AsiaDHRRA, in partnership with the Asian Farmers Association for Sustainable Rural Development (AFA), Focus on the Global South & Third World Network (TWN) will hold a panel session entitled Roadmap Towards a Sustainable Rural Development in ASEAN during the The 3rd ASEAN Civil Society Conference (ACSC3) to be held on 2-4 November 2007, at the Peninsula Excelsior, Singapore.
The featured speakers of the panel are Muhammad Nurrudin (AFA-API), Sithirith Mak, (SEAFish for Justice-Cambodia) and Vicky Tauli-Corpuz, (Tebtebba).
A brief description of the panel:

ASEAN is now moving towards becoming a rules-based body, a positive development after 40 years. However, it is clear that the ASEAN Charter building process is very much driven by its need to be competitive in the global market, especially as a regional platform for investments, to protect itself from the dominance of China and India. The economic integration process, which has very little participation from the people, has already seriously affected the lives of our rural communities. As POs, NGOs, and advocates working for sustainable rural development, we have to strengthen our positioning and our advocacies before ASEAN and other multilateral bodies.
The panel session aims to surface priority rural sectors’ issues that should be critically responded to at the national and regional levels. A specific discussion on Agrarian Reform is included to find ways how this highly sensitive issue at the ASEAN level could be addressed as an imperative to sustainable rural development. The session will also identify key regional and international/multilateral platforms to push the rural development agenda, in particular ASEAN and UN. It will also aim to draw up an initial road map that will guide the continuing advocacy work and cooperation among rural development CSOs and advocates.

Click here to download the panel program…
Download the full ACSC3 Program here…