GLOBAL COOPERATION NEWSLETTER
September 2011
In this edition
6th ASEAN GO NGO Forum moves on Social Protection
UN High-level Meeting on Noncommunicable Disease Prevention and Control
Rethinking Socio-Economic Policy for a Recovery for All
New Handbook of International Social Work
Call for abstracts - 2012 Joint World Conference

6th ASEAN GO NGO Forum moves on Social Protection
Representatives of ASEAN member countries met with civil society representatives at the 6th
ASEAN GO NGO Forum held in Bangkok, Thailand on 20th September to establish a regional
approach to a social protection floor.
Before the GO-NGO Forum, ICSW ran a two day intensive preparatory civil society workshop withinputs from the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP)
and the International Labour Organisation (ILO). The recommendations from the workshop form
the basis for attaining Social Protection Floor Initiatives (SPFI) in each ASEAN Member State.
The following are the official recommendations of the sixth ASEAN GO-NGO Forum for Social
Welfare and Development on the “Establishment of the Social Protection Floor on Social Welfareand Development within ASEAN”.
“We, the participants of the 6th ASEAN GO-NGO Forum for Social Welfare and Development held on
20 September 2011 in Bangkok, Thailand, from Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR,Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Viet Nam;
Acknowledged that everyone, as a member of society, is entitled to have equal access to social
protection covering essential services including social security schemes; healthcare services;

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nutrition; care and education for children; as well as social assistance transfers (cash or in-kind) forthe poor and vulnerable groups;
Acknowledged that social protection plays an important role in reducing vulnerabilities of thedisadvantaged groups in the society including the older persons, people with disabilities, children,women, people living in poverty, and those working in the informal sector who may not becomprehensively covered by the existing social protection schemes;
Further acknowledged that the existing social safety nets in ASEAN Member States may not beadequate in protecting the people from the risk of falling through the nets and, thus, there is aneed to set up or strengthen the social protection floor;Mindful that while many of ASEAN Member States have already relatively comprehensive social
protection systems for the formal sector, there is a need to expand the coverage and delivery
systems to cover all citizens;
Agreed on the need to strengthen cooperation amongst ASEAN Member States towards universal
coverage of social protection to the peoples of ASEAN through the following actions:
1. Ensure participatory and rights-based approach in designing, implementing and monitoring social
protection schemes in ASEAN Member States;
2. Promote the mainstreaming of the concerns of everybody in the society, especially thevulnerable groups such as older persons, people with disabilities, children and women, and their
participation in the development, implementation and monitoring of social protection legislations,policies and programmes in ASEAN Member States;
3. Enhance the support systems and commitment to improve social protection for all, especially thevulnerable groups of society, to enable them to live in dignity as well as to have equal opportunities
to employment enabling them to be self-reliant by setting up minimum standards of social
protection in ASEAN;
4. Encourage study on the existing legislations, policies and programmes and their impacts to thehuman development in ASEAN Member States with the intention of exploring the possibilities andchallenges of expanding social insurance schemes to cover informal sector comprehensively;
5. Convene a platform to enhance the knowledge among government officials, NGOs, and social
workers on the social protection floor initiative (SPFI) and their capacity to implement social
protection schemes progressively;
6. Continue information sharing and exchange of views among government officials, NGOs,international organisations, and other stakeholders in ASEAN Member States on social protection
with the objective of learning from the best practices and experiences of each other in improving
the social protection coverage and delivery service;
7. Mobilise resources and promote CSR role of the private sector in the region to ensure that
adequate financial and human resources are secured for sustainable social protection that is widely
accessible to all peoples especially the vulnerable groups;
8. Develop regional statistical indicators in ASEAN to measure the development of vulnerable
groups as the result of social protection implementation in ASEAN Member States;
9. Establish an inter-sectorial consultative mechanism in ASEAN and its Member States to promote
information sharing, regional cooperation and evaluate the implementation of social protection
initiatives;
10. Encourage all ASEAN Member States to ratify the Convention on the Rights of People with
Disabilities (CRPD) and foster its implementation at community level;
11. Recommend the Senior Officials on Social Welfare and Development (SOMSWD) to issue anASEAN Declaration that expresses the commitment of ASEAN Member States at a higher level tostrengthen the social protection floor initiative (SPFI) implementation.

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The participants of the 6th ASEAN GO-NGO Forum on Social Welfare and Development expressed
their high appreciation to the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security of Thailand forthe warm hospitality and excellent arrangement of the Forum. The participants also expressed
appreciation for the information sharing by the International Council on Social Welfare (ICSW),
International Labour Organization (ILO), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and Disabled
Peoples' International Asia Pacific (DPI-AP) in the Forum.”(ICSW acknowledges with gratitude the contribution of the staff of the Social Welfare, Women,
Labour and Migrant Workers Division of the ASEAN Secretariat to the success of the Forum. ICSW
thanks the President and staff of The National Council on Social Welfare of Thailand for their
hospitality and managing the logistics. UNESCAP and ILO made valuable inputs which weappreciate. The workshop and the civil society contribution to the GO-NGO Forum were madepossible through the leadership of ICSW Regional President Braema Mathiaparanam andProgramme Officer Dilpreet Kaur.)

UN High-level Meeting on Noncommunicable Disease Prevention and Control
Anne Herdt formally ICSW representative in Geneva, now in the USA, attended the September UN
meeting on noncommunicable diseases (NCD). The following is an extract from her full report.
The Basics: "Left unchecked, NCDs...can break the bank." Margaret Chan, Director General WHO.
NCDs are responsible for the deaths of around 36 million people every year, that is, about 10,000
people every day and there is a great deal of disability, pain and suffering as well as increasing thehealth care burden individually and socially.
NCDs - cardiovascular, chronic respiratory, cancer and diabetes have attributes that are common toall: unhealthy diet, smoking, lack of physical activity and excess alcohol. They can also begenetically caused.
As with poverty, NCDs are a vicious circle that hinders development. Four out of five of NCD deaths
occur in the poorest countries. Prevention is the first priority as it can be inexpensive whereas thecure can lead to bankruptcy.
Governments, largely through laws and increased taxation, are enjoined to encourage healthy
diets, provide space for physical activity, drastically restrict the opportunities to smoke and drink toexcess.
NCDs endanger the achievement of MDGs, especially 4 and 5, women and children.
The Plenary
The High-level Meeting on the Prevention and Control of Non-Communicable Diseases which took
place at the UN Headquarters on 19-20 September, 2011 is only the second high-level meeting on
health ever convened by the General Assembly. (The first was a high-level meeting on the HIV andAids pandemic).
The opening Plenary Session consisted of almost 90 speeches by presidents and ministers of health.
The basics were there, if national public commitments lead to in-country activities, the goals of thishigh-level meeting will have been served. The Report of the UN Secretary General on theprevention and control of NCDs is worth reading http://www.un.org/en/ga/president/65/issues/ncdiseases.shtml
The meeting accepted by consensus the Political Declaration to combat these deadly diseases. They
did request the Secretary General, in cooperation with Director General of WHO to present to theGeneral Assembly 67th session a report on strengthening multi-sectorial preventive actions and in
the 68th session on progress and achievement toward the MDGs. In 2014 there will be acomprehensive review of the status of the implementation of the Declaration.
A 48 page "meetings coverage" by the Department of Public Information highlights the various
presentations: http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2011/ga11138.doc.htm
The most penetrating talk was delivered by WHO Director-General Margaret Chan. She was

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unusually blunt in this diplomatic arena, but she made her points well: these are 'lifestyle diseases
and that it is not a failure of individual willpower, but a failure of policy at the highest level; when
you see widespread obesity, it is a telltale sign of problems; a watershed event that replaces
ignorance and inertia with awareness and right actions immediately; according to a study byHarvard University, over the next 20 years NCDs would cost the global economy 30 trillion dollars;she deplored the despicable efforts of the tobacco industry and urged higher taxes on tobacco
products. "You have the power to stop and reverse the NCDs disaster...we must act now" sheurged.

Rethinking Socio-Economic Policy for a Recovery for All
UNICEF is calling for papers on "Rethinking Socio-Economic Policy for a Recovery for All."UNICEF encourages you to submit your latest research and thinking on the topic – send anabstract. In principle UNICEF prefers papers in English, but if some excellent summary of data
country evidence has been done French and Spanish, it could be translated.
Interested authors are invited to submit papers on any of the sub-themes to iortiz@unicef.org,
jchai@unicef.org and mcummins@unicef.org No later than 20 October 2011. Each paper should
include an abstract, JEL classification and the sub-theme for which it is being submitted.

Handbook of International Social Work Human Rights, Development, and theGlobal Profession
Edited by Lynne M. Healy and Rosemary J. Link. This handbook is the firstmajor reference text to provide a solid foundation of knowledge for students
and researchers alike. The extensive collection of 73 chapters confirms theintegral and necessary nature of international social work knowledge to allareas of practice, policy, and research. Chapters systematically map the key
issues, organizations, (including ICSW), competencies, training and researchneeds, and ethical guidelines central to international social work practice
today, emphasizing the linkages among social work, development, andhuman rights practice. To order - Phone: 800-451-7556 Fax: 919-677-1303
Web: www.oup.com/us Mail: Oxford University Press, Order Dept. 2001
Evans Road, Cary, NC 27513 2012 560 pp. 9780195333619 hardcover$89.95 or $71.95 with promo code 30152 for 20% discountCall for abstracts - 2012 Joint World Conference of Social Work and Social
Development: Action and Impact
The organisers have made the first call for abstracts. Deadline – 30th November 2011. Over 40
received already
Visit the conference website to obtain information about the conference and the call for abstracts.
Information is available in English, French, Spanish and Swedish: www.swsd-stockholm-2012.org
For questions regarding registration, hotel booking, social events, abstract handling, exhibition
management and general information please contact Congrex at socialwork2012@congrex.com
Regarding the scientific programme you are welcome to contact the Conference Secretariat that
opened on 15th August. The conference administrator is Jöran Lindeberg jlindeberg@icsw.org
The content of this Global Newsletter may be freely reproduced or cited provided the source is acknowledged.
Views do not necessarily represent policies of ICSW.
Newsletter Editor: Denys Correll, Executive Director
ICSW, Plot 4, Berkeley Lane, Off Lugard Avenue,Entebbe, Uganda
Phone: +256 414 32 11 50
Website www.icsw.org Email: icsw@icsw.org
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