JAKARTA, 10 August 2023 – Today, ASEAN convened the 6th Meeting of the ASEAN Working Group on Culture of Prevention via video conference. Professor Joko Kusnanto Anggoro, Senior Advisor to the Coordinating Minister of Human Development and Culture on International Relations Affairs and Chair of the Senior Officials Committee for the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community presided over the meeting.
The meeting discussed the progress and strategies to advance the six thrusts of the CoP, covering peace and intercultural understanding, inclusion, good governance, environment, health, and media and information.
Professor Anggoro stressed the importance of cross-pillar coordination in advancing the culture of prevention. “Cross-pillar and cross-sectoral cooperation is pivotal to mainstream preventive approach in all sectors of life in ASEAN. Therefore, we should start exploring options to facilitate cross-pillar work for a more peaceful, inclusive, resilient, healthy and harmonious ASEAN,” he said.
The sectoral leads of each of the six thrusts of CoP discussed the issues, causes and preventive practices in the design of their work programmes and activities to address various forms of vulnerabilities including violence against women and children, drug use and trafficking, youth and urban crime, intolerance, fake news, digital hate, and environmental degradation and quality of life.
The meeting emphasised the need to institutionalise a culture of prevention in ASEAN to address the root causes of social issues and comprehensively respond to the challenges.
Under its Chairmanship, Indonesia also initiated various activities to foster culture of prevention such as the ASEAN Sports Day in Bandung last July and the upcoming 7th ASEAN Youth Interfaith Camp in Bali in September.
For the G20 Religion Forum (R20) during Indonesia’s G20 chairmanship, Indonesia held the ASEAN Intercultural and Interreligious Dialogue on 7-8 August in Jakarta with the hope of realising ASEAN as an Epicentrum of Harmony.
Child Frontiers, an organisation that promotes the care, protection, and well-being of children, also presented the findings from their study documenting evidence of a culture of prevention in action. Supported by Australia, the study highlighted the efforts in the Philippines to prevent online sexual abuse and exploitation of children and emphasised the importance of establishing robust empirical evidence for prevention measures that can impact actual behaviours.
“By focusing on prevention and evidence-based methods, we aim to create a more inclusive, resilient, and harmonious society,” expressed Deputy Secretary-General of ASEAN for Socio-Cultural Community (ASCC) Ekkaphab Phanthavong during his closing remarks. The meeting was attended by representatives from ASEAN Member States and ASCC Sectoral Bodies.
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