ASEAN inter-linkages workshop

	UNU Update
	The newsletter of United Nations University and its network of research and training centres and programmes
		Issue 23: February 2003

ASEAN countries to meet
for Inter-Linkages workshop

Representatives from the 10 member countries of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) will meet at a workshop in Malaysia March 25-27 to launch the next phase of the UNU Inter-Linkages initiative in their region.

Participants at the workshop will explore how the ASEAN countries can identify and exploit synergies and linkages between multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs), both geographically (national, regional, global) and across issues (trans-boundary haze pollution, climate change, biodiversity etc.).

The first round of Inter-linkages case studies in the region identify capacity development as one of the major issues (see related report). Capacity constraints are not merely knowledge based/qualitative, but also quantitative and sustainability related.

Recognizing that countries have limited human resources to deal with an ever-increasing number of national and regional problems, the workshop will promote capacity development on cross-cutting and functional issues. Instead of focusing on separate issue-based training (e.g. climate change, hazardous chemicals or ozone depleting agents), the workshop will promote coordinated capacity development along functions, such as data assessment and exchange, monitoring, institutional coordination, legislative procedures and compliance. Through this approach, related issues can be addressed simultaneously at a fraction of the cost and time needed for separate training.

Representatives of the ten ASEAN member countries – Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam – will discuss these and related topics with officials from convention secretariats and other regional and international organizations in three working groups: institutional arrangements, legislation and policies; information and knowledge management; and resourcing. A detailed programme will be published soon on the Inter-Linkages website.

The workshop is being organised by UNU in cooperation with the ASEAN Secretariat and Malaysia's Institute for Strategic and International Studies with financial support from the Japanese Ministry of the Environment.

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