AsiaDHRRA, together with the Non-Timber Forest Products – Exchange Programme for South and Southeast Asia (NTFP-EP),  ASEAN Social Forestry Network (ASFN), Asian Farmers’ Association for Sustainable Rural Development (AFA) and SDC  co-organized the first CSO 101 Brown Bag Event for the Civil Society Organizations & the Agriculture and Forestry Sector in the ASEAN Region held on 17 February 2012 at the Hibiscus Ballroom, ASEAN, Jakarta, Indonesia.

Ms. Lany Rebagay presented “Engaging ASEAN on Agriculture and Sustainable Rural Development: The AsiaDHRRA-AFA Experience”.  And Muhammad Nuruddin, of AFA-Aliansi Petani Indonesia presented the view from the Farmers’ Organization on ASEAN engagement.

The Brown Bag Session aims to provide various perspectives, approaches used by various CSOs, highlight positive examples for CSO-government collaborations and identify key themes and points where ASEAN-CSO engagement and constructive dialogue in the forestry and agricultural sector.

The fruitful one day session came out with the following Lesson and Recommendations towards Meaningful Engagement between the ASEAN and CSO

1. There is ‘space’ in the agriculture and forestry sector in the ASEAN as underscored in the ASEAN charter. This ‘space’ should be optimized. The ‘space’ has to be mapped out and clearly outlined. This may include setting up informal and formal mechanisms to allow a more active participation in CSOs.

• There is a need to establish legitimacy in the engagement. There is a need to build institutional structures that facilitates discussion of issues.
• The ASEAN secretariat can promote intensive engagement in various ASEAN initiatives and facilitate linkaging for CSOs’ engagements with particular member states.

2.  The ‘language’ in the space is not defined. There is a need to define what is the process, what are the rules of engagement, and who are the actors.

• There is a need to have a process in articulation of dialogues with the ASEAN bodies. There is a need to filter out conflicts to have dialogues with the ASEAN.
• Map out the institutions/CSOs in the region, and encourage diverse CSOs to engage with the ASEAN bodies.
• CSOs across the region may need to organize themselves, identify issues and interest and concretize what to bring to bring forth for high level discussions and engagements with ASEAN bodies, member states and their representatives.

3.  Funding support is needed for consistent participation and to develop resources to translate relevant information that will be carried out into actions and engagements.

• Development partner (funding agencies) of ASEAN recognizing the potential contribution of CSOs may need to allocate funds to CSOs.

4.  It has to be clear who is represented and whose voices is spoken. Peoples/communities have the to be given the opportunity to articulate for themselves and not necessarily having an intermediary. Who frames the issues and the language used matters.

5.  There is a need to further have ‘infrastructure’ building, form networks among peers, among governments to learn from each other.

• Networks can facilitate increasing the level awareness on issues of representatives and government bodies and continue to build capacities of CSOs (provide trainings, sharing information, etc)

6. Generate concise, practical information targeted for a given agenda. The nature of information, how it is provided, and timeliness of information given is relevant.

Summary of Panel Discussion Key Points – CSO 101 Brown Bag Event, 16 February 2012

View the video presentation by NTFP about CSOs and NGOs

“We, Indonesian people, representations of peasants, workers, migrant workers, fisher folk, indigenous people, women, students, urban poor, consumers, human rights activists, gather in Denpasar, Bali from 16-18 November 2011. We organize series of action to express our concerns on Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit in Bali.

ASEAN has become a free market, rent seeking and natural resources exploitation. The whole exploitation activities, with the interventions of the elites are now becoming official and more dangerous in global communities. With its close historical connection with the US and its allies, ASEAN is continuously used as a tool to implement the global capitalism agenda.”

Continue reading the declaration here…..

Read the details of the RDPE Consultation Meeting at the VietDHRRA website

Dr. Toan of VietDHRRA, in his talk during the information sharing, highlighted the centrality of small-holder farmers,fishers and indigenous peoples both men and women in the quest for poverty eradication and sustainable development. He mentioned that investment in small-holder agriculture is an important driver for attaining sustainable development. In ending he expressed the CSO call for a more action-oriented and binding programs and policies and programs on sustainable rural development. He also stressed the need for political will to address critical RDPE issues including regulation on massive land investment displacing farmers,fishers and IPs as well as the promotion of food sovereignty as essential to address poverty and hunger.

Participants come mainly from SOMRDPE focal agencies, other national agencies concerned with RDPE, and peoples’ organizations, CSOs and NGOs, resource agencies and other ASEAN national sectoral bodies.

The new RDPE FAP is subject to a regional SOMRDPE workshop at the ASEC HQ in August and for approval during the 7th AMRDPE in Nomber 2011 in Brunei Darussalam.

RDPE Consultation in Cambodia

RDPE Consultation in Malaysia

RDPE Consultation in Philippines

RDPE Consultation in Laos

RDPW Consultation in Thailand

The three workshops will be held from  09:00AM – 6:30PM at the Hotel Ciputra, Jakarta, Indonesia.

The 3 workshops are:

1. Agriculture and the Peasantry in ASEAN: Challenges and Way Forward (9:00AM – 12:30PM)
2. CSO Engagement with the ASEAN (12:30PM – 3:00PM)
3. Food Price Volatility and Food Reserves in ASEAN  (3:00PM – 6:30PM)

The second workshop on Food Price Volatility and Food Reserves in ASEAN (co-organized with API, Bina Desa, AFA and AAI) will converse on the causes and effects of food price volatility particularly on small scale producers. It will also take a closer look at the ASEAN Rice Reserve Scheme especially on making it more benificial to local communities.

Download the Food Price Volatility Workshop program here…

The workshop on CSO Engagement with the ASEAN and its member states (co-organized by AsiaDHRRA with CODE-NGO, Demos, HRWG, INCITEGov, ROA, SRD, Star Kampuchea, VUSTA, WMD, YAPPIKA) hope to bring the voices and perspectives on the status of CSO engagement at different levels and varying degrees of democratic spaces available. The workshop will feature concrete experiences in maximizing the claimed and invited spaces for constructive engagement in Cambodia, Philippines and Indonesia.

Download the CSO Engagement Workshop program here…

The workshop on Agriculture and the Peasantry in ASEAN: Challenges and Way Forward (co-organized by Asiadhrra with API, SPI, SP, BINA DESA, AFA, APNFS, LRAN) will discuss the challenges facing agriculture and peasantry in the ASEAN Region in the context of food sovereignty and land reform.

Download the Agriculture in ASEAN workshop program here…

Ms. Dwi Astuti, Binadesa Executive Director and AsiaDHRRA Vice-Chairperson for Southeast Asia sub-region, participated in the CSO Forum on AFCC held in Manila on March 1, 2011.

She presented AsiaDHRRA’s proposal for the establishment of ASEAN Peoples’ Field School on Sustainable Agriculture and Climate Change, a small-scale producer focused regional knowledge management mechanism.

Ms. Dwi also visited the AsiaDHRRA office and had an inspiring exchange with the secretariat.