Committee on Social Development

During the year under review, the Committee on Social Development (COSD) held its Sixth and Seventh Meetings on 25-28 August 1982 and 16-19 March 1983 respectively. The Chairmanship of the COSD is held by Indonesia for a period of three years from 1981 to 1983.

The ASEAN Development Education Project (ADEP)

ADEP is a project under the ASEAN-Australia Economic Cooperation Programme. The project aims to strengthen the national capabilities of member countries through the sharing of expertise, experiences and resources in education by using the existing institutions in the region and to provide development-oriented activities with a view to enhancing the contribution of education to national development. It comprises the following:

Education Management Information System;
Special Education;
Teacher Education Reform;
Test Development; and
Work-Oriented Education for In-School and Out-of-School Youth.

The Seventh Meeting of the Regional Coordinating Committee (RCC) held in Manila on 27-29 December 1982, agreed to complete its internal assessment of the programmes by June 1983. This will be followed by a mid-programme evaluation with Australia.

ASEAN Population Programme

Mid-Term Review of Phase II Projects

The Seventh Annual Meeting of the ASEAN Population Programme Heads and Experts in August 1982 conducted a Mid-Term Review of Phase II projects and agreed that :

The ASEAN Programming Exercise

A Long-Term ASEAN Population Programme was formulated to serve as the basis for regional collaborative efforts among member countries in the field of population in the 1980s and for cooperation with third countries and international organisations.

Conference and Study Tour of ASEAN Parliamentarians on Population Resources and Development

On the initiative of Malaysia, the ASEAN Heads of Population Programme (AHPP) through the ASEAN Population Coordination Unit (APCU) and the East -West Population Institute, Honolulu, co-organized the Conference and Study Tour of ASEAN Parliamentarians on Population, Resources and Development. This was held in Honolulu, Japan and South Korea in September 1982.

Presentation of the Research Results of Three Projects under Phase II

A meeting on three component projects of Phase II was held in Manila, on 14-1 5 March 1983. It served as a forum for disseminating research findings to ASEAN policy makers and programme managers and had the objective of establishing linking mechanism among and between the projects. These projects are :

Institutional Development and Exchange Personnel;
Population Development Dynamics and Man/ Resource Balance;
Population and Migratory Movement and Development;

Secretariat

APCU which serves as the Secretariat of the AHPP continues to monitor the implementation of the ASEAN Population Projects. APCU has relocated its headquarters from Manila to Jakarta, effective 1st August 1982.

Drugs and Narcotics

ASEAN Cooperation in drugs and narcotics is one of the most important areas of ASEAN endeavours. It covers issues of enforcement and legislation, treatment and rehabilitation, prevention, information and research. The Seventh Meeting of ASEAN Drug Experts on 28 November - 3 December 1982, agreed on the importance of initiating laws which provide for the preventive detention of illicit drug traffickers, manufacturers and financiers. It also stressed the need to monitor carefully the export and import of psychotropic substances and to take effective control measures.

With regard to treatment and rehabilitation, the Meeting stressed the importance of information exchange among member countries and the encouragement of the use of indigenous practices and existing social organizations as well as religious institutions.

As regards prevention, it was agreed that emphasis should be given to drug preventive education and information and member countries should approach the ASEAN Institute of Broadcasting Development in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, or other institutions for assistance in regional training programmes or especially media practitioners in this area.

The ASEAN Training Centre for Drug Enforcement Officers, which is managed by Thailand, has completed three courses since 1980, with the third one held in Chiang Mai in November 1982. The course structure was designed for mid-management level narcotics law enforcement officers.

The ASEAN Training Centre for Preventive Drug Education was established at the University of the Philippines. It conducted the Third ASEAN Seminar-Workshop on Curriculum Development in Preventive Drug Education on 3 - 1 5 May 1982.

ASEAN Training Centre for Treatment and Rehabilitation in Malaysia is planning to conduct 3 courses in 1983, namely : Counselling, Training of Trainers Course, and Workshop for Trainers.

Health and Nutrition

During the period under review, the ASEAN Experts Group on Health and Nutrition (EGHN) held two meetings, namely : the Second Meeting in Jakarta on 29-30 July 1982 and the Third Meeting in Denpasar on 19-22 February 1983.

The general objective of the meetings was to improve technical cooperation amongst member countries on Health and Nutrition. The specific objective was to discuss and develop further details on the project proposals and project ideas to (conform with the COSD guidelines and to increase the role and collaborative mechanics of the Experts Group.

Various project proposals were formulated and endorsed at the Seventh COSD Meeting in Bandung on 16-19 March 1983 and approved by the Fourth ASEAN Standing Committee Meeting in Bangkok, 21 April 1983. In the area of mental health, the project proposals are as follows:

ASEAN Mental Health Bulletin;
ASEAN Mental Patient information System;
ASEAN Research in Traditional Healing Practices;
ASEAN Mental Health Seminar;
ASEAN Mental Health Travelling Fellowship and
An Epidemiological Study on Psychogeriatric Problems in ASEAN countries.

On nutrition, five project areas, each to be coordinated by a member country, are as follows:

Nutrition Manpower Development (Indonesia)
Nutrition Surveillance (the Philippines)
Nutrition Education (Singapore )
Nutrition Delivery System (Thailand)
Nutrition Research and Development (Malaysia)

The Overall Programme coordinator for the nutrition projects is Thailand.

On primary health care, the five project areas to be coordinated by a member country are :

Urban Primary Health Care (Singapore)
Traditional Medicine (Malaysia )
Field Laboratories/Field Trials (Indonesia)
Auxilliary Health Workers (Philippines)
Mental Health (Indonesia and Thailand)

In addition, a project proposal on Management Training of Health Planners and Provincial Health Administrators is to be coordinated by Thailand

Natural Disasters

ASEAN cooperation in this area is conducted within the framework of the ASEAN Declaration for Mutual Assistance on Natural Disasters, signed in Manila on 26 June 1976. The programme on Natural Disasters was presented to the member countries in September, 1982, for redrafting so that each national natural disasters centre could be assigned specific tasks to work on. Such assignments for consideration were


 Indonesia			: Mitigating the ill Effects of Volcanic
 				  Eruptions

 Malaysia			: Management of Disaster Relief
 				  Operations

 Philippines			: Mitigating the ill Effects of Tropical
				  Cyclones and Inundations

 Singapore			: Provision of Storage and Shipping
				  Facilities for Disaster Relief Goods and
				  Equipment

 Thailand			: Research and Information on Early
				  Warning Systems.

These tasks, if fully implemented by each member country, will develop and enhance their present capability to mitigate the effects of disasters and will contribute to strengthening the regional response system.

ASEAN Women's Programmes (AWP)

The objectives and terms of reference of COSD's new subsidiary body were defined during the First Meeting of the ASEAN Women's Programme. A Plan of Action for 1981 to 1986 was formulated with emphasis on health, education and employment. This included the following projects: ASEAN Women's Programmes on Art and Culture, Clearing House on Women in Development, the Establishment of the Network of ASEAN Women Vocational Training Programme, Population development Project - Single Parent Family Aid Centre, Young Women in Population Development Programme, Legal Literacy and Legal Aid, and Programmes for the Ageing and Elderly.

Youth

The First Meeting of the ASEAN Experts Group on Youth was convened in Yogyakarta, in February 1983. The Meeting recommended five programme areas, which were later endorsed by the Seventh COSD Meeting, namely :

Youth Development, Research and Information - Indonesia
Youth External Cooperation - the Philippines
Youth Cooperation with Youth NGOs - Thailand
Youth Exchange Programme - Singapore
Youth Camps and related activities - Malaysia

A Declaration of Principles to Strengthening ASEAN Collaboration on Youth as endorsed by the Fifth Meeting of ASEAN Standing Committee, was signed by the ASEAN Foreign Ministers at the Sixteenth AMM held in Bangkok on 24 June 1983.

ASEAN Scholarship Programme for Applied Tropical Medicine and Public Health (ASP-ATMPH)

The Third Meeting of the Governing Body of the ASP-ATMPH was held in Kuala Lumpur on 29 October 1982. The Meeting presented an Annual Progress Report covering the period October 1981 to October 1982. It pointed out that for the Academic Year 1982/1983, 25 ASEAN candidates were awarded the ASP-ATMPH scholarship. There had been progress in the development of Short Training Courses on Advanced Epidemiology, Bio-statistics and Data Processing; Occupational Hygiene; Diarrhoeal Diseases in Southeast Asia, Community - Based Health Planning; and Applied Malacology.

The administration of the Programme encountered no problem as member countries have given full cooperation to the Programme. A close linkage between the Governing Board and the ASEAN Experts Group on Health and Nutrition of the COSD has also been established. The Secretariat is located in Thailand.

For more information, please refer to project details