Social Welfare and Development Secretary Corazon Juliano-Soliman heads the Philippine delegation to the 4th ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community Council (ASCC) Meeting with the theme “Towards the ASEAN Community: From Vision to Action,” to be held on August 13 to 16, 2010 in Danang, Vietnam.

Secretary Soliman will be joined by DSWD Undersecretary Alicia R. Bala, officials from the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) and National Commission on Culture and Arts (NCCA).

According to Secretary Soliman, the conference will look at the implementation of the ASCC Blueprint, especially on priority fields such as dealing with global challenges along pandemic diseases, climate change and disaster management, developing human resources for economic recovery, creating social welfare for women and children, and building cultural identity.

The conference will also consider adopting two documents, namely the ASEAN Declaration on human resource development and skills for economic recovery, and Declaration on welfare and development for women and children which will be approved by the ASEAN leaders during the ASEAN Summit in October.

Organized twice a year, this year’s chairperson of the ASCC is Vietnamese Minister of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs, Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan.

The Philippine delegation will present the country’s updates and achievements on the implementation of its social welfare programs.

“Our active participation in this regional gathering will enable us to learn from our ASEAN neighbors, such as Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Laos-PDR and Myanmar, specifically on how they implement their social welfare programs,” Secretary Soliman explained.

“Likewise, it is an ideal venue to inform our ASEAN partners about the efforts of the   Philippines in improving the quality of life of the sectors that we serve, such as disadvantaged women and children. A confab such as this promotes mutual learning and open doors for further collaboration,” Secretary Soliman stated.  # (DSWD-SMS) August 10, 2010