On 12-13 October 2009, the Asia-Europe People’s Forum (AEPF) is organizing a Southeast Asia Regional Roundtable Strategizing Meeting with the theme “Building Southeast Asia Peoples’ Agenda on Transformative Social Protection as a Democratic and Human Rights Response to the Crisis ” at the Asian Institute of Management (AIM) Conference Center Manila in Makati City, Philippines.

This meeting is a step forward in the “Reclaim People’s Dignity” campaign (campaign on transformative social protection of the poor) that began to take shape at the caucus among Asian poor people’s movements at the Seventh Asia-Europe People’s Forum (parallel to the ASEM Summit) in Beijing. Facilitating this campaign and co-organising the meeting in Manila are: Action Aid Asia, Institute for Popular Democracy, FORUM-Asia, Social Protection Asia, and South-South Solidarity. The Finnish AEPF Committee also sponsors this roundtable.

Some thirty scholar-activists, and representatives from social movements and grassroots people’s organizations from Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam are coming together for this meeting with the aim of: (a) building a consensus among Southeast Asian campaigners on an agenda on transformative social protection as a democratic and human rights response to the current crisis (see attached manifesto) and on strategies in pursuing this; and (b) activating a dynamic core group on this campaign in the region, working both at national and regional levels.

In the immediate, the output of the meeting (Southeast Asian People’s Agenda to Reclaim People’s Dignity), as well as the manifesto, shall be presented to the officials of the ASEAN during its dialogue with civil society groups at the ASEAN People’s Forum (APF) scheduled on October 18 to 20, and if possible to the ministers and leaders at the ASEAN Summit that follows the APF on October 23 to 25.