ASEAN’s socio-economic progress in these two and a half decades is heralded by remarkable human and sustainable development. At the heart of the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community (ASCC) is the commitment to lift the quality of life of its peoples through cooperative activities that are people-oriented, people-centred, environmentally friendly, and geared towards the promotion of sustainable development. The ASCC 2025 opens a world of opportunities to collectively deliver and fully realise human development, resiliency and sustainable development as we face new and emerging challenges together.
The ASCC’s strategy and planning mechanism, the ASCC Blueprint, was substantially implemented from 2009 to 2015 and was shown to be effective in developing and strengthening the coherence of policy frameworks and institutions to advance Human Development, Social Justice and Rights, Social Protection and Welfare, Environmental Sustainability, ASEAN Awareness, and Narrowing the Development Gap. More concretely, the ASCC has helped to heighten commitment in the form of policy and legal frameworks, such as the Declaration on Non-Communicable Diseases in ASEAN and the Declaration on Elimination of Violence Against Women and Elimination of Violence Against Children in ASEAN.
The region has also shown collective will, for example, in offering quick, tangible action in humanitarian assistance through the ASEAN Coordinating Centre for Humanitarian Assistance (AHA Centre). Underlying these initiatives are important development outcomes spurring social changes in the region: the proportion of people living on less than USD1.25 per day fell from one in two persons to one in eight persons in the last two decades; the net enrolment rate for children of primary school age rose from 92 percent in 1999 to 94 percent in 2012; proportion of seats held by women in parliaments increased from 12 percent in 2000 to 18.5 percent in 2012; maternal mortality per 100,000 live births fell from 371.2 in 1990 to 103.7 in 2012; and the proportion of urban population living in slums decreased from 40 percent in 2000 to 31 percent in 2012
The ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community (ASCC) Blueprint aims to address the region's aspiration to lift the quality of life of its peoples by setting out concrete and productive actions that are people-centred and socially responsible. Whilst reviewing the progress of the implementation of the blueprint at the ASCC council during the 25th ASEAN Summit held at Bagan, Myanmar on 30 September 2014, it was noted that ‘The primary goal of the ASCC is to contribute to the realisation of the ASEAN Community that is people-centred and socially responsible, with a view to achieving enduring solidarity and unity amongst the nations and peoples of ASEAN, by forging a common identity and building a caring and sharing society which is inclusive and harmonious where the well-being, livelihood, and welfare of the peoples are enhanced.
The ASCC
Blueprint has a greater role to play in transforming ASEAN cities into liveable
and low-carbon growth centres for the region. These roles would include (i)
providing technical, financial, and policy support to improve the
transformational capacities of cities, (ii) facilitating the exchange of
knowledge and best practices amongst cities, (iii) building institutional capacities
of cities to effectively making their journey towards low-carbon development,
(iv) increasing the awareness of the city stakeholders about the benefits of
green growth without compromising the future economic prosperity, and (v)
demonstrating regional leadership in sustainability of cities.
ASCC
Blueprint (2009 – 2015)
With a relatively high population of about 580 million
people compounded by high rates of rural urban migration, rising affluence and
expectations of the people, cities in ASEAN are facing numerous challenges to
make them environmentally sustainable and liveable. Various programmes have
been implemented by ASEAN cities to tackle those challenges and improve their
environmental performance. However, by simply ensuring and maintaining good
environmental performance is inadequate. ASEAN cities have to strive to go
beyond environmental performance and move towards achieving environmental
sustainability. ASEAN commitments to ensure that cities/urban areas in ASEAN
are environmentally sustainable, while meeting the social and economic needs of
the people are outlined in the ASCC Blueprint (2009 – 2015)
ASEAN
Socio-Cultural Community (ASCC) Blueprint 2009-2015
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Section
D.5: Promoting Quality Living Standards in ASEAN
Cities/Urban Areas
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Strategic
Objective: Ensure cities/urban areas in
ASEAN are environmentally sustainable, while meeting the social and economic
needs of the people.
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Action:
1. Expand the existing work under the
ASEAN Initiative on Environmentally Sustainable Cities;
2.
Intensify individual and collective
efforts to improve the quality of air and water within ASEAN through regional
or national initiatives to reduce industrial and transportation pollutions;
3.
Share experiences, expertise and
technology in areas such as urban planning including transportation, green
building, water management, urban greenery and urban biodiversity,
conservation, sanitation and waste management, 3Rs (Reduce, Reuse and
Recycle) and air, noise, water, and land pollution control, through among
others twinning cities programme;
4. Work towards initiatives such as
“Low Carbon Society”, “Compact Cities”, “Eco-Cities” and “Environmentally
Sustainable Transport”
5. Develop internationally comparable
measures for environmental sustainability for major cities in ASEAN by 2015;
6. Introduce and implement an ASEAN
Environmentally Sustainable Cities (ESC) Award by 2008 as an incentive to
promote ESC practices.
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ASCC
Blueprint 2025
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