A historic milestone for ASEAN’s future took place at the ASEAN Secretariat in Jakarta on 10–11 September with the first-ever public Conference on Human Development, co-organised by the ASEAN Human Development Organisation, the ASEAN Secretariat, and the ASEAN Foundation.
I had the honour to open the event with welcoming remarks as Founder of AHDO, alongside Rodora Babaran, Director for Human Development at the ASEAN Secretariat (at right in the picture). The keynote speeches clearly placed human development at the centre of the regional agenda. H.E. San Lwin, Deputy Secretary-General for the Socio-Cultural Community, described ASEAN’s overarching priorities toward Vision 2045 (second from left in the picture), while H.E. Pratikno, Indonesia’s Coordinating Minister for Human Development and Cultural Affairs, detailed Indonesia’s ambitions for achieving broad human development goals (third from left in the picture). Andy Arvianto, Director of Human Capital at Pertamina, illustrated how state-owned enterprises implement human development strategies as part of their mission (second from right in the picture).
The conference then explored three main themes: mainstreaming human development, human development thought leadership and the future of work.
The theme of Mainstreaming Human Development for ASEAN 2045 was powerfully advocated by Tshering Lhamo, Economist at UNDP Indonesia, who presented the United Nations’ call for human development to become central across all ASEAN policies and sectors. Another international voice came from Alexander Böhmer, Head of Southeast Asia Global Relations at the OECD, who presented examples of how ASEAN can set human development goals for the region developed with advanced economies for the future.
The conference then turned to Human Development Thought Leadership and Research for ASEAN 2045, in which Dr. Piti Srisangnam, Executive Director of the ASEAN Foundation, outlined innovative instruments for regional progress. Senjaya Mulia, Founder of the ASEAN Youth Organisation, gave voice to next generation of ASEAN leadership, and Associate Professor Dr. Dawisa Sritanyarat of the ASEAN University Network mapped out the higher education and research roadmap to 2045. ASEAN’s cohesion around development as freedom and equality of justice was explained by Yuyun Wahyuningrum, former Executive Director of ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights and Indonesia’s former representative to the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR—the human rights body for ASEAN). Human development mainstreaming in the private sector and ASEAN’s economic pillar was underlined by Rifki Weno, Executive Director of the ASEAN Business Advisory Council, who emphasized the centrality of human development for ASEAN business.
In the final theme, The Future of Work in ASEAN 2045, Associate Professor Renee Tan from Singapore’s Institute for Adult Learning illustrated lifelong learning and continuing development is a necessity rather than a luxury in the transformations coming from artificial intelligence. Dr. Oliver Suendermann, Vice President Clinical at Intellect, presented the first ASEAN white paper mental health and well-being with pioneering research on the private and public sector workplace. Tirza Munusamy, Chief of Public Affairs at Grab Indonesia, explained the importance of extending the role of public-private partnership for human development in the rapidly growing gig workforce.
Throughout the conference, speakers reinforced the idea of mainstreaming human development in ASEAN and collaborating across sectors and across borders to make ASEAN’s commitment to a people-centred future a reality.
From my personal point of view as founder of ASEAN’s first civil society organisation for human development, this inaugural conference marked for me the turning point when leaders from different sectors and institutions understand and embrace human development as central to ASEAN’s vision of the future. As AHDO’s mission is not only to advocate for human development but also to enhance human development careers, this conference was leap forward in bringing together the millions-strong community of human development professionals in the region.
