Solidarity for Asian People's Advocacy (SAPA)
3-4 February 2006, Bangkok, Thailand
MFA participated in the Regional Consultation on Strategic Action Planning on Advocacy (SAPA) at International Meetings 2006-2007, organized by Forum-Asia. The meeting was held from 3-4 February 2006, at the Windsor Suites Hotel, Bangkok, Thailand.
The consultation meeting was an outcome of the informal consultation meeting among some regional civil society organizations who were present at the Asian Civil Society Conference 2005 on the 11th ASEAN
Summit (Dec. 12-14) held in Kuala Lumpur on Dec. 7-9, 2005.
The meeting aimed to enhance cooperation and coordination among Asian civil society organizations (CSOs) to increase effectiveness and impact in engaging with inter-governmental bodies. In recent years, there has been a proliferation of inter-governmental processes in Asia and coping with all these are beyond the capacities of an individual CSO. At the same time, the proliferation of regional networks and coalitions poses challenges of overlapping, duplication, competition, sustainability and impact assessment.
In the meeting, representatives coming from the various Asian CSOs decided to create the Solidarity for Asian People’s Advocacy (SAPA). SAPA is a network of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), civil society organizations engaged in campaigns and advocacy on various issues of public interest at the national and regional levels. SAPA network members have varied competencies in the key pillars of ASEAN cooperation, with many of us working on cross-cutting issues and advocacies.
SAPA will serve as a platform for regular assessment of CSOs engagements in regional and global governance spaces. It will also open opportunities for solicitation of support, bilateral projects evolving affinity groups based on themes.
SAPA members are internationally engaged in advocacy in one of the following four clusters such as democracy and human rights, peace and human security, sustainable development and environment, as well as globalization and trade, finance and labor.
SAPA does not have a formal membership structure. However, those who are in the general mailing list of SAPA are considered as de facto member of SAPA. Any Asian civil social organizations – national, sub-regional (South Asia, Southeast Asia, Northeast Asia) and regional – that agree to the aims of the SAPA and are engaged in advocacy in one of the four clusters at international level.
Highlighted in the strategy advocacy plan for 2006 was to continue the civil society engagement with the ASEAN by exploring the possibility of a joint sponsorship of the civil society conference in December. A meeting with the ASEAN-Philippines was identified as one key strategic action.
Among the activities included in the plan is to develop civil society proposals on the ASEAN Charter, particularly in the accreditation framework and participation mechanisms, which will be submitted to the ASEAN Eminent Persons Group (EPG). National and regional consultation processes will be launched as an entry point for introducing the idea of the ASEAN community to the ASEAN people.
To better facilitate the strategy advocacy plan, Working Groups were created which will focus on the Asian People’s Charter, World Social Forum and ASEAN.
A group mailing list ( sapa@googlegroups.com ) was also created and operationalizes to facilitate communication among its members.
