JAKARTA -- The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) introduced the ASEAN Development Outlook (ADO) to think tanks, experts and relevant stakeholders through a discussion titled Roll Out and Dissemination of the ASEAN Development Outlook: Practical Application and Lessons Learned for the Region.

Themed Inclusive and Sustainable Development, the ADO captures the successes and challenges of ASEAN’s development to date and offers critical look at possible ways forward to achieve inclusive and sustainable development in the region amidst imminent changes and emerging trends.

Being the first cross-sectoral and comprehensive assessment on ASEAN social and environmental development, the flagship report brings new perspective to achieve inclusive and sustainable development under four inter-related themes: identity; natural and built environment; livelihoods; and social welfare and health. Four drivers of change, namely demographics, migration, climate change; and the 4th industrial revolution were overlain in each theme to allow for a more extensive and richer analysis of the issues.

The ADO offers comprehensive lens in reviewing the progress, and its foresight approach in examining development trajectories and offering recommendations for policy makers and ASEAN sectoral bodies.

In his opening remarks, Deputy Secretary-General of ASEAN for ASEAN Socio-cultural Community Kung Phoak said that the ADO and its innovative perspectives will foster evidence-based policy planning and greater ASEAN policy ownership. He hoped that with policy options, recommendations and grounded solutions, the ADO will help assist policy makers in safeguarding development gains in this challenging time.

The report came at the right time considering the evolving landscape of regional development cooperation which has given rise to more constraints as well as opportunities. This is coupled with the global situation that affects ASEAN’s development agenda including the massive impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In assessing state of the affairs, the report critically reviewed the progress made by ASEAN so far. In the last 50 years, ASEAN has achieved remarkable human and sustainable development progress, lifting millions of lives out of poverty and improving access to education and health. The total combined GDP of ten ASEAN countries was valued at US$3.2 trillion in 2019. This places ASEAN as the fifth largest economy in the world.

The ADO was developed in cooperation with China. In his remarks,  Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the People’s Republic of China to ASEAN Deng Xijun shared that as ASEAN and China celebrate the 30th anniversary of ASEAN-China dialogue relations and ASEAN-China Year of Sustainable Development Cooperation in 2021, the ADO is a landmark outcome of ASEAN-China partnership especially in sustainable development cooperation.

The findings of the report emphasise that direct engagement with the social and cultural spheres of development through participatory methods will ensure individual voices across different cohorts of society are included. The report calls on a more thorough and inclusive approach in enhancing capabilities of human being, while taking advantage of utilising foresight approach to development. Moreover, rather than looking out to global practices, the ADO advocates for approaches that are rooted in ASEAN in term of design, implementation, and evaluation.

The ADO was prepared by experts led by University of Cambridge, in cooperation with the ASEAN Secretariat with the support of ASEAN-China Cooperation Fund (ACCF). (ASEAN)