Sustainability Watch Asia

Preparations for Localizing SusWatch with a Clear Global Focus in 2007 and Beyond in Asia

While it has been a challenge to build consensus within a network as large and diverse as Sustainability Watch, we have managed to reach a point of convergence after two years of existence. The last SusWatch meeting in Nairobi (held in mid-January) affirmed our unity on monitoring the implementation of the 2002 Johannesburg Plan of Implementation and producing annual national and global Sustainability Watch reports. We have also decided to focus on local sustainability issues and to create tools to enable communities attain their development goals in a sustainable manner.

The Nairobi meeting also agreed to optimize our engagement in the following global campaigns:

Sep-Oct 2007: 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) Plus Five Campaign
2007-2008: MDG mid-point campaign
2009-2010: MDG Last 5-year campaign
2011-2012: WSSD Plus Ten Campaign

ASEAN+3 agrees on Asian Monetary Fund

During the 10th round ASEAN+3 financial ministers' talks at Kyoto , Japan , on May 5, South Korea , China , Japan and Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) member states agreed to create the US$80 billion Asian Monetary Fund (AMF) for common responses to crises taking place in the region.

The agreement goes one step further than the Chiang Mai initiative signed by the financial ministers of the 10 nations at Chiang Mai in May 2000. The Chiang Mai initiative, so far, has been about currency swap, in which a country in the region in a crisis trusts its currency and borrows foreign currencies for the short term. If a single common fund in which all the member countries participate is established, it is expected to help the regional financial market stabilize.

The agreement is meaningful because it means Asia has started to speak with a clearer voice in the U.S.-led global financial order. Every effort of Asia to achieve financial cooperation has been failed due to objections from the United States . When Japan first supported the creation of the AMF in 1998, shortly after the Asian financial crisis, the U.S. was clearly opposed to it, as it was in 2000 when the Chiang Mai initiative was maturing.

Sustainability Watch Asia Supports SAPA!

The Solidarity for Asian People Advocacy (SAPA) convened from Feb 15-16 its 1st General Forum in Bangkok, Thailand. As part of this forum, Sustainability Watch Asia and Third World Network (TWN) organized a panel discussion on environment and sustainable development. Other related side events were also scheduled from Feb 13-14 and 17 to 19th. This side events include: a) Seminar on ASEAN Economic Regional Integration; b) Forum on China-ASEAN Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and c) Preparatory meeting for the CSO engagement in the 2008 ASEM (Asia-Europe Meeting) in China. SAPA is being set-up to enhance the effectiveness and impacts of civil society advocacy by improving communication, cooperation and coordination among NGOs operating regionally in the face of rapidly increaing and multiplying inter-governmental processes and meetings in Asia. Follow our daily blog HERE.

Prospects of Sustainability Watch in Asia in 2007 and Beyond - Looking at ASEAN Engagement

By Roy Cabonegro, SusWatch Regional Facilitator for Asia

In the 2nd Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) Civil Society Conference (ACSC) held last December 10-13, in Cebu City, Philippines, the Sustainability Watch network in Asia coanchored two very important workshops –one on revisiting the regional commons and the other on the continuing challenge and prospects of MDG implementation in the region - particularly focused on MDG 1-7-8 inter linkages.

More than 100 Civil Society representatives from the 10 nations in ASEAN plus Timor Leste, as well CSO representatives from other regions, participated.

As ASEAN moves forward in its regional integration with a renewed commitment for an ASEAN charter which will provide a move legally binding “constitution” for regional integration across these 10 nations in the region, Sustainability Watch networks in Philippines, Vietnam and Indonesia may find it relevant to consider this platform more seriously. In the workshop on MDG implementation in ASEAN, we committed both to consider joining a mid-point campaign in the implementation of the MDGs in the region for 2007 being the middle point in the 15-year implementation period of the MDG since 2000.

SusWatch Joins Philippine CSOs in a Dialogue with government on IMF-WB issues!

Last August 24, the Philippines SusWatch Network together with other major CSO networks in the Philippines met with top government officials from the finance agency & the central bank on IMF-WB. The CSOs presented to the government their joint position paper on IMF-WB issues. In principle the government agreed with these positions and offered to maintian this initial dialogue into a regular semestral open discussion between CSOs and the Department of Finance and Banko Sentral ng Pilipinas. They also expressed support for the CSO position to push for debt relief options for middle income countries like the Philippines as an advocacy point in IMF-WB.

More...