Roundtable Discussion on ASEAN Women and Children Protection through Civil Society and Academic Participation

To continue the Public Lectures which was held on Monday, 30 August 2021 on ASEAN Women and Children Protection through Civil Society and Academic Participation, the ASEAN Studies Center at Universitas Gadjah Mada invited groups of academia and think-tanks and CSOs working in the field of child protection and women empowerment on Tuesday, 31 August 2021. These entities came together for a roundtable discussion to discuss the common challenges in realising the protection of women in the national and regional level, whether already established networks were available, issues that have the ACWC yet to cover and in what ways the academia as well as CSOs could support this effort.

This Roundtable Discussion was held to build a stronger engagement between the ACWC, CSOs as well as the academia and was briefly opened by Ms. Yuyum Fhahni Paryani as the lead moderator. Participants of the discussion were then divided into three panels. The first panel delved into the topic of the CSO (Women) Support to the Work of the ACWC which was facilitated by Ms. Vicky Barreto, a Development Specialist. The second panel discussed CSO (Children) Support to the Work of the ACWC the discussion of which was facilitated by Mr. Hafizh Noer, an Associate Fellow at Policy Lab. The last panel was facilitated by Mr. Tunggul Wicaksono, Research Manager at ASEAN Studies Center at Universitas Gadjah Mada discussing the topic of Think-tank and Academia Support to the Work of the ACWC.

Having discussed in separate groups, participants regathered for a Townhall discussion to share the output of each group. A discussant of the Session, H.E. Wan Noraidah binti Wan Mohd Zain, Director of Children Division at the Department of Social Welfare in Malaysia, noted the high interest for continued engagement to take place, the need to stablish an overview on areas of expertise among CSOs and Think Tank in women and child issues to further discuss possible methods of collaboration.

The roundtable discussion was convened to help map and overcome the current challenges of the ACWC, amid the pandemic and increasing priorities of the ACWC in implementing their work plan. The importance of working together was also noted by the meeting. In order to achieve this, the support from ASEAN Member States was noted as imminent.

The roundtable discussion convened at 13.00 and ended at 16.45.