Database
on Basic Documents of Japan-ASEAN Relations
Department of
Advanced Social and International Studies,
The ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community (ASCC)
Plan of Action
INTRODUCTION
The Vision of an ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community
1.
Embedded in ASEAN Vision 2020, Declaration of ASEAN Concord I (1976),
Declaration of ASEAN Concord II (2003) and the Hanoi Plan of Action (HPA) is
ASEAN’s goal of a community of cohesive, equitable and
harmonious societies, bound together in solidarity for deeper understanding and
cooperation. Its key features are:
·
Equitable access to opportunities will be universal -- rising above the
barriers of religion, race, language, gender and social and cultural
background;
·
Human potentials are nurtured to the fullest, so that all individuals
can participate meaningfully in a competitive world in a manner that gives
paramount importance to their welfare and dignity;
·
Norms of social and distributive justice are upheld by addressing issues of poverty and equity, and
special care is given to vulnerable groups -- children, youth, women, the elderly,
and persons with disabilities -- who could be the subject of abuse,
neglect and discrimination;
·
The environment and natural resources are protected and managed to
sustain development and as a legacy
for future generations;
·
Civil society is engaged in providing inputs for policy choices;
·
People are healthy in mind and body and living in harmony in safe
environments; and
·
ASEAN citizens interact in a community conscious of its ties of history,
aware of its cultural heritage and bound by a common regional identity.
The Imperatives of the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community
2.
The ASCC reflects ASEAN’s social agenda
that is focused on poverty eradication and human development. It is linked inextricably
with the economic and security pillars of the ASEAN Community. Social
inequities can threaten economic development and in turn undermine political
regimes. Economic instability can exacerbate poverty, unemployment, hunger,
illness and disease. Social instability can emerge from environmental scarcity
or the inequitable distribution among stakeholders of the use of environmental
assets. Failure to address these critical and persistent social issues can
further cause both economic and political dislocations.
3.
The ASCC will evolve amidst profound changes that are taking place in
ASEAN’s social landscape. These include: (i)
the rise of consumerism and lifestyle changes resulting from rapid economic
growth; (ii) increased personal mobility resulting from advances in
infrastructure and more open regimes; (iii) transformation of the family roles
and structures, with implications on the care of children and the elderly; (iv)
the potential of information technology to enhance the speed and quality of
learning and development of human skills, thus narrowing the digital divide;
(v) the rapid pace of urbanisation and its impact on
employment and the delivery of basic services; (vi) shifts in the labour
market resulting from economic integration; and (vii) unsustainable
exploitation of natural resources in the process of meeting developmental
needs.
The ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community Plan of Action
4.
This ASCC Plan of Action (PoA) will have four
core elements:
·
Building a community of caring societies to address issues of poverty,
equity and human development;
·
Managing the social impact of economic integration by building a
competitive human resource base and adequate systems of social protection;
·
Enhancing environmental sustainability and sound environmental
governance; and
·
Strengthening the foundations of regional social cohesion towards an
ASEAN Community in 2020.
Building a Community of Caring Societies
5. Poverty alleviation, equity
and human development lie at the very core of a strong and resilient ASEAN
Socio-Cultural Community. Poverty reduction is fundamental to the development
of the human potential, allowing people to participate fully in the mainstream
of economic life and contribute to society. A community of caring societies in
ASEAN can enhance the potential for production, consumption and wealth
creation, thus ensuring the benefits from economic integration. ASEAN Member
Countries will therefore strive, individually and collectively, to build caring
societies concerned with, committed to, and capable of addressing fundamental
issues of poverty, equity and human development. Governments, private sector
and civil society will work in partnership to address these concerns.
6.
Under the ASCC PoA, the goal of building an
ASEAN community of caring societies will address the following concerns:
·
Accelerating the goal of poverty reduction within the framework of the
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs);
·
Facilitating universal access to education for increased
employability, good citizenship,
and as a means of empowerment and life-long learning;
·
Promoting the welfare of children by safeguarding their rights, ensuring
their survival and full development, and protecting them from abuse, neglect
and violence;
·
Promoting improved standards and access to education through networking
and institutional collaboration, using existing regional bodies;
· Enabling
youth to have a better future by developing their leadership skills,
entrepreneurship, and technical and vocational abilities;
·
Promoting equitable participation of women in the development process by
eliminating all forms of discrimination against them;
·
Ensuring that the elderly are adequately cared for by promoting
community-based support systems to supplement the role of the family as primary
caregiver;
·
Augmenting and supporting the efforts of sectoral
bodies to prevent and combat human trafficking, particularly in women and
children, through comprehensive policies and measures;
·
Strengthening the system of social welfare through the enhancement of
national capacities in responding to emerging social issues;
·
Promoting health and nutrition, including through advocacy on
health-related issues and healthy lifestyles;
·
Preventing the spread of HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases
(including SARS and Avian influenza) through, among others, sharing of
experiences and best practices and systems of surveillance;
·
Ensuring access to safe, quality and affordable medicines by building
ASEAN capacity and competitiveness in pharmaceutical as well as traditional
medicines and complementary and alternative medicines;
·
Enhancing food security and safety as a fundamental requirement of human
security;
·
Ensuring a drug-free ASEAN by 2015 through community-based drug
prevention, treatment and control of drug abuse in parallel with eliminating
drug-trafficking and illicit drug supply through law enforcement and
alternative development for the sustainability of drug control; and
·
Promoting a culture of science and technology and enhancing cooperation in
the utilisation of appropriate applied science and
technology in socio-economic activities to improve social well-being;
·
Establishing efficient and well-functioning regional mechanisms for
disaster prevention and relief that are fully compatible with global disaster
management systems.
Managing the Social Impact of Economic Integration
7.
ASEAN Member Countries, as a community of caring societies, are
committed individually and collectively, to address the impact of economic
integration to minimise its social costs and ensure
its benefits. Domestic policy
adjustments and emerging regional production arrangements from economic
integration will have profound social impact that will be felt mostly in the labour market.
8. To
manage the social impact, the following key goals will be pursued under the
ASCC PoA:
·
Promoting human resource development to build a competitive labour force, through, among others, closer cooperation
among existing regional centres in the area of
education;
·
Promoting an efficient labour market through
mutual skills recognition arrangements to enhance regional mobility so that
ASEAN’s workforce are prepared for and benefit from economic
integration; such efforts would enable labour markets to operate efficiently with appropriate
matching of jobs and skills;
·
Strengthening systems of social protection at the national level
and working towards adoption of
appropriate measures at the regional level to provide a minimum uniform
coverage for skilled workers in the region;
·
Addressing the impact of liberalisation in the
health sector to meet the needs of ASEAN; and
·
Promoting joint certification and accreditation of science and
technology at the regional level to improve science and technology competence
of ASEAN’s human resources.
Enhancing Environmental Sustainability
9.
A clean and green ASEAN, with fully developed mechanisms for
environmental governance, is both a shared goal and responsibility of ASEAN
Member Countries. ASEAN commitments to the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation
of the World Summit for Sustainable Development (WSSD) have provided the
framework for ASEAN cooperation on the environment which currently focuses on
ten priority areas: (i) global environmental issues:
(ii) land and forest fires and transboundary haze
pollution; (iii) coastal and marine environment; (iv) sustainable forest
management; (v) sustainable management of natural parks and protected areas;
(vi) freshwater resources; (vii) public awareness and environmental education;
(viii) promotion of environmentally sound technologies and cleaner production;
(ix) urban environmental management and governance; and (x) sustainable
monitoring and reporting, and database harmonisation.
10.
Under the ASCC PoA, the following goals for
promoting environmental sustainability will be pursued:
· Building
national capacities to address issues and commitments to multilateral
environmental agreements through awareness raising and informed policy choices;
·
Effectively managing transboundary haze in
accordance with the ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary
Haze Pollution;
· Promoting
the sustainable use of ASEAN’s coastal and marine
environment as a source of food supply and natural heritage;
· Conserving
ASEAN’s rich biological diversity and the fair and equitable
sharing of the benefits from these biological and genetic resources;
· Promoting
the sustainable management of forest resources and conserving critical
ecosystems through the eradication of unsustainable practices and related
activities, as well as strengthening preservation and management of ASEAN
Heritage Parks;
· Promoting
the sustainability of water resources to ensure adequate and quality water
supply to meet ASEAN health and food needs;
· Promoting
environmental education with the view to developing ASEAN citizens who are
environmentally conscious;
· Promoting
environmentally-sound technologies in partnership with the private sector;
· Ensuring
quality living standards in ASEAN cities and urban areas;
· Augmenting
and supporting the efforts of the ASEAN Economic Community through the energy
sector in developing alternative fuels in order to prevent environmental
devastation and resource exhaustion; and
· Promoting
environmentally sound and socially responsible mineral development practices in
the sustainable management and optimum utilisation of
mineral resources.
Strengthening the Foundations of Regional Social Cohesion
11.
With globalisation, many of the region’s traditional societies, with their cherished cultural norms and
practices, are facing new challenges .As ASEAN continues in its
community-building efforts, the concern is how to fulfill its aspirations for
progress and prosperity while at the same time preserving its rich cultural
heritage. Thus, the ASEAN Community envisaged to emerge from regional
integration by 2020 is where people, amidst the diversity of their historical
and cultural experience, are conscious of a common regional identity. This
sense of regional identity and solidarity will have been built on years of
cumulative interaction in all facets of social and economic life and at all
levels – communities, governments and civil society.
12.
Under the ASCC PoA, the goal of creating an
ASEAN identity involves:
·
Mainstreaming the promotion of ASEAN awareness, regional identity and
values in national communications plans, educational curricula,
people-to-people contact mainly through culture, arts and sports, especially
among the youth, and the promotion of ASEAN languages
learning through scholarships and exchanges of linguists;
·
Preserving and promoting ASEAN cultural heritage and living traditions,
as a vehicle to better understand the link between culture and development, and
as a source of inspiration for future endeavours;
·
Fostering dialogues among civilisations,
cultures and religions as a means to foster better understanding, build
confidence, and address threats to peace and security; and
·
Promoting ASEAN’s standing in
the international community.
Implementation Modalities
13.
Specific measures envisaged under each of the four elements of the ASCC PoA are in Appendix A. These measures will be translated
into more concrete projects and activities in the Vientiane Action Programme (VAP) covering the medium-term period 2004-2010.
In general, ASCC activities fall into three categories: (i)
nationally-driven initiatives: (ii) regional activities that enhance or
complement national initiatives through sharing of experiences, information and
knowledge; establishment of regional networks; and joint regional approaches
(e.g. the development of
regional work programmes); and (iii)
regional activities that involved setting up of regional mechanisms or
standards.
14.
For nationally-driven initiatives, ASEAN Member Countries shall prepare
individual action plans for the period 2005-2010 consistent with their
respective national policies and development priorities, and taking into
account implementation capacity, including the availability of budgetary
resources. Peer review and monitoring of these individual action plans will be
done at the level of the relevant ASEAN body, consolidated by the ASEAN
Secretariat, and reflected in the Secretary-General’s report card to the ASEAN Summit.
15.
The AMM shall take necessary follow-up measures to implement this Plan
of Action including consultation and coordination with other relevant ASEAN
Ministerial bodies; setting up ad-hoc groups as appropriate; reporting annually
the progress of implementation to the ASEAN Summit; as well as introducing new
measures and activities to strengthen the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community as
appropriate.
16.
Self-reliance, shared responsibility and ownership are the principles
that will guide the implementation of ASCC projects. The discipline of mainstreaming
regional goals and commitments into the national plans and priorities will be
of paramount importance in order to secure the resources required for
implementation. Regional advocacy can provide the leverage to help drive
national level actions and secure the necessary budget resources.
17.
For regional level activities, particular attention will be given to
activities that are best achieved through regional cooperation because of
resulting economies of scale, value-added, or strategic interests. These
activities will be implemented primarily through the relevant ASEAN bodies or
through the ASEAN Secretariat.
18.
Implementing the ASCC PoA will require
intensive and sustained capacity building at the national and regional levels in
a wide range of areas. Active participation of various stakeholders in ASCC
activities will also be encouraged to draw from their wealth of expertise and
experience and to promote a strong sense of commitment and ownership of
projects and activities. Building region-wide networks of NGOs, training centres, academic institutions and other ASEAN organisations will gradually weave into the fabric of the
ASEAN Community and help to strengthen social cohesion.
19. Mobilisation of resources will remain to be a key challenge
for implementing various activities under the ASCC PoA.
Resource mobilisation, however, should increasingly
be viewed as a process of mobilising national,
regional and external resources -- intellectual, technical and financial -- in
support of ASEAN priorities.
20.
Finally, the ASEAN Foundation, with the full support of the Member
Countries, should play a more active role in supporting the implementation of
the ASCC PoA. Activities where the ASEAN Foundation
could play an active role include: promoting access to ICT resources of
differently advantaged groups (youth, women, persons with disabilities, and
rural communities); promoting ASEAN awareness through language training and
mass media; and youth exchange activities (such as through volunteer programmes and youth camps) with the view to facilitating
greater awareness among ASEAN youth of the region’s vision of a cohesive and caring society a community of caring
societies.
21.
To realise the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community
by 2020, ASEAN shall endeavour to work towards the
implementation of the areas of activities in the following Appendix. It is
acknowledged that some of these activities are already ongoing and at various
stages of implementation. Additional activities could also be implemented in
the future. ASEAN will make every effort to promptly carry out activities,
which gain consensus support.