ASEAN’s recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic highlights how inclusive human resource development (HRD) strategies have been critical for addressing widening inequalities, the digital divide, and the pandemic’s disproportionate impact on marginalised groups such as women and outsourced workers. By prioritising inclusivity, ASEAN can unlock the full potential of its workforce, foster innovation and growth, and ensure equitable access to decent work, social protection, and training. This report focuses on the vulnerabilities faced by two distinct groups–outsourced workers and women–to explore how targeted interventions like bridging the digital gender divide, improving work/life balance, and ensuring access to social security can build a resilient and equitable post-pandemic workforce. Inclusive HRD strategies can support economic growth while promoting social cohesion and equal opportunities in the labour market.

As ASEAN advances inclusive HRD strategies, it must also contend with the implications of three global megatrends on its workforce: digitalisation, global value chain (GVC) reconfiguration, and the greening economy. These trends have been reshaping the labour market, creating opportunities and challenges for marginalised groups such as females and outsourced workers. Digitalisation has accelerated the adoption of automation, platform-based gig work, and remote work, driving efficiency and expanding global talent pools while creating skill gaps and exacerbating inequalities. Similarly, GVC reconfiguration, spurred by geopolitical shifts and new labour regulations, offers ASEAN opportunities to attract investment while potentially deepening inequities experienced by low-skilled and female workers. Finally, ASEAN’s transition to a green economy underscores the urgency for reskilling initiatives, especially for workers displaced from traditional industries and underrepresented groups in green jobs. ASEAN must adopt inclusive strategies tailored to ensure that its workforce can navigate the megatrends’ effects on this evolving landscape.