16 November 2022 – The ASEAN Leaders’ Summit adopted the 1st Master Plan on Rural Development 2022 to 2026. The Master Plan presents common strategic directions for the community pillars with differentiated priorities and actions for the AMS encompassing aspects such as climate change adaptation and mitigation, resilience to shocks, and improving rural livelihoods, which often strongly depend on agriculture and forestry. It shall serve as a guiding framework for the region’s rural development and poverty alleviation agenda, which contributes to and is shaped by the ASEAN Community Vision 2025 and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
The development of the Master Plan was led by the ASEAN Senior Officers’ Meeting for Rural Development and Poverty Eradication (SOMRDPE) under the ASCC, with cross-sector and multi-stakeholder consultations, including women and children, labor, agriculture, and forestry. AsiaDHRRA, an ASEAN-affiliated regional entity, was mandated by the SOMRDPE, together with the ASEAN Secretariat (ASEC), to assist the development of the 2021-2025 Rural Development and Poverty Eradication Work Plan, which was SOMRDPE’s foundational contribution in the development of the Master Plan. A series of national consultations were co-organized by AsiaDHRRA and the country’s SOMRDPE focal points through DHRRA members in Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam from December 2021 to June 2022. In addition, written inputs were received from other countries.
AsiaDHRRA and ASEC have worked together to mobilize the resources to develop the Master Plan from The Asian Foundation with support from Rockefeller Foundation, GIZ-ASEAN, and FAO. AsiaDHRRA shall pursue a regional workshop with interested CSOs in early 2023 to deep-dive into the Master Plan, identify convergence points based on the identified regional initiatives, and foster cooperation and action at the national and regional levels.
Download the publication here:
https://asean.org/asean-master-plan-on-rural-development-2022-to-2026/
