Insights

Population ageing in Asia and the Pacific is rapidly increasing demand for health and long-term care, straining public finances and health systems. The population aged 60 and above is expected to nearly triple by 2050, intensifying fiscal pressures on governments. To address this, mobilizing private capital through nonsovereign financing is critical. Multilateral development banks (MDBs) are supporting private sector investments in health infrastructure, disease management, and remote care technologies. Examples include the Asian Development Bank’s $50 million loan to Bank of Tianjin for financing elderly care facilities and digital health services, and direct equity investment in Fosun United Health Insurance to expand health coverage and long-term care services. These partnerships highlight scalable models to support ageing societies across Asia while advancing sustainable development goals.
Africa, ASEAN | Health, Financial services
Development Asia: How MDB Partnerships Expand Health and Long-Term Care for Older People
Robo-advisory services in the Republic of Korea (ROK) have rapidly expanded since 2016, managing over KRW 1.25 trillion in assets and attracting more than 380,000 clients by early 2026. These AI-driven platforms offer customized investment strategies and automated portfolio management, particularly in retirement pensions. However, they also exhibit herding behavior during market downturns, where algorithms converge on similar strategies, potentially amplifying volatility and systemic risk. Regulatory efforts include algorithm reviews, but ongoing challenges remain in balancing innovation with financial stability. Lessons from the UK and US stress the need for robust oversight to mitigate risks without stifling growth.
Financial services
Development Asia: Managing Herding Risks in the Republic of Korea’s Robo-Advisory Market
As AI automates routine tasks, human advantages lie in adaptability, creativity, emotional regulation, and collaborative problem-solving. These skills are increasingly vital in the workforce, shifting education's focus from knowledge acquisition to fostering lifelong learning and innovation. Early childhood education (ECE) is crucial for building "brain capital," the neurological foundation enabling these human capacities. Investments in ECE develop brain infrastructure supporting adaptability and economic resilience, positioning it as a strategic economic priority rather than just social policy. The current education system, designed for an industrial economy, inadequately fosters these skills, highlighting the need for reform that emphasizes developmental capacities over standardized content mastery.
Education
Building Brain Capital: Why Early Childhood Education Shapes the Future Workforce and Economy
The healthcare sector faces a growing threat from cyberattacks, with 351 significant incidents recorded in Europe between 2022 and 2025. These attacks endanger public health and national security, highlighting the need for coordinated crisis management. Effective protection requires linking national critical sectors with European and international levels through integrated, interdisciplinary situational assessments developed by bodies like the National Security Council. This comprehensive approach enables systematic threat identification and the implementation of effective countermeasures for healthcare resilience.
Africa | ICT, Health, Financial services
Cybersecurity in the Healthcare Sector
Since the release of ChatGPT in November 2022, AI-powered chatbots have become widely used, with about half of U.S. adults engaging with them and 24% using them daily. Analysis of nearly half a million English-language web pages from the past five years reveals that over one-third of pages published after ChatGPT's launch show signs of AI authorship or substantial editing. This indicates a significant portion of recent online content is generated or influenced by artificial intelligence.
How Much of the Internet Is Written With AI?
Leisure-time physical activity, such as sports, dancing, and gym workouts, is associated with a significantly lower risk of dementia, reducing it by about 24%. Housework also shows some protective effect. However, physical activity during work or commuting is linked to an increased dementia risk, with occupational activity raising risk by 20% and active commuting by 10%. This "physical activity paradox" may be due to factors like lower education levels, exposure to pollution, and stressful conditions in physically demanding jobs. Leisure-time exercise benefits brain health by improving blood flow and reducing inflammation, while work-related activity may not offer the same protection. Addressing these disparities is crucial for effective dementia prevention.
The physical activity paradox: not all forms of exercise lower your dementia risk – this type raises it
Police forces in England and Wales have been instructed to pause certain uses of generative AI in criminal justice work, such as preparing court statements, due to concerns about accuracy, provenance, and accountability. AI systems can generate plausible but false information, which risks undermining the integrity of evidence in court cases. Notably, West Midlands Police used AI-generated, fabricated information in a football ban case, and a Derbyshire detective faces investigation over alleged AI misuse in evidential material, leading to reviews of several convictions. Human verification of AI outputs against original evidence is essential to maintain responsibility and trustworthiness, despite reducing efficiency gains. Ongoing efforts aim to develop AI tools for case preparation, but safeguarding evidence integrity remains paramount.
Why police have been told to pause their use of AI in court cases
Value-Sensitive Citizen Science (VSCS) is a new framework integrating Value-Sensitive Design with citizen science to enable meaningful public participation in AI development. It incorporates culturally grounded methods and cognitive scaffolding via the Participatory Value-Cognition Taxonomy, allowing community members to co-design AI systems through iterative scenario-based reasoning. VSCS embeds governance mechanisms ensuring adaptability, accountability, and oversight throughout AI lifecycles, addressing issues like power asymmetries, scalability, and epistemic justice. This approach challenges monocultural, top-down AI design by fostering inclusive, value-driven development across diverse sociotechnical contexts.
Co-designing AI systems with value-sensitive citizen science
The surge in AI-assisted job applications is overwhelming recruiters, with many now reviewing only a fraction of applicants, risking qualified candidates being overlooked. Marvin Starominski-Uehara proposes "trace hiring," inspired by termite nest building and the concept of stigmergy, where organic, self-directed candidate behavior leaves visible signals in the hiring process. This approach relies on candidates demonstrating genuine engagement and adaptability through tasks that surface authentic responses without prescriptive guidance, enabling recruiters to identify best-fit applicants based on real actions rather than polished resumes. Trace hiring requires trust and urgency from both parties to succeed.
How “trace hiring” can overcome the deluge of AI job applications
Hospitals in Southeast Asia face increasing climate hazards that threaten their operations and patient safety, while the healthcare sector contributes significantly to global greenhouse gas emissions. Building climate-resilient and low-carbon hospitals integrates infrastructure resilience, energy efficiency, sustainable practices, and emergency preparedness to ensure continuous care and reduce environmental impact. Regional cooperation, exemplified in the BIMP-EAGA subregion, enables shared climate risk assessments, knowledge exchange, and scalable solutions addressing common challenges. Initiatives in countries like the Philippines, Fiji, and Thailand demonstrate the benefits of coordinated efforts to enhance hospital resilience, reduce emissions, and inform investment and policy strategies across diverse contexts.
Africa, ASEAN | Health
Development Asia: Building Climate-Resilient and Low-Carbon Hospitals—Why Regional Learning Matters
Over the last two centuries, electoral democracy has significantly expanded worldwide, transitioning from monarchies and elite rule to widespread elections of governments and parliaments. By 2025, 165 out of 199 countries hold elections for their leaders, marking a major global shift toward electoral legitimacy despite recent setbacks from coups and conflicts. Concurrently, voting rights have broadened from highly restricted privileges to nearly universal adult suffrage, with legal barriers based on gender, income, and ethnicity largely abolished. This historical progression reflects significant, though uneven, democratic development marked by gains in political competition and inclusion.
Africa | Health
The rise of electoral democracy
This study analyzes 335 European Data Science for Good projects to identify key data science competencies needed for social domain work. It classifies 146 data science methods, highlighting a dominance of machine learning, especially in classification tasks, alongside significant use of exploratory and descriptive statistical analysis. The findings emphasize the need for higher education curricula in social data science and AI to balance advanced machine learning skills with strong statistical literacy to effectively address social challenges.
Education
What it takes to use AI for social good: evidence from European social good projects and implications for higher education
Andy Burnham's administration in Downing Street signals a new UK-EU relationship focused on cooperation rather than reopening Brexit debates. The UK and EU must transition from diplomatic resets to building a durable, strategic partnership emphasizing shared European capacity in security, energy, and technology. Despite political constraints on reversing Brexit, tangible cooperation—such as agreements on trade standards, carbon pricing, and youth mobility—can enhance public trust and deliver practical benefits. Strengthened coordination on defense, climate, and research will enable Britain and the EU to address geopolitical challenges collectively while respecting UK sovereignty outside EU institutions.
Africa
Can Andy Burnham deliver a new chapter in UK-EU relations?
Africa’s mining sector, rich in diverse minerals, plays a crucial economic role by generating export revenue and employment. However, traditional mining firms largely operate as enclaves, importing inputs and exporting unprocessed ores, limiting local economic benefits. The concept of "developmental champions" refers to domestically rooted mining firms that anchor supply chains, enhance local processing, support innovation, and pursue social and ecological inclusion. Contrast exists between corporate champions—technologically advanced and globally competitive—and developmental champions that foster local embeddedness, economic spillovers, inclusive labor practices, and environmental justice. Case studies of Morocco’s OCP Group and Zimbabwe’s Zimplats illustrate how governance, ownership, and policy environments shape mining firms’ developmental impact.
Africa
How can Africa’s mining champions become champions of development?
China has emerged as a global leader in commercializing data by treating it as a key national asset. Following a crackdown on private tech firms from 2020 to 2023, including canceling Ant Group's IPO and imposing strict oversight on data collection, China shifted to a government-led approach to harness data's economic value. By 2026, initiatives like data exchanges, new accounting standards, and pilot programs have enabled data to be traded and monetized similarly to traditional capital. The Chinese government actively builds infrastructure to facilitate data exchange and supports services like valuation and analytics, driving productivity gains and broad participation in the data economy.
Africa | Financial services, Health, ICT
The People’s Republic of Data: How China Is Turning Data into Capital
The film Aliens (set in 2179) features several futuristic technologies, some of which have real-world counterparts or emerging parallels today. These include interstellar travel, hypersleep, and terraforming, with an industrial aesthetic influencing military vehicles and equipment. Wearable tech like motion detectors, wearable cameras, and biosensor wristbands anticipate current surveillance and tracking trends, though advanced AI-driven smart cameras are absent. Exoskeletons called "loaders" resemble real-life wearable suits enhancing human strength, while automated sentry guns parallel current autonomous combat robots. The android Bishop showcases artificial general intelligence, adhering to robotic ethics inspired by Asimov's laws. Some tech remains futuristic, blending storytelling with speculative innovation.
Aliens at 40: from wearable cameras to exoskeletons, here are the technologies the film predicted
The Esk Valley Camphill Community in Botton, North Yorkshire, exemplifies a model of social care where people with and without learning disabilities live and work together as equals, moving beyond traditional service delivery. Founded in 1955 on principles inspired by Rudolf Steiner, the community emphasizes long-term relationships and shared life rather than professional care roles. This approach fosters genuine inclusion, independence, and personal growth, illustrated by a resident's experience of increased belonging and freedom. The community challenges conventional perceptions, demonstrating the potential of social care rooted in communal life rather than service provision.
Education
What if we stopped treating social care like a service? A small village community in Yorkshire showed me another way
A study of nearly 3,000 Swedes aged 60 and over found that longer daily fasting intervals (14 to 24 hours) were linked to faster development of chronic diseases, especially cardiovascular and neuropsychiatric conditions, in those aged 78 and above. No significant effects were observed in younger seniors (60-77 years). The findings suggest that extended gaps between meals may impede nutrient absorption and muscle maintenance in older adults, potentially accelerating health decline. However, as an observational study, causation isn't established, and underlying health issues might also influence meal patterns. This challenges whether fasting advice for younger adults applies safely to older populations.
Why long gaps between meals may not be healthy for older people – new study
Foundations, philanthropies, family offices, impact investors, and select institutional investors—collectively termed the "catalyst community"—hold untapped potential to advance climate, nature, and sustainable development goals. They uniquely combine financial resources with networks, influence, governance, and patience, enabling them to drive systemic change beyond traditional commercial investing. Shifting from transactional grant-making to active stewardship, these actors can create market conditions where sustainable solutions thrive independently. Through 11 case studies across ocean, forest, and energy sectors, their catalytic roles demonstrate how strategic capital deployment can achieve lasting, disproportionate impact in building a sustainable economy.
The Catalysts: Unlocking Markets for a Sustainable Economy
Foundations, philanthropies, family offices, impact investors, and select institutional investors form a "catalytic community" with untapped potential to finance climate, nature, and sustainable development goals. Unlike commercial investors, they can deploy capital alongside networks, influence, governance, and patience to foster market shifts. By moving from transactional grant-making to active stewardship, they can create conditions for sustainable solutions to become market-rewarded without subsidies. Eleven case studies in ocean, forest, and energy sectors illustrate how catalytic interventions can drive lasting systemic change.
The Catalysts: Unlocking Markets for a Sustainable Economy

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