8th ASEAN IUC Resolutions on Building Social ASEAN Century Park Hotel, Manila 31 May 2008

Challenge BUT wide gap between Rhetorics of Integration and In 2003, in Bali, the ASEAN came up with a grand vision for Southeast Asia – an integrated region of caring and sharing societies based on 3 pillars: economic, socio-cultural and security 2015: target year for full economic integration BUT wide gap between Rhetorics of Integration and Realities on the Ground IN PARTICULAR, how to attain a Social ASEAN?

Questions posed to IUC Participants President Roman: How can academics, researchers and CSO/labor activists help build an ASEAN Home? Chief Justice Rey Puno: How to develop a rules-based ASEAN? How to develop institutions protective of rights of ASEAN citizens? What Can the Academe Do? What Can the Civil Society Do? What Can the Academe-Civil Society Do Together to Address Major ASEAN Deficits -- Voice/Representation Deficits -- Democratic Deficits -- Decent Work Deficits -- Coherence Deficits

Proposals to ASEAN Long list…but…the most urgent: Give Marginalized Sectors a Voice Give Labor a Voice, Give CSOs a Voice Listen to What Other Researchers, Academics have to say on bridging GAPS between -- goals of economic and social integration -- people as objects and agents of integration -- included and excluded -- and among ten ASEAN countries Take a Historic Pause on Liberalization and Address Social, Labor and Special Needs of those lagging behind in development Make the ASEAN decision-making processes open, transparent, consultative and participative

What can the academe/civil society do? Pursue academe-CSO-media networking – e-group, joint studies, etc. Promote & validate theory/practice of people-to-people solidarity, esp. in social dialogue, social partnership, capacity building in various areas of human life Engage ASEAN every step of the way on directions of ASEAN (w/c requires exerting pressures on individual gov’t’s) & holding dialogues on sectoral/regional concerns at nat’l/reg’l levels, esp. on issues of exclusion/inclusion Race to the Bottom/Top Push for inclusion of people-oriented concept of ASEAN community in school/university curricula

What can academe do? Help humanize, democratize integration, and put people at the center of development -- address ASEAN deficits and gaps through researches, studies and theorizing on people-centred development, etc. -- deepen and share studies on people-to-people solidarity, what is ASEAN citizenship, gender concerns, etc. -- promote cross-cultural exchanges and understanding -- assist farmers, small producers and other marginalized sectors in making choices and adjustments, technology and otherwise -- strengthen theorizing on social movement building, forms of people’s empowerment, role of trade unions in society, migrant labor participation in nat’l/reg’l economy, etc.

What can academe do? -- pursue disciplinary/multi-disciplinary, transdisciplinary studies in the context of regional integration and how to strengthen people’s role in the integration process -- develop empowering partnerships w/ CSOs -- analyze changing demographics in the region and in the individual ASEAN societies, especially the social security requirements of the elderly group and workers displaced from work at their prime -- mobilize mass media practitioners in clarifying and amplifying the social dimension of regional integration, including implications on different sectors of society

What can academe do? -- help propose and frame a people-oriented calibration of economic and socio-cultural integration programs in support of livelihoods and jobs of farmers, indigenous peoples, home- based producers, small and medium businesses -- promote grassroots-based or community-engaged researches utilizing both indigenous knowledge and advances in ICT (see declaration on global alliance of engaged research) -- document various forms and platforms of social dialogue, social partnership and conflict resolution within and across sectors and at the national/regional levels

What can the IUC do in the future? Institutionalize academe-CSO concerns as part of future IUC agenda Anticipate emerging regional/global concerns and discuss them in multi-disciplinary fashion, e.g., global warming, food crisis, energy crisis, etc. Initiate debates/discourses on forms of regional governance, state-CSO relations, etc. Organize multi-national, multi-disciplinary teams e-networking on common themes in between IUCs Hold IUCs in non-traditional host areas