Regional Conference on the Impact of Financial Crisis on Vulnerable Sectors:
Civil Society Voices and ASEAN
July 28-29 2009, Jakarta
(Final Draft)
Action Plans which participants agreed to work on together:
I. Agricultural Sector
1. Priority Policy Agenda
1. Create and strengthen mechanisms for dialogue and consultation between CSOs and government, at the national and regional levels, towards the ASEAN Summit.
2. Address food security issues through the development of mechanisms for fair trade system.
3. Farmers, fishers and CSOs are able to present their positions /views / recommendations to the new cabinet of Indonesia.
2. Concrete Action points
a. Conduct of national round table discussions on regional policy frameworks, e.g. the ASEAN Integrated Framework on Food Security (AIFS) and Regional Trade Agreements
b. Request for CSO participation during key ASEAN events and conduct various lobbying activities (e.g. parallel CSO consultations, position paper on the AIFS, etc.)
1. ASEAN Day (August 8)
2. Special SOM-30th AMAF (Senior Officials Meeting -ASEAN Minister of Agriculture and Forestry) (August 11-13, Ho Chi Minh City)
3. SOM-31st AMAF (October 2009, Brunei Darussalam)
4. 15th ASEAN Summit (October 2009, Phuket)
c. Conduct lobbying efforts during key international events with implications on Agriculture
1. WTO-Ministerial Meeting, December 2009
2. COP 15 Kopenhagen, 5-12 December 2009
3. UN-FAO World Food Summit, November 2009
4. Bangkok UNFCC Inter-session Meeting, September 2009
3. Support Needed
a. Information facilitation from ASEAN Secretariat related to ASEAN Activities (e.g. agenda of meeting, working documents, etc)
b. ASEC to facilitate the request of CSO for participation in ASEAN activities particularly the ASEAN Summit and SOM-AMAF activities
c. Coordination support from Rural Development Working Group (RDWG) on activities related to SOM-AMAF
d. Coordination support from ASEAN Peoples’ Forum (APF) and Thai working group for the 15th ASEAN Summit in Thailand.
B. Labor and Migration Sector
1. Priority Policy Agenda
a. National Level
a. 1 Make mandatory/ compulsory the possession of passport, ID, visa, and work permit by migrant worker/employee at all times
a. 2 Improve access of labor to vocational trainings and skills development opportunities by government and employer, including the discussion on who will bear expenses
a. 3 Sending countries to ensure accuracy of documents issued to workers through systematized database
a. 4 Structured dialogue among worker representatives of financial institutes and supervising bodies on the basic issues affecting the financial sector e.g. extensive outsourcing of core financing business, minimum wage, charters for responsible sale of financial products to be developed by each financial institution and to be agreed between management, unions, and other stakeholders
b. Regional level
b.1 Bilateral meeting (between sending and receiving country), foreign affairs meeting, ASEAN level meeting on standardizing implementation of the above-mentioned mandatory
requirement.
b. 2 Conduct of social dialogue among supervising bodies of ASEAN countries, workers of financial institutes with Ministries of Finance and multinational staff.
c. International Level
c.1 Dialogue between UN, WB representatives and workers, CSOs, multinational staff on
the agreements related to labor and migration signed by ASEAN governments towards harmonizing international and regional agreements.
2. Concrete Activities
a. Preparation of policy papers
b. Conduct of national and regional consultations
c. Conduct of lobbying activities both at national and regional levels
d. Creation of watchdog that will oversee the progress of various proposed recommendations on labor and migration
3. Support Needed
a. Information facilitation from ASEAN Secretariat related to ASEAN Activities (e.g. agenda of meeting, working documents, etc).
b. ASEC to facilitate the request of CSO for participation in ASEAN activities particularly on activities related to labor and Migration.
C. Action Plan on Strengthening Regional Economic Coordination / Chiang Mai Initiative on Multilateralism (CMIM)
1. Priority Policy Agenda
a. National Level
a.1 Creation of national focal points for monitoring Economic Stimulus Packages (ESPs) / Financial Stimulus packages (FSPs)
b. Regional Level
b.1 Set up third party monitoring mechanism for the Chiang Mai Initiative & Asian Bonds Market
b.2 Create working groups on:
b.2.1 Regional Framework on Financial Products & Services
b.2.2 Addressing unhealthy competition (tax & exchange rate competition)
b.3 Integrate appropriate recommendations from the Outcome document of UN Conference on Financial and Economic Crisis on Development to key ASEAN policy papers and program of action
2. Concrete Action Points
a. National level
a.1 Conduct of national consultations / fora on status of various ESPs /FSPs
a.2 Identification of national focal points that will monitor the ESPs / FSPs
b. Regional level
b.1 Establish regional list-serve as platform for sharing the monitoring results of various ESPs / FSPs
b.2 Conduct of various processes (consultations, dialogues, preparation of papers) leading to the creation of third party monitoring mechanism for CMIM
b.3 Conduct of various processes leading towards the creation of a Working Group on Regional Framework on Financial Products and Services and the addressing of unhealthy competition
b.4. Conduct a technical study on intra- regional system for payments and settlements for trade and services
b.5 Conduct of CSO-led regional consultation to move forward the proposals found in the Outcome Document of the UN conference on Financial and Economic Crisis on Development ( e.g. participation in discussions, presentation of statement/recommendations)
3. Support Needed
a. Funding support to:
a.1 Organize national consultations / fora on status of ESPs / FSPs
a.2 Conduct regional consultations on the Outcome Document of the UN conference on Financial and Economic Crisis on Development
a.3 Conduct monitoring of various ESPs / FSPs
a.4 Conduct technical study on intra-regional system for payments and settlements for trade and services
b. Link with academe and research institutes related to the conduct of monitoring ESPs/FSPs and the technical study on intra-regional systems for payment and settlements
c. Information facilitation from ASEAN Secretariat on status of CMIM
D. Action Plan on Democratizing CSO participation in the Improvement and Implementation of the Roadmap for an ASEAN Community 2009-2015
1. Priority Policy Agenda
a. National Level
a.1 Strengthen the linkage between national CSOs and ASEAN to bring down regional concerns/issues to national level and incorporate the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community (ASCC) Blueprint to national development agenda
a.2 Establish a national crisis response team in each ASEAN Member State to monitor the progress of implementation of policy responses to the crisis
b. Regional Level
b.1 Establish platforms for dialogue between ASEAN and civil society that are sustainable and not limited to ASEAN-affiliated organizations
b.2 Make the progress report of the ASCC Blueprint available to public
2. Concrete Activities
a. National Level
a.1 Monitor the social impact of the crisis at national level in response to the London Summit Communique by making use / validating the report of international organizations i.e. WB, UNDP, ADB.
b. Regional Level
b.1 ASEC to convey the Conference’s recommendations to the relevant ASEAN Bodies for their attention and response based on the final document provided by the co-organizers of the regional conference
b.2 Civil society to study and review the relevant actions under the ASEAN Roadmap for an ASEAN Community (i.e. Blueprints) in relation to their identified priority agenda.
3. Support needed
a. Mechanisms of dialogue and information exchange through electronic and/or other means.
b. ASEAN to strengthen and widen the existing dialogue forums, e.g. ASEAN Social Forum, by having the participation of CSOs be determined by civil society, not by the governments, to ensure effective representation.
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