JAKARTA, 1 April 2022 – The ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community (ASCC) Council gathered on 30 March to discuss strategic issues and directions for the Socio-Cultural pillar.

The Council extendeded support to priorities under Cambodia’s ASEAN Chairmanship 2022 theme, “ASEAN A.C.T.: Addressing Challenges Together”, which underscores ASEAN’s spirit of “Togetherness” as one community and common will in collective endeavour to address and overcome challenges facing the region.

The Council also commended ASCC sectoral bodies for the timeliness and significant initiatives, and outcome documents for adoption and notation by the Leaders in the upcoming 40^th and 41^st ASEAN Summits this November.

The meeting noted ASCC Pillar’s endeavour in enhancing the ASEAN peoples’ quality of life amidst the COVID-19 outbreak. As recommended in the Mid-Term Review of the ASCC Blueprint 2025, the ASCC Pillar aligned their post-2020 Sectoral Work Plans with the  ASEAN Comprehensive Recovery Framework and its Implementation Plan.

The meeting recognised the development of the ASEAN Regional Guidelines on Safe School Reopening, Learning Recovery and Continuity, as part of the efforts to recover education services for children that were disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

They also discussed strategic issues under the pillar, highlighting the importance of continued empowerment of youth and sports, human resource development, women development and gender mainstreaming, building future resilience towards green recovery, equal access to digitalisation, poverty reduction, among others, to support sustainable development in the ASEAN region.

In addition, several priorities were presented, including:

• the development of Declaration on Leveraging the Role of Sports in ASEAN Community-Building and Achieving the SDGs;
• the progress of Declaration on Fostering ASEAN Identity through the Safeguarding of Traditional Sports and Games (TSG) in the Modern World;
• ASEAN Leaders’ Statement on Year of ASEAN Youth 2022; and
• the plan of Siem Reap Declaration on Promoting a Creative and Adaptive ASEAN Community to Support the Cultural and Creative Economy, and the ongoing discussions on the set up of the proposed ASEAN Centre for Cultural and Creative Industries.

The priorities aim to: (i) enhance ASEAN values, awareness and identity; (ii) promote human resource development and women empowerment; (iii) enhance health, well-being, and social protection for the peoples of ASEAN; and (iv) strengthen ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community’s institutional capacity and effectiveness.

The 27^th ASCC Council Meeting was preceded by the 32^nd Meeting of Senior Officials Committee for the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community and the 5^th Working Group on the Declaration on Culture of Prevention for A Peaceful, Inclusive, Resilient, Healthy, and Harmonious Society.

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