Gamelan Council

Gamelan Council – Asia-Pacific Microfinance, Public Health & Development Centre
Logo
Countries where the Gamelan Council largely works shown in blue
Countries where the Gamelan Council largely works shown in blue
HeadquartersPhuong Saly, Laos (Formerly: Sydney, Australia)
Type Non-profit, non-governmental organization
Key jurisdictions addressed 73
Leaders
 •  Director C. Scott López-Gelormino
Establishment 2005
Website
http://www.gamelancouncil.org/

The Gamelan Council – Asia-Pacific Microfinance, Public Health & Development Centre (Gamelan Council) is an international non-governmental, non-profit initiative addressing the microfinance, public health, and international development needs of communities in, on, and around the Pacific Rim.[1] For these purposes, the Gamelan Council views the Asia-Pacific region quite broadly in line with APEC; the jurisdictions covered are claimed to account for approximately 65% of the world's population.[2] The Council’s activities, which include conducting research, making investments, and providing education and advice, are centrally coordinated.[3]

History

The Gamelan Council is an offshoot of the Global Consulting Group (GCG), a non-profit, non-partisan consulting firm created under the aegis of Global Student Response (GSR) and focused on supporting international development efforts which has since been disbanded.[4] As GCG’s efforts became more geographically focused on the Asia-Pacific region and thematically focused on microfinance and public health developmental issues, the Gamelan Council formed to focus specifically on these areas.[5]

The name of the organization is a combination of the Indonesian word referring to a music ensemble, ‘Gamelan,’ and an English word referring to a Native American, community-fostering ritual, ‘Council’ (the same term used to refer commonly to a group of individuals providing advice and counsel).[6] These two terms capture the Gamelan Council’s goal of harmoniously unifying the arrays of forces and ideas affecting the areas on which the Gamelan Council focuses its efforts.[7]

Jurisdictions addressed

The Gamelan Council operates predominantly in 73 states and territories on, near, and around the Pacific Rim, including every jurisdiction with a coastline on the Pacific Ocean and several other, significant population centres adjacent to or closely linked to the Pacific Rim (e.g., India, Nepal, and Pakistan). In 2010, the Gamelan Council also commenced pilot projects in both (a) Central Asia (i.e., Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan) and (b) South America (i.e., Paraguay, Uruguay, Guyana, and Suriname) which complement its other activities centered on the Pacific Rim.

These jurisdictions are divided into three main geographic groups and are listed below, organized generally by geography (i.e., Americas from north to south; Asia from west to north and then south; and Oceania from west to east):

Americas Asia Oceania
 Canada  Bangladesh  Australia
 Mexico  Bhutan  Christmas Island
 Chile  India  Cocos (Keeling) Islands
 United States    Nepal  New Zealand
 Costa Rica  Pakistan  Norfolk Island
 El Salvador  Sri Lanka  Fiji
 Guatemala  China  New Caledonia (France)
 Honduras  Japan  Papua New Guinea
 Nicaragua  Mongolia  Solomon Islands
 Panama  North Korea  Vanuatu
 Argentina  Russia  Federated States of Micronesia
 Bolivia  South Korea  Guam (USA)
 Chile  Taiwan  Kiribati
 Colombia  Brunei  Marshall Islands
 Ecuador  Cambodia  Nauru
 Peru  Hong Kong  Northern Mariana Islands (USA)
---  Indonesia  Palau
---  Laos  Wake Island (USA)
---  Malaysia  American Samoa (USA)
---  Burma New Zealand Chatham Islands
---  Philippines  Cook Islands (New Zealand)
---  Singapore Easter Island Easter Island (Chile)
---  Thailand  French Polynesia (France)
---  Vietnam Hawaii Hawaii (USA)
--- --- Chile Juan Fernández Islands (Chile)
--- --- France Loyalty Islands (France)
--- ---  Niue (New Zealand)
--- ---  Pitcairn Islands (UK)
--- ---  Samoa
--- ---  Tokelau (New Zealand)
--- ---  Tonga
--- ---  Tuvalu
--- ---  Wallis and Futuna (France)

Key activities

The Gamelan Council focuses on three main sets of activities addressing microfinance, public health, and international development issues. These include (a) research (e.g., conducting targeted studies of trends in the microfinance, public health, and international development sectors); (b) investment (e.g., raising capital to support successful Asia-Pacific microfinance providers and assisting entrepreneurs developing new technologies addressing basic needs throughout the Asia-Pacific region); and (c) education and advice (e.g., developing seminars, providing consulting services to social entrepreneurs, and coordinating conferences on microfinance, public health, and international development in the Asia-Pacific region).[8]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Gamelan Council homepage
  2. ↑ Gamelan Council website referencing ‘where we work’
  3. ↑ Gamelan Council website referencing ‘what we do’
  4. ↑ Gamelan Council website referencing ‘history and background’
  5. ↑ Gamelan Council website referencing ‘history and background’
  6. ↑ Gamelan Council website referencing ‘history and background’
  7. ↑ Gamelan Council website referencing ‘history and background’
  8. ↑ Gamelan Council website referencing ‘what we do’
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