October 8th, 2010
Office of International Cooperation,
International Affairs Division,
Minister's Secretariat
Ministry of Health,Labour and Welfare, Japan
1-2-2 Kasumigaseki,Chiyoda-ku,Tokyo 100-8916, Japan
Tel: +81-3-3595-2404 (Direct)
Fax: +81-3-3502-6678
The 8th ASEAN & Japan High Level Officials Meeting on Caring Societies
Outline of Summary
1. Theme
Poverty alleviation with a focus on vulnerable people
- through strengthening collaboration between the social welfare and health services-
2. About meeting
Date and venue
30 August - 2 September 2010, MITA KAIGISHO, Tokyo
Organizers
Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, JAPAN (MHLW)
Collaborators
The ASEAN Secretariat
WHO Regional Office for Western Pacific (WPRO)
International Labour Organization (ILO) Office in Japan
Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)
Participants
- 46 High level officials (including 1 undersecretaries) from Kingdom of Cambodia, Republic of Indonesia, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Malaysia, The Union of Myanmar, Republic of the Philippines, Kingdom of Thailand, Socialist Republic of Vietnam, Brunei Darussalam and the Republic of Singapore (Two officials including one Director General or equivalent in both Health and Welfare sector from each country )
- People’s Republic of China(2) and Republic of Korea (2)
- 2 officials from ASEAN Secretariat, 1 official from WHO/WPRO, 1 official from ILO office in Japan
3. Programme
Monday 30 August 2010
- Opening Address (Mr. Hiroyuki Nagahama, Senior Vice-Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare)
- Introduction “The 8th ASEAN & Japan High Level Officials Meeting on Caring Societies “Poverty alleviation with a focus on vulnerable people” (Mr. Daisuke Koga, Deputy Director, Office of International Cooperation, International Affairs Division, Minister’s Secretariat, MHLW)
- Keynote Speech “Understanding Poverty : Concepts and Its Consequences” (PDF:959KB)(Dr. Aya Abe, Director, National Institute of Population and Social Security Research)
- Presentation “Policy Frame for Poverty Alleviation ?Recent Japanese Experiences-”(PDF:2,123KB)(Mr. Yasuhiro Fujii, Deputy Assistant Minister for International Planning, Minister’s Secretatiat, MHLW)
- Presentation “Community-Based Participatory Approaches for Poverty Alleviation ?Good Practice in Japan and Cambodia-”(PDF:3,215KB) (Prof. Hideharu Uemura, Japan College of Social Work)
- Country presentations (ASEAN countries)
※The country reports submitted to this meeting from each participant country are uploaded on the MHLW webpage.
Tuesday 31 August 2010
- Study visit (Idobata Genki (Commuting long-term care), Nonohana No Ie (Children’s nursing home), FAH (Friendship Asia House) Kosumosu (Facility for livelihood supporting of fatherless families))
Wednesday 1 September 2010
- Presentation “ASEAN’s Efforts in Health and Social Welfare Sectors to Address Poverty-related Issues in the Region”(PDF:843KB) (Ms. Jintana Sriwongsa, Senior Officer, Health and Communicable Diseases Division, The ASEAN Secretariat and Ms. Irena Mega, Senior Officer, Social Welfare, Women, Labour and Migrant Workers Division, The ASEAN Secretariat.)
- Presentation “Addressing poverty in health : a framework for analysis and action”(PDF:1,110KB) (Ms. Anjana Bhushan, Technical Officer, Health in Development, WHO/WPRO)
- Presentation “JICA’s Efforts for Poverty Alleviation –Focusing on the collaboration between health and welfare sectors-”(PDF:1,265KB) (Mr. Shintaro Nakamura, Senior Adviser, Human Development Department, JICA)
- Presentation “Poverty Alleviation and Decent Work”(PDF:593KB) (Mr. Shinichi Hasegawa, Director, ILO office in Japan)
- Group Discussion
Group 1:
“Challenges and Prospects on Poverty Reduction Measures by way of collaboration between Health and Welfare Sector at National Level”
Facilitator:
Dr. Aya Abe, Director, National Institute of Population and Social Security Research
Group 2:
“How should the Central and Local Governments be collaborated in light of Poverty Reduction Programs under the cooperation between Health and Welfare Sector”
Facilitator: Prof. Hideharu Uemura, Japan College of Social Work
Group 3:
“Challenges and Prospects on Poverty Reduction Measures by way of collaboration between Health and Welfare Sector at National Level”
Facilitator:
Mr. Shintaro Nakmura, Senior Adviser, Human Development Department, JICA
Group 4:
“How should the Central and Local Governments be collaborated in light of Poverty Reduction Programs under the cooperation between Health and Welfare Sector”
Facilitator:
Ms. Chiyoko Numata, The Secretary General, The Japan League on Development Disabilities
Thursday 2 September 2010
- Report of Group Discussion
- Summary, Conclusion and Recommendations
- Remarks of the 8th Meeting (ASEAN Countries, ASEAN Secretariat, Dr. Abe, Prof. Uemura, Mr. Nakamura)
- Summary, Conclusion and Recommendations (Dr. Teiji Takei, Director, Office of International Cooperation, International Affairs Division, Minister’s Secretariat, MHLW) - Closing Remarks (Mr. Taro Muraki, Assistant Minister for International Affairs, Minister’s Secretariat, MHLW)
4. Outline of Discussion
In the keynote speech, Dr. Abe introduced the latest concept of poverty and inequality and influences on the society in the use of the latest research results. Mr Fujii, in the presentations, showed the recent experiences of poverty alleviation in Japan in response to the recent social and demographic changes., and from the experiences in Japan and Cambodia, Prof. Uemura underlined the effectiveness of the community-based participatory approaches for poverty alleviation. Additionally, from the perspectives of international organizations, ASEAN secretariat, WPRO and JICA advocated their policy and efforts for poverty alleviation. The presentations from resource persons are finished by ILO, a new comer of the meeting, who emphasized the importance of the concept of “decent work” for the fight against poverty. .
Participants shared their experience and expertises through their country presentations which described the current situation, good practices and challenges of the policies against poverty. Based on the information presented during this high level officials meeting, participants exchanged their views over their current policies and services of health and social welfare for the poverty alleviation, identified common challenges and discussed the prospected activities to address these issues at both the national and regional levels. A consensus on the following recommendations has been reached by all the participants of the meeting hereunder.
The 8th ASEAN & Japan High Level Officials Meeting on Caring Societies
“Poverty alleviation with a focus on vulnerable people through strengthening collaboration between the social welfare and health services”
30 August - 2 September 2010, Tokyo, Japan
Preamble
The participants of the 8th ASEAN-Japan High-level Officials Meeting on Caring Societies held on 30 August – 2 September 2010 in Tokyo, Japan, agreed on the following:
- Acknowledge with appreciation the initiative of the Government of Japan to convene the ASEAN-Japan High-level Officials Meeting on Caring Societies since 2003. We consider this 8th Meeting as an effective platform of information sharing and exchange of views on health and social welfare aspects of poverty alleviation.
- Further acknowledge that poverty is multidimensional and, therefore, there is a need for closer collaboration and coordination among relevant Ministries in alleviating poverty, including in income generating programmes for the poor, provision of basic health services, infrastructures, clean water, housing, food safety as well as in providing wider access for the poor to employment and promotion of basic education and vocational training.
- Recognize the need for follow-up actions of recommendations of the Meetings at the regional and national levels;
- The proceedings and outcomes of this 8th Meeting should be reported to the respective Ministers and other senior officials in each country;
- Japan with the support of ASEAN secretariat should report the proceedings and outcomes of this meeting to the ASEAN+3 Ministers and Senior Officials Meetings on Health and Development (AHMM+3/SOMHD+3) and on Social Welfare and Development (AMMSWD+3/SOMSWD+3);
- Strengthen the existing collaboration of SOMHD+3 and SOMSWD+3 concerning poverty reduction;
- The participants also reaffirmed the theme of the 9th Meeting in 2011 shall focus on human resource development in welfare and health.
Recommendations
Regional Level :
- To promote regional information sharing and dissemination of good practices in poverty reduction;
- To encourage discussion on social protection concepts and components including development of a framework on poverty reduction in line with the MDGs platform;
- To enhance capacity building on monitoring and evaluation on poverty reduction for relevant officials to meet local needs;
National Level:
- To encourage an appropriate budget for poverty reduction programs with a focus on vulnerable groups;
- To encourage a holistic approach to policy planning and review/evaluation, involving senior-level officials from respective Ministries and local governments;
- To promote suitable coverage of social protection schemes, particularly for vulnerable groups;
- To strengthen community-based poverty reduction programmes and capacity building for officials, service providers, health and social workers at different levels;
- To strengthen the systematic collection of data to facilitate policy and service planning, programme implementation as well as monitoring and evaluation;
- To advocate health issues in poverty agenda and poverty issues in health agenda.
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The 8th ASEAN & Japan High Level Officials Meeting on Caring Societies Overall Summary (with photos)(PDF:789KB) |
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The 8th ASEAN & Japan High Level Officials Meeting on Caring Societies Overall Summary (without photos)(PDF:184KB) |
Appendix
Back Ground of the Meeting
The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, Japan (MHLW) held “East Asian Meeting of High-Level Officials on Caring Societies” annually from 1997 to 2002 in order to strengthen the regional cooperation among East Asian countries from the viewpoint of the idea of “World Welfare Plan” that Japan had advocated in the Lyons summit in 1996. Through these East Asian Meetings of High-Level Officials on Caring Societies, the MHLW contributed significantly to further strengthening cooperation in caring society fields in the East Asian region. On the basis of these success in conducting the East Asian Meetings of High-Level Officials on Caring Societies, the MHLW, since 2003, has also held the ASEAN & Japan High Level Officials Meeting on Caring Societies and has invited high-level administrative officials who are in charge of health and social welfare policy from the ASEAN-10 countries to continue strengthening the development of human resources and to further promote collaborative relationships between the ASEAN countries and Japan.
During this period, ASEAN also began to examine the potential for further strengthening the cooperation between Japan, China, and South Korea in the health and welfare sectors, and the ASEAN+3 Health Ministers Meeting and the ASEAN+3 Ministerial Meeting on Social Welfare were instituted in 2004. So far, 1st ASEAN+3 Health Ministers meeting was held in Malaysia in April, 2004. The 2nd meeting was held in Myanmar in June, 2006, and the 3rd meeting is held in Philippines in October 2008, and the 4th meeting was held in Singapore in 2010.
Also, the 1st ASEAN+3 Ministerial Meeting on Social Welfare and Development was held in Thailand in December 2004 and 2nd meeting was held in Vietnam in December 2007, and 3rd meeting is scheduled to be held in Brunei Darussalam in 2010. The MHLW has been making consistent and significant contributions to the activities of these ASEAN+3 frameworks.
The themes of ASEAN & Japan High Level Officials Meeting on Caring Societies are determined based on the proposals of the ASEAN countries and the ASEAN Secretariat and recommendations of the ASEAN+3 Health Minister’s Meeting and the ASEAN+3 Ministerial Meeting on Social Welfare etc. ASEAN & Japan High Level Officials Meeting on Caring Societies have been implemented annually during the last four years since 2003. During the 1st stage covering the period from 2003 to 2006 the following main themes were set annually. These were “Human Resource Development for Social Welfare and Health Services” for 2003, “Development of Human Resources and Implications of Aging Societies” for 2004, “Health and Welfare Services for Children and People with Disabilities” in 2005, and “Support to Vulnerable People (Children and Women)” for 2006. During the 2nd stage starting with 2007 when the 5th Meeting was held, it focussed on “Community Services for the Elderly” under the main theme of “Collaboration of Social Welfare and Health Services and the Development of Human Resources and Community.” During this year (2009), the 7th Meeting was held. The number of participants from the ASEAN countries (from 2003 to 2010) who attended these meetings to date, now total to 290 government officials.
Additionally, these High Level Officials Meetings recognized as serving as a vital platform which supports the ASEAN+3 Health Minister’s Meetings and the ASEAN+3 Ministerial Meetings on Social Welfare among the ASEAN countries. In particular, relevant approaches for strengthening cooperation between different sectors including health and welfare sectors are operationalised, triggered by participation in these High Level Officials Meetings. The proceedings, discussions, and recommendations of the previous six High Level Official Meetings were reported to the above-mentioned ASEAN+3 Minister’s Meetings and ASEAN member countries expressed profound gratitude for this initiative by Japan and requested to continue these types of meetings and maintain the focus on the cooperation between health and welfare services.