APPC - Updated reports on philanthropy and law in South Asia

Asia Pacific Philanthropy Consortium (APPC) has just published an updated analysis of recent developments in South Asia relating to the regulation of, and policy towards, the philanthropy and non-profit sector.

Compiled by the same authors who wrote the original, 2004 version of Philanthropy and Law in South Asia (PALISA), the reports describe and analyse new developments (2004 to mid-2007) in legal frameworks in Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, showing what Barnett Baron of The Asia Foundation calls ‘growing government awareness of and wary cooperation with the non-profit sector’.

Among the themes that emerged during the updating workshop in Delhi last year and which feature in the new volume are: continuing, often intense conflict over foreign donations; new initiatives to regulate the burgeoning microfinance sector; continuing debate over the scope of tax exemption for non-profit and philanthropic entities, tax deductibility for donations, and for-profit business activities by non-profit organizations; intense, even violent conflict over the role of the non-profit sector in broader political conflict; and the emergence of new forms of regulation, including proposals for the establishment of a new regulatory body in Sri Lanka and for a significantly revamped, strengthened regulator in Nepal.

Series editor Mark Sidel of the University of Iowa notes that the themes ‘almost never reflect developments in all five countries, but they do indicate at least a set of concerns that span more than one country in the region, and often most or all states.’

The updating project was supported by the Asia Foundation, Charities Aid Foundation India and APPC. In 1999 APPC published the precursor of the PALISA book, Philanthropy and Law in Asia, covering ten Asia Pacific countries.

For more information
All these publications can be downloaded for free from www.asiapacificphilanthropy.org or from www.usig.org

Asia Pacific Philanthropy Consortium
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