack of information about BDS, shortage of credits, and limited availability of BDS. However, most of the existing literature focuses on impacts of demand-side interventions, and empirical evidence about BDS providers is still lacking.

Considering both external and internal factors to determine a firm’s performance is a way to carry out empirical studies using firm-level data. In this presentation, various models are used to analyze the research and development behavior of firms in Thailand.

The difference between health care systems and social security systems for rural and urban areas in the People's Republic of China is quite apparent. There is also an observed trend in the timeline of female migrant workers' life history, particularly the turn out of events before and after pregnancy. Several factors such as contextual and cultural are instrumental for such to happen, but there are policy recommendations that can be considered for the medical services to be more convenient and unconstrained.

The Korea Educational Broadcasting System (EBS) is a major educational television and radio network contributing greatly to improve and develop lifelong and democratic education in the Republic of Korea. This presentation discusses the platform that EBS uses and the content it produces. EBS’ strategies in international cooperation and partnership formation are also examined.

Gender equality in the labor market is important in its own right and for economic development. There are four distinct and interconnected transitions that should be looked into: the market, the development (or the structural), the growth, and the demographic—all of which have had gendered impacts on work. Policies to address the challenges which exist for gender equality in the labor market are also outlined in this presentation.

Drastic changes have been observed in women's mobility in the People's Republic of China. Instead of marriage, job opportunities have now become a major reason for women to migrate, which means migration has brought economic opportunities to both men and women.

How do you know that the medicine you bought is not fake? Purchase with caution, especially if you are from the Greater Mekong Subregion.