The basic thrusts of the Plan were reflected in the Fifth ASEAN Summit's call to improve the quality of the life of its peoples, work towards the reduction of poverty, upgrade human resources, strengthen the family and enhancing cooperation on youth and children, among others. The basic thrusts were further reinforced by the Framework for the Elevation of Functional Cooperation to a Higher Plane adopted by the 29th ASEAN Ministerial Meeting in Jakarta, Indonesia in July 1996 which included the theme, shared prosperity through human development, technological competitiveness and social cohesiveness.

The basic thrusts of the Plan of Action on Social Development were reflected in the Fifth ASEAN Summit's call to improve the quality of life of its peoples, work towards the reduction of poverty, upgrade human resources, among others

Projects implemented by the subsidiary bodies of the Committee on Social Development (COSD) during the year under review continue to be guided by the thrusts spelled out in the Plan of Action and the relevant directives of the Fifth ASEAN Summit. Of the fifty-five projects under the purview of COSD during the past year, six were implemented, eight were on-going and forty-one were pending.

In the year under review, major accomplishments in the area of human resource development (HRD) were made. These include the establishment of the ASEAN University Network (AUN) Secretariat following the convening of the First Meeting of the AUN Board of Trustees in November 1996 and the establishment of the ASEAN Occupational Safety and Health Network (OSHNET) among the OSH centers in ASEAN Member Countries, with the aim of improving working conditions and environment and to protect workers from occupational accidents and diseases.

A project implemented by the ASEAN Sub-Committee on Women in 1996 entitled the ASEAN Network for Women in Skills Training, sought to give women in ASEAN access to skills training and employment opportunities. The ASEAN Regional Project on Human Resources Development Planning is being prepared for implementation in 1997 with funding from the UNDP.

During the past year, an informal ASEAN Labour Ministers Meeting and four meetings of the COSD subsidiary bodies were held. Meetings of the AUN Board of Trustees were held in November 1996 and in June 1997. The Social Development meetings for 1996/1997 are listed in Table 22.

In responding to the call for strengthening the family as a foundation for a strong, caring and cohesive society, the COSD sub-sidiary bodies also prepared projects to promote community support for enhancing the family's capacity to care for children and to consider establishing a computer-based information network for child and family development. The ASEAN Sub-Committee on Youth has also approved a project to explore the role of youth in fostering family values which will be implemented in late 1997 following approval by the COSD and the ASEAN Standing Committee. With respect to the welfare of the elderly, a project funded by the UNDP will hold a regional meeting in August 1997 to look into successful models of community-based care for strengthening the care of elderly persons in the ASEAN region.

Three projects on child protection legislation, child abuse and early childhood care have been developed and endorsed by the ASEAN Desk Officers for Children as part of a larger effort by COSD to enhance regional cooperation for the survival, protection and development of children as called for by the Fifth Summit. These initiatives will go a long way in promoting the training of competent child care providers, responsible parenting and family development and improving the effectiveness of child legislation in the region.

Youth Development

Efforts in this sector are guided by the objectives of ASEAN youth cooperation contained in the ASEAN Youth Development Strategy Towards the Year 2000 and Beyond adopted by the ASEAN Ministerial Meeting on Youth held in 1992. The document states that the objectives of ASEAN youth cooperation are, among others, to enhance quality education among ASEAN youth; to increase employment opportunities for youth and to foster youth in the region for future ASEAN leadership.

The year under review saw the ASEAN Sub-committee on Youth (ASY) make headway in implementing several projects and activities focusing on enhancing human resources development among ASEAN youth. Of the four projects implemented in 1996-1997 (see Table 23), two were concerned with the promotion of youth entrepreneurship. The development of youth entrepreneurs has been recognised by the ASY as a promising approach for addressing youth unemployment. The Fifth ASEAN Youth Day, held in Singapore in August 1996, was organised around the theme of Networking Young ASEAN Businessmen. The Meeting, which was attended by eighty-five participants from ASEAN Member Countries and observers from Cambodia, provided youth entrepreneurs from ASEAN Member Countries with opportunities to build regional business contacts. The training of entrepreneurs was also addressed in another ASY project entitled, ASEAN Youth Entrepreneurship Project (Phase I). This project which aimed to train trainers in entrepreneurship development and also to foster networking among youth entrepreneurs in ASEAN was implemented in June 1997 in the Philippines.

The ASY's efforts to address the problem of unemployment also included the implementation of a project on youth and tourism which aimed at providing, among others, training on tourism management to ASEAN youth. The 14th ASY Meeting held in April 1997, in Hanoi, endorsed three projects to develop youth human resources (see Table 24). One of these projects is an attempt to educate youth entrepreneurs on the business opportunities and challenges opened up by the latest developments in global trade liberalisation. The 14th ASY Meeting also agreed that programme on youth entrepreneurship be developed taking into account ASY's completed and on-going activities in youth entrepreneurship.

The ASY also endorsed at its 14th Meeting a flagship project to develop a five-year work programme on youth human resource development as well as to undertake a feasibility study on establishing a network of national skillstraining institutes for out-of-school youth. The ASEAN Secretariat has obtained funding from the UNDP-ASP Sub-Programme on Human Development for the project and will organise a workshop in September 1997 to review the results of the feasibility study and the work programme. The completion of the work programme and the feasibility study will further catalyse the ASY's efforts in promoting employment for ASEAN's youth.

With respect to other meetings in the youth sector, the Technical Group Meeting (TGM) for the Second ASEAN Ministerial Meeting on Youth (AMMY), was held in October 1996 in Bali, Indonesia. Further preparations for the Second AMMY were made at the Second TGM held in Hanoi in April 1997, back-to-back with the 14th ASY Meeting.

During the year under review, the ASY has made significant headway to ensure that its on-going and future projects and activities will address youth unemployment, a problem to which policy makers in Member Countries have expressed great concern. ASY activities have also contributed greatly towards fostering awareness of ASEAN by providing ASEAN youth with opportunities to network and to learn more about ASEAN.

Women

The 15th ASEAN Women's Programme (AWP) applauded the call of the 1995 Bangkok Summit Declaration for the full participation of women in all fields and levels of society. This call follows on from the 1988 ASEAN Declaration of the Advancement of Women on the ASEAN Region.

The Plan of Action recommends that the AWP increase the awareness of policy makers, programme planners and implementers on the role of women in development. As part of this move, the 15th AWP approved the draft report of the project Development of a Monitoring and Reporting Mechanism to Assess the Status of Implementation of the Declaration on the Advancement of Women in the ASEAN Region (see Table 25). This was updated and published under the title, The Advancement of Women in the ASEAN Region. This report, published by the ASEAN Secretariat, offers a profile of women's participation in various sectors of society and the level of integration of women's concerns in national programmes and plans. The 15th AWP agreed that such a report should be published every three years to facilitate the monitoring and reporting of the declaration and status of women in the region.

In another move along the same lines, the AWP is currently preparing to implement a training package on gender issues for ASEAN National Secretariats, committee officers and the ASEAN Secretariat. The project, Strategies towards the Implementation and Monitoring of the ASEAN Declaration on the Advancement of Women, which was endorsed by the ASEAN Standing Committee in April 1996, was identified by the AWP as its flagship project. It will be funded by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). The Philippines, as Country Coordinator for the project, has requested that Member Countries identify the officers who will attend the course. Such training is expected to strengthen the machineries to promote the integration of women's needs into national and regional plans and programmes in due course.

The ASEAN Network for Women in Skills Training, funded by UNDP and CIDA, and implemented for ASEAN by the ILO, was revised in accordance with the limitations of the budget. Its duration was, therefore, shortened from 24 months to 12 months, and the project which began in February 1996, drew to a close in February 1997. The project sought to equip women in ASEAN with useful and marketable skills. The project design provided for a pilot project for establishing a local network for skills training. As sustainability was a key concern, the project included the training of trainers for each particular skill that was imparted. In addition, gender sensitisation workshops and seminars were held to raise awareness of gender issues among policy makers in each of the participating countries. As each participating country had different employment patterns which in turn impinged on the local training needs, the skills imparted by the pilot project differed from one country to the next.

In Brunei Darussalam, the project was aimed at school leavers between the ages of 16 and 25 who needed to improve their basic technical qualifications in order to secure gainful employment and to improve their career prospects. The three-month course prepared them for work in the hotel industry. Their course included English lessons, computer skills and basic technical skills for positions in the food and beverage service, housekeeping and front desk office. This was followed by a month-long industrial attachment.

In Hanoi, Vietnam, participants were trained as dressmakers. In addition to being taught designing, drafting, cutting and tailoring skills, the women were also taught basic accounting and book-keeping to enable them to manage their finances in the event that they eventually set up their own enterprises. In Nghe-An Province in Central Vietnam, thirty young women aged between 15 and 18 were trained in drafting, designing, cutting and tailoring skills over a ninety-day period, eight hours a day. These women were also taught customer relations skills, as well as basic accounting and book-keeping skills. Women who completed the course would be able to set up their own businesses or find employment in the garment-manufacturing industry. The top five trainers were given further lessons in training for future courses. In the course on micro-enterprise for disadvantaged women, three batches of thirty single mothers and women who were physically challenged attended a fifteen-day course.

The 15th AWP Meeting agreed that efforts in this area be continued under the aegis of a reformulated activity to be known as ASEAN Network for Women in Skills Training, Phase II, the project proposal for which will be drafted by Thailand. As Thailand will be the overall project coordinator, the Meeting decided that the Chief Technical Adviser will also be based in Bangkok.

In affirmation of its support for the family as a foundation for a strong, caring and cohesive society, the 15th AWP Meeting endorsed a new project proposal, Community-Based Family Well-Being: A Participatory Approach towards Sustainable Child and Family Development in the ASEAN Region. The project is currently being reformulated by country proponent, Thailand. The same Meeting also noted the report of the President of the ASEAN Confederation of Women's Organisation (ACWO) on ACWO's accomplishments during the preceding year, as well as its plans for future activities.

The COSD and the ASEAN Standing Committee have since approved the request of the 15th AWP Meeting that the sub-committee be renamed the ASEAN Sub-Committee on Women or ASW. The next meeting of the ASW is scheduled to be held in August 1997.

Health & Nutrition

Over the past year, continued efforts have been made by the Member Countries in order to further strengthen regional cooperation in health and nutrition. As such, a number of significant achievements have been registered in the direction of improving the quality of life of the peoples in the ASEAN region as emphasized by the ASEAN Leaders at the historic Bangkok Summit.

Recognizing the need to anchor ASEAN collaboration in health and nutrition on a broader and more long-term foundation, the 14th ASCH&N Meeting agreed to study the possibility of formulating a collaborative plan on health and nutrition. With funding from the ASEAN-UNDP ASP-5 Sub-Programme on Human Development, preparatory work is being done, first with the recruitment of a regional expert and national experts from Member and Observer Countries to help formulate such a collaborative plan for the consideration and approval by ASCH&N. The Terms of References for the regional and national experts have been approved by the Member Countries. Once finalized and endorsed, the collaborative plan would represent a significant step forward in the joint effort by the ASCH&N to strengthen regional collaboration on health and nutrition.

Another significant move towards further strengthening and enhancing cooperation on health and nutrition is agreement by the 14th ASCH&N Meeting to promote cooperation with UN organizations and agencies, such as UNDP,WHO, UNICEF, UNFPA, UNAIDS or others working in the area of health. Accordingly, the ASCH&N agreed, as a first step, to the preparation of a five-year Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between ASEAN and WHO. Following extensive consultations, a final text of the MOU between ASEAN and WHO was approved by the Member Countries and was signed by the Chairman of ASCH&N, on behalf of ASEAN and the two WHO Regional Directors for Southeast Asia and for the Western Pacific regions, on behalf of WHO.

A press conference and launching ceremony were held in May 1997 in Geneva to mark this important milestone of collaboration between ASEAN and WHO. The MOU opens up opportunities for collaboration in the following priority areas: prevention and control of communicable and non-communicable diseases, with an emphasis on promoting healthy lifestyles; environmental health; new emerging and re-emerging diseases; nutrition, food safety and the promotion of health diets and communicable disease control in border areas, among others.

During the year under review, various components of the on-going project Technical Cooperation in Pharmaceuticals among ASEAN Countries (Phase IV) were implemented. The 15th Meeting of the ASEAN Working Group on Technical Cooperation in Pharmaceuticals was held in June 1996 in Manila. The Meeting discussed, among others, the progress of 1995 activities by each Member Country and the formulation of workplans for Phase V which will run from 1997-2001. Another major topic discussed at the Meeting is funding sources to implement activities planned for the period 1997-2001.

The 13th ASCH&N held in Bangkok in August 1995 noted that the ASEAN Secretariat would conduct a Seminar on Assessment of Needs and Available Resources for Developing Community-Based Care Programmes for the Elderly and Disabled with funding from the UNDP-ASP5 Sub-Programme on Human Development. The project's objectives includes the assessment of the health status and health care needs of the elderly, the promotion of the sharing of best practices for delivering health care services to elderly persons, identification of a regional mechanism to promote and sustain regional cooperation in geriatric health care and preparation of a regional work programme. To prepare for the project's regional seminar, a regional expert and national experts from each of the Member Countries have been recruited and have started their assignments. A regional seminar to review the study recommendations is scheduled to be held in August 1997.

There are two pending projects under health and nutrition. Regarding the project ASEAN Health Manpower Development (ASEAN Scholarship Programme for Applied Tropical Medicine and Public Health [TROPMED] (Phase IV), a proposal for Phase IV has been submitted to the United States for funding consideration and a response is being awaited. The overall objectives of the proposed programme are to provide training to medical and health personnel, strengthen the research and other capacities of medical and health related institutions at the national and regional levels. The second pending project, the ASEAN Collaborative Project on Nutrition Surveillance which was endorsed by the 14th ASCH&N Meeting in 1996 aims to develop a regional network for the exchange of nutrition information among the ASEAN Member Countries whereas the short-term objectives include the review of progress of nutrition surveillance activities in the ASEAN region and identifying a system for exchange of nutrition information among the ASEAN Member Countries.

In view of the growing importance of cooperation with WHO, the Meeting also recommended that observer status be given to WHO representatives in the Meetings of ASCH&N. This recommendation was later approved by the Second Meeting of the 30th ASEAN Standing Committee.

Over the last year, satisfactory progress has been attained in deepening the cooperation on health and nutrition among the Member Countries as well as with other countries and international organisations.

Education

A year after the establishment of the ASEAN University Network (AUN) in November 1995, a significant step forward in the institutionalisation of the AUN was taken when the AUN Board of Trustees met for the first time in Yogyakarta in November 1996. This meeting was preceded by the AUN Special Technical Meeting (STM) in Bangkok in July and August 1996. The AUN Board of Trustees Meeting agreed that Thailand would host the AUN Secretariat and chair the AUN Board for a period of three years. It will be assisted in this matter, in the initial stages, by the ASEAN Secretariat.

Among the immediate tasks of the AUN Secretariat are to appoint an Executive Director, prepare detailed project proposals for the five components of the AUN work programme listed in Table 26.

The First Meeting of the AUN Board of Trustees also agreed to admit the Vietnam National University, Hanoi, as a member of the AUN. The AUN Board of Trustees also agreed that an AUN homepage comprising information on academic and research programmes be incorporated into the ASEANWEB. The AUN homepage would provide a summary of information on the national education systems of Member Countries and the participating universities, with hyperlinks to the respective homepages of the AUN member universities (see Table 27).

The Board of Trustees agreed that the ASCOE chairperson would be a permanent member of the AUN board and that the AUN board would report directly to the ASEAN Ministers Responsible for Higher Education.

The appointment of Dr Supachai Yavaprabhas of Chulalongkorn University as the Executive Director of the AUN Secretariat was endorsed by the Second Meeting of the AUN Board of Trustees held in June 1997 in Bangkok. Other topics considered at the meeting were the Work Plan and Financial Plan of the AUN Secretariat, the Terms of Reference of the AUN Executive Director, preparations for convening a strategic planning workshop and workshops to work out the details for implementing programmes on student exchanges, ASEAN studies and information networking. The application of Vietnam National University, Ho Chi Minh City was considered and accepted by the Meeting as the second participating university from Vietnam.

Labour Affairs

Quality proved to be the watchword for Labour Affairs in ASEAN in 1996, with that of the workforce and the working life of the region's human resources being high on the agenda. At the 11th ASEAN Labour Ministers' Meeting, ASEAN Member Countries committed themselves to improving the quality of the ASEAN workforce. To equip workers in the region with the skills to face the challenges of global trade liberalization, the Labour Ministers agreed to further develop human resources in the region. This would ensure the availability of highly skilled and competent manpower and the efficient utilization of human resources in ASEAN.

At the Second Informal Labour Ministers' Meeting held in Hanoi in April 1997, the Ministers noted with satisfaction the implementation of several projects aimed at improving the quality of life and skills of the ASEAN labour force. With regard to the ASEAN Regional Project on Human Resources Development Planning, the UNDP informed the ASEAN Secretariat in July 1996 that an amount of US$ 150,000 had been made available for the project. As of April 1997, the ASEAN Secretariat is working with the ILO to finalise a Terms of Reference for the project. The project will focus on two key objectives: to conduct a feasibility study for establishing an ASEAN Regional Human Resource Development (HRD) Planning Centre and the preparation of a work programme comprising project proposals on HRD.

In accordance with the decision of the 1984 ALMM to establish an ASEAN training and information centre for the improvement of working conditions and environment, a study on the feasibility of setting up such a centre was conducted. The study was followed by a Workshop on Occupational Safety and Health Centre (OSHC) held in Quezon City, Philippines in October 1996. Cognisant of the advances in communications technology, the Workshop concluded that a network would suffice and called for the establishment of an ASEAN Occupational Safety and Health Network (ASEAN-OSHNET) in ASEAN Countries with the primary purpose of improving the working conditions and environment and to protect workers from occupational accidents and diseases.

Priority activities to be pursued under the ASEAN-OSHNET Plan of Action (1997-2000) include the dissemination of information, training for safety and health officers, research on the prevention and control of occupational hazards and the formulation of ASEAN guide-lines for classifying and packaging of hazardous chemicals. The network is also expected to facilitate the development of regionwide OSH standards, guidelines, training and promotional materials, amongst others.

Regarding the second on-going project, Promotion of Self-Employment and Develop-ment in the Informal Sector (ASEAN Regional Project on Informal Sector Development), which is being implemented with funding from the UNDP ASP-5 Subprogramme on Human Development, the ASEAN Secretariat completed the recruitment of country experts who will carry out national level studies of the needs of the informal sector in their respective countries with a view to preparing a training programme to improve the employment prospects of people working in the informal sector. A regional seminar to consider the training programme is scheduled to be held in October 1997.

The Second ASEAN Skills Competition was held in Manila, Philippines, in December 1996. There were a total of ten trade areas in the Competition, including among others, welding, electronics applications, automobile technology and carpentry. It was hoped that through this competition, workers would improve the level of their skills so that the economic potential of each country could be raised.

Disaster Management

Since a number of ASEAN Member Countries are prone to disasters, disaster management is a priority concern in regional collaboration. Following the 9th Meeting of the ASEAN Experts Group on Disaster Management (AEGDM) held in February 1996 in Manila, the Member Countries continued to implement the decisions made by the Meeting on studying suggestions to establish natural disaster research and development sub-centres in each ASEAN Member Country, to look into the possibility of setting up a quick response team to deal with disasters and on developing a Regional Programme on Disaster Management.

As sharing of information among the Member Countries on disaster management is very useful and important, the 9th AEGDM recommended that a proposal for the publication of the ASEAN Newsletter on Disaster Management (ADMIN) be endorsed for funding consideration under JAEP. Since the Philippines took over the responsibility for the publication, it was requested to circulate the project proposal for ad referendum by Member Countries. The project proposal was endorsed by the focal points of the AEGDM and sub-mitted to the Committee on Social Development (COSD) for approval.

To avoid duplication with the work of the ASEAN Sub-Committee on Meteorology and Geophysics, the Meeting agreed to invite the Chairman of the Sub-Committee on Meteorology to attend AEGDM Meetings in order to facilitate the exchange of information between the two sub-committees. The 19th Meeting of the ASEAN Sub-Committee on Meteorology and Geophysics (ASMG) held in Kuala Lumpur in July 1996 agreed that the ASMG Chairman would attend future AEGDM Meetings so as to facilitate the exchange of information between the two ASEAN bodies and to avoid duplication in project implementation.

With respect to the participation of observers in the AEGDM Meetings, the Second Meeting of the 30th ASEAN Standing Committee held in January 1997 approved the recommendation of the 9th AEGDM Meeting to grant observer status to Japan, Cambodia and Laos.

HIV/AIDS Prevention & Control

According to UNAIDS estimates, by the end of 1996 there were 5.2 million adults and children living with HIV/AIDS in the South and Southeast Asia region with women comprising more than 30 percent. UNAIDS also estimated that the number of people with HIV infection in the ASEAN region now accounts for 23 percent of total cases worldwide, with an average increase of about 3,000 new infections each day. Recognizing the growing serious impact and grave consequences of HIV/AIDS on ASEAN countries, the ASEAN Leaders at the Bangkok Summit Meeting in December 1995 emphasized that "ASEAN shall continue to strengthen the collective response to the problems and challenges posed by HIV/AIDS, including the mobilization of resources to support implementation of priority activities".

In response to the above directive, in the period under review, the ASEAN Member Countries have undertaken a number of steps at the national and regional levels to counter the AIDS problem including the further elaboration of the ASEAN Regional Programme on HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control into concrete activities. The Member Countries have approved the Terms of Reference for the consultant who is funded by UNAIDS to operationalize the Regional Programme.

The activities as proposed in the Regional Programme will be formulated into project proposals for the consideration and approval of the Member Countries. This constitutes a significant step forward in the collective effort to face the formidable challenge of HIV/AIDS in the region.

The 4th Meeting of the ASEAN Task Force on AIDS (ATFOA) held in October 1996 in Singapore represented another milestone for ASEAN in strengthening collective response to HIV/AIDS pandemic. To further elevate cooperation in this regard, the Meeting in Singapore identified the project concepts under the Regional Programme on HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control as high-profile projects (see Table 28), subject for further development for funding consideration under the ASEAN Fund.

To speed up the implementation of cooperative activities in the prevention and control of HIV/AIDS, the 4th ATFOA Meeting agreed to the principle of cost-sharing in implementing priority projects among ASEAN Member Countries. The Meeting also agreed that the project under the ASEAN Regional Programme, Seminar on HIV/AIDS Prevention and Education Among the Youth coordinated by Malaysia, will be implemented on a costsharing basis. The Seminar will serve as a forum for exchange of information and experience in youth HIV/AIDS prevention education. Each country will send one health official, one member of the NGO, one school official and one member of a youth organisation as participants in the Seminar.

To be effective, HIV/AIDS prevention and control should involve the community and mobilize the resources of NGOs and the private sector. With funding support under the ASEAN UNDP ASP-5 Sub-Programme on Human Development, the activities under the Regional Programme as shown in Table 29 are scheduled to be undertaken in 1997 in order to strengthen government and community efforts in dealing with the AIDS epidemic. An AIDS expert was commissioned by UNAIDS in June 1997 to assist the ASEAN Secretariat to operationalise the Regional Programme on HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control. The expert will travel to ASEAN Member and Observer Countries in July and August 1997 to develop project proposals and activities in the priority areas identified under the Regional Programme to explore funding possibilities, including cost sharing, with relevant international agencies and Member Countries.

In the year under review, ASEAN Member Countries have made significant progress in HIV/AIDS prevention and control. Their cooperation in this regard has also been broadened to involve Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar.

Children

The Resolution on the ASEAN Plan of Action for Children of 1993 recognises the importance of regional cooperation in improving conditions for children in ASEAN which complement efforts made at the national level. The Plan of Action is concerned with the survival, protection and development of the ASEAN Child and dovetails with other efforts aimed at generally improving the quality of life of the peoples of ASEAN.

As part of the on-going effort to protect the child by improving networking among child development professionals, the Workshop on the Establishment of an ASEAN Regional Centre/Network for Family and Child Development was held in October 1995 in Kuala Lumpur. Funded by UNICEF, the workshop reviewed the draft report and discussed project concepts and proposals to pursue programme areas and activities in line with the objectives and thrusts of the ASEAN Plan of Action for Children.

The conclusions and recommendations of the workshop were collated in a report and will be published under the title ASEAN: For the Child, For the Family-Study on the Feasibility of an ASEAN Mechanism on Child and Family Development. The Workshop endorsed the project, ASEAN Computer-Based Information Network for Family and Child Development, for ACU appraisal .

Following the Workshop, three projects under the Report were endorsed by the ASEAN Desk Officers for Children by ad referendum approval, namely: 1) Information Sharing on Legislation Concerning Child Protection with Particular Emphasis on Community Watch Against Children; 2) and Neglect; and 3) Early Childhood Care and Development. These projects reflect ASEAN's concern for the abuse of children, and the importance of promoting childcare programmes in safeguarding the welfare of children.

Other initiatives in this sector are aimed at ensuring healthy child development. These initiatives take the form of training for child care service providers, the promotion of responsible parenthood and family development. The last, family development and its strengthening has recently come to the fore as a key ASEAN concern.