Declaration

ASEAN Region Roundtable on MDGs

“ECOSOC’s Promotion and Achievement of Millennium Development Goals through Education and Outreach”

Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), Bangkok 25

March 2008

We, the participants of the ASEAN Region Roundtable held on the 24 and 25 March 2008 at the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), commit ourselves to assist in achieving all the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by the year 2015.

Having considered the Millennium Declaration signed in 2000 with its 2001 Roadmap to achieve the UN MDGs, and their importance in Capacity-building, Education and Training, and taking into consideration ECOSOC’s new features of the Development Cooperation Forum and of the Annual Ministerial Review, including its 2008 theme of “Implementing the internationally-agreed Goals and commitments, in regard to sustainable development” aiming for a full and timely implementation of the goals and targets of the major United Nations Conferences and Summits, we have adopted the following:

1. We support the creation of the ASEAN Regional Centre of Excellence on MDGs at the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), Bangkok that will promote, educate and train on MDGs throughout the region. In close collaboration with actors in the field, the Centre will develop pedagogic modules, educational materials and tools for MDG training in government and academic institutions, civil society, and NGOs complementing similar initiatives by other Centres of Excellence on MDGs operating elsewhere in the world.

2. We recognize the achievements of the ASEAN region in economic and social development, and the diversity in development levels of countries in the region, and we reaffirm our commitment leading to substantial progress towards reducing poverty and hunger to support ASEAN countries needing assistance in achieving the MDGs.

3. We stress promotion of gender equality and empowerment of women as a cross-cutting issue throughout all MDGs, viewed within the human rights perspective and linked to the Millennium Declaration. It is interconnected and inter-related with other documents such as Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), Beijing Platform For Action (BPFA), the Paris Declaration on aid effectiveness, and other international commitments.

4. We acknowledge the importance of environment as a foundation for sustainable development and equitable human progress as being promoted by all the MDGs.

5. We reiterate the importance of MDG provisions for global partnership for development, including the 2007 Ministerial declaration of the High-level segment of ECOSOC, and we resolve to enhance partnerships at international, regional and sub-regional levels throughout the ASEAN region across a broad range of stakeholders for effective MDG advocacy and implementation, including through corporate social responsibility (CSR).

6. We emphasize the importance of offering relevant and innovative pedagogical approaches adapted to the MDGs in partnership with governments, NGOs, civil society, private sector, and international agencies. In this regard, we commend the dialogue that took place at the Roundtable on the Syllabus and Module development for full-fledged teaching and training materials on the MDGs to be evaluated for accreditation by UNITAR and offered by the ASEAN Regional Centre of Excellence on MDGs.

7. We are grateful to the UN Secretary-General for supporting this initiative. We also salute the efforts of UN-NGO-IRENE, Asian Chapter of the Conference of NGOs (CONGO), and AIT for making possible the cooperation and implementation of this pioneering initiative.