ASEAN Secretariat Symposium on Methods of Stakeholder Involvement in Regional Organisations

In 2003, the ASEAN Leaders through the "Bali Concord" decided to establish an ASEAN Community by 2020, comprising three pillars – "Political and Security Community", "Economic Community" and "Socio-Cultural Community". In 2009 ASEAN reaffirmed this commitment and drew up a Roadmap with Blueprints for each of the 3 pillars outlining concrete actions to achieve this aim. The ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community (ASCC) Blueprint focuses on: A) Human Development, B) Social Welfare and Protection, C) Social Justice and Rights, D) Ensuring Environmental Sustainability, E) Building ASEAN Identity and F) Narrowing the Development Gap. To implement this Blueprint, an ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community Council (ASCC) was established with its first meeting on 24th August 2009 to “generate wide participation of stakeholders and the peoples in building the ASEAN Community.

The ASEAN Secretariat (ASEC), in coordination with the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES), Office for Regional Cooperation in Asia, will support these processes by contributing to the development of the ASEAN Secretariat’s "1st ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community Forum" in 2010. The Forum is designed to facilitate the wide participation of stakeholders and the peoples in building the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community. There is no existing structured mechanism, process or method to regularly engage with stakeholders from civil society organisations (CSOs), academics, or other interest groups from member countries into the ASEAN Community. The landscape of stakeholders is very diverse and the Blueprint addresses a variety of important issues. It is therefore timely and meaningful for ASEAN to develop a method for engagement that supports and furthers the process of implementing the Blueprint and foster ASEAN integration in this pillar. The Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung has worked in all ASEAN member states for decades and has extensive experience working with governments and civil society in the region as well as with other regional integration bodies like the European Union, South African Development Community (SADC) or MERCOSUR. These national experiences and knowledge about similar processes in regional integration organisations could contribute to the development of a unique ASEAN method to realise the ASEAN Secretariat’s "1st ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community Forum" in 2010.

The ASEAN Secretariat, in coordination with the FES will organise a Brainstorming Conference on 23-25 November 2009 involving leading representatives from the ASEAN Secretariat (ASEC), officials involved with the ASCC and relevant ASEAN bodies, universities and think-tanks, civil society and other national and regional stakeholders.

Last changed: Apr 15 2010 at 12:52 PM