The Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Office for Regional Cooperation in Asia and the EU Centre invite you to attend a lecture and a publication launch, on the role of civil society organisations in community-building in Southeast Asia and Europe on 10 November 2011 at 9am.
 
Dr Stefanie Elies, Director of FES will share the main findings of the publication “An ASEAN Community for All: Exploring the Scope for Civil Society Engagement” and  Dr Gillian Koh and Ms Debbie Soon (Institute of Policy Studies) will present their findings on CSOs in Singapore, while Prof Dr Dorothée de Nève (FernUniversitaet Hagen, Germany) will provide an overview of how public interest groups and social movements seek to influence the policy-making process in Europe.

To mark the launch of the mapping, the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES), Office for Regional Cooperation in Asia, will present the latest findings of their study to a wider audience in Jakarta. The launch will highlight the key findings of the individual country chapters as well as the regional study to ASEAN experts, ASEAN government representatives and officials as well as representatives from NGOs, the academe and the media.

Following the public launch, a closed door workshop with representatives from the ASEAN Secretariat, ASEAN Country Representatives as well as from national and regional CSOs will take place. Participants will discuss how to utilize the findings of the CSO mappings in identifying entry points to bridge existing gaps and explore new paths for constructive engagement in the ASEAN community building.

Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) will organize together with the Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration (MOMT) of the Republic of Indonesia, the ASEAN Confederation of Employers (ACE) and the ASEAN Services Employees Trade Union Council (ASETUC), comprising of Southeast Asian affiliates from the 3 Global Union Federation (BWI, PSI and UNI Apro) the „3rd Regional Tripartite Social Dialogue for Growth, Employment and Sound Industrial Relations in the Services Sectors: Best Practices and the Roles of ASEAN Tripartite Social Partners” with the support of the ASEAn Secretariat.
After the first meeting, held in Bangkok in October 2009, that focused on the ASEAN Economic Integration and its Impact on Trade Unions and Workers. And the second meeting, held in Hanoi in March 2010, that focused on Sharing Experiences on Regional Social Dialogue from ASEAN and the EU. This conference will focus on:
•    Follow up on key strategic priorities of ASEAN Labour Ministers’ Work Programme 2010-2015 and on issues on common interests for the enhacement of regional and national tripartite social dialogue in ASEAN countries,

•    Articulate the roles and responsibilities of tripartite social partners and joint initiatives for building a regional sectoral tripartite social dialogue process,

•    Enhance solidarity and cooperation among social partners towards building a caring and sharing ASEAN community .

To achieve those objectives of the conference, the organizers have invited social partners from all ASEAN countries.

Public development policies and programs play an important role in achieving the important political, economic and social goal of gender equality. In particular, the budgetary policy of a government has a major role to play in achieving objectives of gender equality as budgets are an important tool to transform political commitments into practice.
The Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung together with the Ministry of Women Empowerment and Child Protection of Indonesia are organising a conference on Gender Responsive Budgeting (GRB) Initiatives in ASEAN: Key Dimension and Practical Experiences held in Bogor, Indonesia on 5 October 2011

The conference specifically aims at:
-    exchanging experiences encountered in the implementation of GRB in the Southeast Asian region;
-    exploring lessons learned and achievements of existing initiatives;
-    reflecting on (policy) challenges for government bodies and interested parties;
-    promoting a professional network to discuss and exchange strategies and policies regarding GRB among government officials and agencies.

The conference will be attended by the focal points of the ASEAN Committee on Women Plus Three (China, Japan and Korea), government officials/representatives and experts on GRB.

The Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES), Office for Cooperation in Asia, together with the Geneva Centre for Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF), will organize the 9th workshop of the Inter-Parliamentary Forum on Security Sector Governance (IPF-SSG) in Southeast Asia. The Forum promotes ongoing dialogue and exchange of good practices among parliamentarians in Southeast Asian countries. The Forum aims at enhancing civilian oversight and national parliamentary involvement in security sector governance.

The Forum’s 9th workshop will focus on justice reform as an important aspect of security sector governance in Southeast Asia. Justice reform refers to all activities aimed at improving the governance of the justice sector, particularly the accessibility, accountability, transparency and the effectiveness of the sector. The workshop will examine the current state of justice reform in Southeast Asia and explore how parliaments can contribute to the reform processes in their own countries. Furthermore, it aims at sharing good practices of various approaches to and strategies for justice reform while at the same time keeping in mind the specific requirements of national and regional contexts.

Please click here for the program overview.