ASEAN Sustaibale Development Goals
The Heads of States and Governments of the ASEAN Member States declared in the ASEAN Charter the aspiration “to ensure sustainable development for the benefit of present and future generations, and to place the well-being, livelihood and welfare of the peoples at the center of the ASEAN community building process” (ASEAN, 2007). And since the foundation of Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the environmental goals have always been in the discussion albeit less prioritized. However, in the past several years, the regional organization made an incremental progress and outstanding efforts towards the implementation of sustainable goals especially which of within the agenda of United Nations. Therefore, it can be analyzed that ASEAN’s steps towards the implementation of the UN Sustainable Goals (UN SDG) can be summarized into three major actions. First, the launch of the ASEAN Community. Secondly, the synergizing ASEAN sustainable goals into UN SDGs. Lastly, through the ASEAN Secretariat and policy integration.
First, the ASEAN community is built on a commonly forged vision of shared prosperity in the region, and an active international role. While the ASEAN Community Vision 2025 highlights regional priorities, it also reflects and complements the larger vision of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (2030 Agenda) that was being negotiated within the framework of the United Nations (UN) around the same time and to which ASEAN governments are now committed. In fact, the ASEAN Community Vision 2025, explicitly recognizes the opportunity to address the two Agendas simultaneously through common measures — ASEAN Member States underlined “the complementarity of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development with ASEAN community building efforts to uplift the standards of living of our peoples” (ASEAN, 2015).
In 2016, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Thailand and the ASEAN Secretariat took the initial step of conducting a mapping exercise, matching all the commitments in the ASEAN Vision 2025 to the goals and targets of the SDGs. The ASEAN Vision 2025 of “an integrated, peaceful and stable community with shared prosperity” is lodged in respect for the environment and planetary boundaries. For example, the ASEAN Vision 2020, which charts a future for ASEAN countries, aspires to “a clean and green ASEAN with fully established mechanisms for sustainable development to ensure the protection of the region’s environment, the sustainability of natural resources and the high quality of life of its peoples.” While ASEAN Member States are developing their economies, they also agree to fulfil their international commitments beyond ASEAN.
Secondly, on 2015, as an official step, the association successfully launched the ASEAN Community which at the same time run along with the global ‘Sustainable Development Goals (SGDs). Regional integration is crucial to achieve the goals and objectives of an organization and at the same time attain as much as possible in the sustainable development, which means the objectives of the ASEAN Community must run parallel with the SDGs. And among the major actions decided by the ASEAN Member States (AMS) and within the ‘ASEAN Community Vision 2025: Forging Ahead Together’ to strengthen integration process and realise an ‘ASEAN Community’ was the sustainable development. Unlike the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), ‘ASEAN Community’ was designed based on the ‘three pillars’ of ASEAN parlance as ‘Economic’, ‘Socio-cultural’, ‘Political Security’ and which can be found in ASEAN Charter (ASEAN 2008) emphasizing the relevance of “…sustainable development for the benefit of present and future generations…to place the well-being, livelihood and welfare of the peoples at the centre of the ASEAN community building process” (p.2). And to further institutionalize the significance of environmental, Koh Kheng-Lian & Saiful Karim proposed and suggested to have an additional pillar in ASEAN that is particularly for such matter (Alam et al, 2013).
According to Olsen et. al (2015), significance of aligning ASEAN Community objectives and integration with the SDGs can be simplified into two major reasons. First, since the global goals like sustainable developments play an important role in the lower levels, it must be pursued in a rational manner not only at regional level but also at global, national and sub-national levels. Second, is to establish a regional framework that shows the necessity of unified ASEAN to successfully resolve, counter and balance the sustainability issues like biodiversity protection and ecosystem management.
Lastly, ASEAN Secretariat may be overlooked by many, but in reality, it carries a primary responsibility towards regional integration in coordinating actions between its states and stakeholders considering the fact that the secretariat, as explained by Olsen et. al (2015), is the personification of the core mandate for ASEAN organs’ efficiency in coordination and to realise effective execution of organization’s projects, programs and activities. As envisioned by former ASEAN Secretary General Dr. Pitsuwan, he said that the “nerve centre of a strong and confident ASEAN Community that is globally respected for acting in full compliance with its Charter and in the best interest of its people”. In ASEAN Community’s Roadmap, realization of activities for regional integration were guided and can be found under a nationally driven initiatives, regional activities that complements the aforementioned, and regional activities that work on setting up regional mechanisms which are all essential in the regional integration and for the future SDGs.
In spite of the fact that ASEAN Secretariat plays a big role in the regional integration and synergizing its objectives to SDGs, it is undeniably lacking enough staff and resources compared to its wide range of projects and activities (Chongkittavon, 2012). It was pointed out that each state has the basic legal framework to include environmental issues, however, it is the institutions will and capability that makes the synergy of laws with the sustainability development goals for instance, on 2002, ASEAN Agreement of Transboundary Haze Pollution was discussed. And despite of that emerged issue it is still a challenge for the organization to fill in the seats since it costs a lot of money which is estimated to avail a unit of fighter jet.
Policy integration is another important element in an overall cooperation. And to further justify the relevance and efficiency of ASEAN Community’s SDG policies are, a European Union’s experience must be taken into account on how it managed to use institutional mechanisms and structures to organize cross-sectoral integration. One of the good examples is the ‘political declarations of intent’ which signifies the environmental sustainability in their preambles and objectives (Jordan, 2008). Relatively, this ‘political declarations of intent’ can also be found in ASEAN albeit it is yet to be synergize with the SDGs. Scholars said that this political agenda-setting has better potential to be more beneficial for ASEAN than how it was in EU by referring to the automatic implementation in national level immediately after it finished the intergovernmental level.
It can be deduced from the abovementioned discussion that in order for ASEAN to succeed in the implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and put the integration in the heart of the organization, it must take into account ASEAN’s ‘three pillars’ — economic, socio-cultural and political security — and must be taken in a balanced, coherent and coordinated manner. In order for the ASEAN to attain the paradigm that signifies sustainable development, it must adopt the Sustainable Development Goals that leads to regional prosperity. However, organization’s institutional structure will be a key challenge for the SDGs to align its cross-cutting nature which was designed based on a top-down structure. Furthermore, there is an unequal state implementation on environmental sustainability at the national level in ASEAN countries and various sectors which adds up to the hard-bound integration in the region. Nevertheless, there is a constant and incremental growth in the environmental sustainability practice of ASEAN Member States which indicates that in a certain time, the efforts of the ASEAN to implement UN SDGs can be achieved and gives high hopes.
References:
Alam, S. (2013). Routledge handbook of international environmental law. London: Routledge.
Chun, J. (2016). Asean environmental integration: Sustainable goals. Singapore Journal of Legal Studies, 2016(2), 374–378.
Olsen, S. et, al. (2105). ASEAN Community and the Sustainable Development Goals: Positioning Sustainability at the Heart of Regional Integration. Institute for Global Environmental Strategies
