The Kuala Lumpur Declaration on ASEAN 2045: Our Shared Future signals an important evolution in ASEAN’s community-building journey. Building on the earlier phases that focused on institutional integration, the ASEAN Community Vision 2045 places stronger emphasis on regional solidarity, human rights, and social inclusion. This shift reflects ASEAN’s growing recognition that sustainable regional progress cannot be measured solely by economic growth. Rather, it depends equally on the empowerment, protection, and meaningful participation of the region’s people.

Within this context, the concept of “people-centred ASEAN” gains renewed significance. It is anchored on meaningful participation, good governance and accountability, and the protection of fundamental rights and freedoms. These principles form the bedrock of the new Strategic Plans that will guide ASEAN’s development over the next two decades. Together, they reaffirm that the success of ASEAN integration lies in improving the lives of its people.

Actors and agency of change

A people-centred ASEAN Community makes clear that women, children, persons with disabilities, older persons, and communities in vulnerable situations are more than beneficiaries of regional cooperation; they are rights-holders, partners, and drivers of social transformation. Turning this vision into coordinated action will shape ASEAN’s next phase of community-building.

The ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community (ASCC) Strategic Plan articulates a shared vision of what a people-centred ASEAN Community looks like, as it charts the results ASEAN hopes to achieve after a decade and outlines the pathways to reach those goals. The Strategic Plan includes 112 strategic measures that cover a broad spectrum of social welfare, equity, and human development concerns across the region.

At this critical juncture, the ASCC Strategic Plan sets the direction for ASEAN’s coordinated efforts. It serves as the bridge between high-level aspirations under the ASEAN Community Vision 2045 and the 2026–2030 Work Plans of the 15 ASEAN Sectoral Bodies (ASBs) and ASEAN Entities within the ASCC. Out of the 15 ASBs within the ASCC, four embarked on an innovative undertaking to synchronise the development of their five-year work plans. These sectoral bodies are the ASEAN Committee on Women (ACW), the ASEAN Commission on the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Women and Children (ACWC), the Senior Officials Meeting on Social Welfare and Development (SOMSWD), and the Senior Officials Meeting on Rural Development and Poverty Eradication (SOMRDPE). Collectively, they have been mandated to advancing a substantial share of the Strategic Plan’s priority measures over the next ten years.

The synergy of these four bodies is crucial as they lead and contribute to a significant majority of the strategic measures, with SOMSWD being the sectoral body leading or co-leading the most number of measures across the ASCC. While each of these bodies plays a distinct role, their complementary and combined contributions underscore the growing importance of cross-sectoral collaboration within ASEAN’s socio-cultural pillar.

This innovative model sharpens functional complementation at both the regional and country levels. It recognises SOMSWD’s role as the implementation lead given its strong operational presence on the ground. Meanwhile, ACWC acts as a rights advocate, ensuring that policies and programmes remain aligned with international and regional human rights standards; ACW serves as the gender architect and vision leader on gender equality and women’s empowerment; and SOMRDPE contributes as a catalyst for grassroots participation, strengthening engagement with communities and civil society.

Therefore, the agreement to develop synchronised work plans goes beyond streamlining programme management. These bodies increasingly share common agendas, and the activities and outputs in previous work plan cycles were often pursued jointly. Also, national-level implementation requires stronger inter-agency coordination among ministry focal points. This approach moves ASEAN cooperation away from siloed initiatives toward integrated national and regional outcomes.

Looking back: Milestones from the past five years

As ASEAN moves forward with the implementation of the ASEAN Community Vision 2045, it is equally important to recognise the foundations laid during the implementation of the ASCC Blueprint 2025. Reviewing the progress made between 2015 and 2025 provides important context for understanding ASEAN’s next phase of development.

Looking back at this period reveals significant milestones achieved by ACW, ACWC, SOMSWD, and SOMRDPE through their respective work plans. These efforts have helped advance gender equality and women’s empowerment, social protection and social welfare and development, rural development and poverty alleviation, and inclusive participation across the region.

On gender equality and women’s empowerment

One of the most notable developments during the ASCC Blueprint 2025 period has been the advancement of the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda in ASEAN. At the midpoint of the Blueprint’s implementation, only a small number of ASEAN Member States had adopted National Action Plans on WPS. Since then, WPS has gathered considerable momentum.

The adoption of the Joint Statement on WPS and the ASEAN Regional Plan of Action on WPS provided important regional frameworks for advancing this agenda. Several ASEAN Member States have since developed and begun implementing their national plans, while others are developing nationally tailored policy frameworks aligned with the WPS agenda.

Regional platforms have also played a critical role in sustaining this momentum. The ASEAN WPS Summits held in 2021, 2023 and 2025, under the leadership of Cambodia, Indonesia and Malaysia, have provided important spaces for dialogue and the exchange of experiences and awareness-raising on the WPS agenda, including highlighting the contributions of women’s organisations at the community level.

An important institutional development has been the establishment of the Advisory Group on WPS in ASEAN, which serves as a mechanism for cross-sectoral coordination. The Advisory Group brings together ASEAN Sectoral Bodies and entities such as ACW, ACWC, the ASEAN Defence Senior Officials’ Meeting (ADSOM), the Senior Officials Meeting on Transnational Crime Working Group on Counter-Terrorism (SOMTC WG on CT), the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR), the ASEAN Institute for Peace and Reconciliation (ASEAN-IPR), and the ASEAN Women Entrepreneurs Network (AWEN).

On addressing unpaid care work and strengthening the care economy

Another key milestone during this period has been the growing recognition of the care economy. ASEAN has long acknowledged the link between unpaid care work and women’s economic empowerment, recognising that unequal care responsibilities remain closely tied to persistent gender inequalities and social norms that disadvantage women and girls. In 2024, ASEAN Leaders adopted the ASEAN Declaration on Strengthening the Care Economy and Fostering Resilience Towards the Post-2025 ASEAN Community, building on the ASEAN Comprehensive Framework on Care Economy. Moving forward, stronger partnerships between women and men, and between girls and boys, will be essential for shifting mindsets and promoting the recognition, redistribution, and remuneration of unpaid care and domestic work.

On institutionalising gender mainstreaming

ASEAN has also strengthened efforts to institutionalise gender mainstreaming across its cooperation frameworks. The adoption of the ASEAN Gender Mainstreaming Strategic Framework, together with the establishment of the ASEAN Gender Mainstreaming Steering Committee, represents an important institutional milestone. Comprising representatives from ACW, the ACWC, the ASEAN Cooperation on Civil Service Matters (ACCSM), the ASEAN Centre for Energy (ACE), ASEAN Coordinating Committee on Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (ACCMSME), and the Senior Labour Officials Meeting (SLOM), the Steering Committee provides a platform for regional dialogue and coordination while strengthening the capacity of ASEAN Sectoral Bodies to integrate gender perspectives into policies and programmes.

On social welfare, rights and inclusion

During the implementation of the ASCC Blueprint 2025, the ASEAN Enabling Masterplan 2025: Mainstreaming the Rights of Persons with Disabilities was adopted and operationalised across ASEAN Member States. The masterplan institutionalised the participation of organisations of persons with disabilities in ASEAN platforms and processes and embedded disability inclusion in the regional development agenda across all sectors.

The promotion and protection of women’s rights and children’s rights figured prominently as ASEAN ensured synergy between the implementation of the regional plans of action on the elimination of violence against women and violence against children with national policies and programmes. Significantly, ASEAN leveraged regional cooperation to strengthen child online protection with the ASEAN Leaders’ adoption of the Regional Plan of Action for the Protection of Children from All Forms of Online Exploitation and Abuse in ASEAN and the regular convening of the ASEAN ICT Forum on Child Online Protection. The latter brings together governments, industry stakeholders, NGOs, and children and youth organisations to deliberate on strategies and actions to combat online child sexual exploitation and abuse and empower children and youth.

The ASEAN Declaration on Strengthening Social Protection continued to be implemented. SOMSWD championed the development of regional guidelines that enabled practitioners and frontline service providers, particularly in addressing the intersectionality of social protection, disaster risk reduction, and climate change, and in protecting women and children.

On community-driven development

Multi-stakeholder approaches, such as the Public-Private-People Partnership (4P) model and the ASEAN Villages Network, have strengthened collaboration among governments, rural communities, and the private sector. Building on this, the ASEAN Master Plan on Rural Development places greater emphasis on empowering rural communities by promoting sustainable livelihoods, improving digital connectivity and reinforcing local institutions, ensuring rural areas remain integral to the region’s inclusive development journey toward 2045.

Sustaining the momentum

As ASEAN embarks on implementing the ASEAN Community Vision 2045, sustaining momentum will require promoting inclusion in systems and structures through proactive, forward-looking, and anticipatory approaches that strengthen resilience, particularly for vulnerable groups across the region. Women, children and persons with disabilities will increasingly be recognised not merely as vulnerable recipients but as active agents of peacebuilding, innovation and economic participation. The partnership approach moves beyond gender-specific silos, engaging men and boys in the redistribution of care responsibilities and the dismantling of harmful stereotypes.

Greater cross-sectoral synergy and streamlined coordination will be necessary to overcome barriers to collaboration, strengthen policy coherence and optimise resources at both regional and national levels. Critical to this endeavour is ensuring that engagement with external partners remains aligned with ASEAN’s own priorities and guided by the principle of ASEAN Centrality. Regional cooperation should continue to reflect the needs and aspirations of the people of ASEAN. This will be complemented by effective monitoring and evaluation mechanisms to track progress in implementing the 112 strategic measures outlined in the ASCC Strategic Plan.

Ultimately, the ASEAN Community Vision 2045 is more than a long-term roadmap. It represents a collective commitment to building a resilient, inclusive, and people-centred ASEAN Community. Its success will be measured by how effectively ASEAN’s institutions work together to empower people as co-creators of ASEAN’s shared future.