For over 60 years, rapid development has taken place in the ASEAN and Malaysian communities. Six decades is a long time, and a variety of social changes have taken place during that period. Development is aimed at upgrading or elevating the life status of communities towards that of developed countries in the aspects of health, economy, urbanisation, and formal education. However, behind this developmental progress is the impact of the changes on the lives and well-being of older people.
Shiela May Pansoy, a 39-year-old native of Davao del Sur, is one of the 37,000 women in the Philippine police force.
One night in 2019, Shinta Puspa Dewi found herself hiding under the bed as her patient yelled, “Hide, or they will shoot you!”. Her patient, who has dementia, believed they were in the middle of a war.
Tra My Nguyen was a model student all her life, but felt unfulfilled even after landing what she thought was her dream job: an engineer in advanced materials. It did not take long for Tra My to realise she did not want to spend the rest of her life surrounded by cold machines in a laboratory. She decided to quit.
Shwegyin Town in Bago District, Myanmar, is reputed to be one of the country’s best places to get gold. The town lives up to its name, “Shwegyin,” which means “making gold” in English. However, the precious mineral is not what keeps bringing 27-year-old Nwat Derli Zaw back to the town.
Noemi Obrero Abainza is a working mother and sole parent to her two children while her husband works overseas.
In 2014, three teenage girls rocked their way to fame from a small village in Garut, West Java, Indonesia. Firda ‘Marsya’ Kurnia (lead vocal, guitar), Euis Sitti Aisyah (drums), and Widi Rahmawati (bass) formed a band, Voice of Baceprot (pronounced ba-chey-PROT, means “noise” in a West Java dialect). Fans saw them as female artists who were challenging gender stereotypes and religious norms. The brave, talented teens, all wore the hijab or Islamic headscarves and played rock music. But the band’s performances and garb courted controversy and harsh criticisms too.
The girls say all they wanted was to play music and express themselves. Nine years after they burst into the music scene, Marsya, Sitti, and Widi reflect on how they have found meaning, and their voices in the noise around them.
by Resilience Development Initiative and Aly Diana ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community Policy Brief
#7 ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community Policy Brief The ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community (ASCC) Policy Brief is a publication of the ASCC Department at the ASEAN Secretariat. It identifies trends and challenges that will impact ASEAN and ASCC sectors and propose policy-relevant solutions and recommendations to uplift the quality of lives of ASEAN people. This policy brief discusses ASEAN’s progress in developing resilient health systems. It recommends more research and development, supply chain connectivity and resource pooling, and stronger primary health care to improve the ability of countries to deliver the health needs of their population at all times and withstand and respond to future emergencies.
The concept of loss and damage was first raised in the 1991 climate change negotiations by Vanuatu as a facility to compensate small island developing states for the devastating impacts of sea-level rise. Subsequently, the term “loss and damage” has come to be understood as any negative consequences of climate change on economic, social and environmental systems.
Sixty youth representatives from the ASEAN Member States gathered in Jakarta on 10-14 April 2023, for the second ASEAN Youth Dialogue on Digital Development for SDGs. Indonesia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Youth and Sports hosted and organised the event.