Meeting highlights strengthening social work for cohesive, responsive ASEAN Community
A kick-off meeting on the development of roadmap to implement the Hanoi Declaration on strengthening social work towards cohesive and responsive ASEAN Community took place in Hanoi on March 25.
The event was hosted by the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs in its capacity as Chair of the ASEAN Social Work Consortium for 2020 – 2021. The Hanoi Declaration was approved at the 37th ASEAN Summit last year.
Speaking at the meeting, Deputy Minister of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs Le Tan Dung emphasized that the declaration has important implications for ASEAN member countries, especially in the context that the sector in charge of social work has yet to meet the needs of people, especially vulnerable groups.
He hoped the implementation roadmap to be submitted to the 38th ASEAN Summit will include strategies, actions, and dates for related commitments.
Jacel Javier Paguio from the ASEAN Secretariat said the roadmap will be a strategic plan, with each step to be scientifically planned, thus promising to bring about expected results.
Rachel Harvey, a regional adviser on child protection at UNICEF, suggested a specific roadmap for an appropriate and capacity-based training on social work to tackle related training gaps and practical demand.
Participating ASEAN member states jointly set a target that the implementation roadmap will be developed with strategies and actions to conduct the commitments outlined, with a focus on integrating the plans of related agencies such as social welfare and development, health, education, and labour, among others.
After the function, a working group on the roadmap was established.
