Recent Climate Litigation Concerning Environmental Rights

An emerging feature of more recent climate change litigation is the use of some type of environmental right as the basis of the claim. The environmental rights invoked include the right of the public under the public trust doctrine; constitutional rights, particularly the right to life and the right to a clean and healthy environment; and more generally, human rights. This trend is likely to continue.

Asif Turangzai

Asif Turangzai is Associate Project Officer, Pakistan Resident Mission. He is geo-spatial engineer by background (Specialization in GIS and Remote Sensing) and working in the field of Climate Change, Disaster Risk Reduction & Management, and Resilient Urban & Regional. Prior to his joining as staff, he worked as consultant with Asian Development Bank (ADB) for 5 years and supported ADB to implement the disaster risk reduction output under the Flood Emergencies Reconstruction and Resilience project.

Telecom Infrastructure and DFS Initiatives in Pakistan

Pakistan has a vibrant telecoms sector, with over 140 million cellular phone subscribers and over 48 million broadband subscribers. It also has various digital financial services, which has garnered about $2.4 billion mobile transactions through mobile banking in 2016 to 2017. This presentation provides a brief overview of Pakistan's telecoms infrastructure as well as the range of digital financial services it offers.

Benazir Income Support Program - Pakistan

About 29% of Pakistan's population live below the poverty line, and many of them urgently need social assistance. In 2010, the parliament created the Benazir Income Support Program (BISP) as an autonomous social safety net authority that will help secure the social and economic well-being of the people. This presentation shares the BISP's evolution and its impact on the lives of the poor in Pakistan.

Empowering Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises through Islamic Finance

ADB’s Asghar Ali Syed from the Office of the General Counsel shares how participation in ADB’s Islamic Finance Working Group can contribute to the task of helping Muslims residing in developing member countries gain access to finance. ADB, as the premier financial institution within Asia and the Pacific, should consider how Islamic finance can help develop the sector and ensure it can help lift people from the region out of poverty.

This video covers the full session of Insight Thursday, ADB’s in-house knowledge sharing series.

Empowering Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises through Islamic Finance

ADB's Asghar Ali Syed from the Office of the General Counsel discussed how micro, small, and medium enterprises' access to financial services can be increased through Islamic finance in ADB's operations. He provided examples on how improving access to financial services can bring real and positive change into the lives of low-income households.

This event is part of ADB's in-house Insight Thursday lecture series.​