SWITCH-Asia

Background

The ASEAN has maintained its pace in engaging with members and partners in embedding Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP) into its regional agenda from the overarching ASEAN Community Vision 2025 to the more specific thematic roadmaps or country-based programmes on SCP and green public procurement. There is consensus on the need for sustainable practices in the natural, built, financial and digital environments. Concrete actions must be taken by the region to implement principles of SCP and circularity in all facets of society, economy and environment.

The ASEAN SCP Framework and Implementation Mechanism was endorsed in 2021 with these priorities in mind and following collaborations among ASEAN partners through the leadership of Indonesia as the lead country for ASEAN Cooperation on SCP, and in close consultation with the ASEAN Working Group on Environmental Education (AWGEE), working within the purview of the ASEAN Senior Officials on the Environment (ASOEN).

The ASEAN SCP Framework recognises that the transition to sustainability needs to happen now, and this can be facilitated by increasing national and regional capabilities, highlighting responsibilities of all stakeholders and forging common areas of work among ASEAN Member States. The ASEAN SCP Framework will bring together existing partnerships and networks for greater collective impact in scaling up SCP in the region. Through a regional dialogue and stakeholder engagement, four action lines represent the priority areas of the Framework:

1. Measure and support progress in SDG12

2. Increase productivity and decrease losses in food systems

3. Establish good practices for green products, and guidelines for Green Public Procurement

4. Promote sustainable lifestyles in urban and rural settings

All these action lines have specific objectives in terms of public awareness to encourage stakeholder engagement and action, market mechanism to help create enabling systems towards sustainable practices, technology innovation and capacity building to support implementation down to the technical details, and policy component to facilitate the scale up of initiatives on a national and regional level.

By design, the ASEAN SCP Framework will allow close relationships and collaboration between existing ASEAN Bodies and Sectoral Action Plans to build synergies. It is the hope of the ASEAN SCP Framework to expand the progress in SCP implementation in the region with careful consideration of the various resources and regional action plans in place. Leadership needs to come from within the ASEAN Community.

The Launch and Meeting on the ASEAN SCP Framework 

Cambodia as Chair and Malaysia as Host of the 15th AWGEE have approved the organisation of the Launch and Meeting on the ASEAN SCP Framework on 13th July 2023 (9:00-11:00) to be held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia as back-to-back event as proposed by Indonesia, as the lead country for ASEAN cooperation on SCP, in cooperation with the ASEAN Secretariat and supported by the EU SWITCH-Asia Programme.

The launch event and meeting on the ASEAN SCP Framework hopes to enhance the understanding of the ASEAN SCP Framework among ASEAN member states and its partner organisations and on how to engage in the operationalisation of the Framework based on the four action lines representing the priority areas of the Framework. 

The results of the meeting to be submitted to the ASEAN Secretariat for circulation to the AWGEE will provide the agreed scope of action by key actors for the implementation of the ASEAN SCP Framework.

Objectives of the Meeting

1. To officially launch and introduce the SCP Framework adopted by ASEAN Ministerial Meeting on the Environment (AMME) in 2021;
2. Disseminate the SCP Framework and exchange views among AMS on its timeline and implementing mechanism;
3. Discuss next steps on scope of action for the implementation of the SCP Framework.

Outputs

1. A clear understanding of the outputs of the SCP Framework and its contribution to SDG 12 and SCP related SDGs;
2. An agreement on the scope of operationalising the SCP Framework for the first year of implementation

Proposed Participants

Participants will be the attendees of the 15th AWGEE and supporting partners (this is a closed-doors event)

Partnership contribution

The EU, through the SWITCH-Asia Programme, is committed to work and engage with ASEAN Member States on achieving common goals such as transitioning to a low carbon, resource efficient and circular economy, engaging the industrial sector, consumers, financial institutions, and national governments through the development of SCP policies and implementation.

In 2020, EU SWITCH-Asia in partnership with UNEP and with the Asia Pacific Roundtable for Sustainable Consumption and Production (APRSCP) provided support to Indonesia and the ASEAN Secretariat to develop theASEAN SCP Framework. A scoping document “Mapping SCP in ASEAN Countries” and a series of consultations were conducted in drafting the Framework. As requested by Indonesia, the SWITCH-Asia Policy Support Component (PSC) will support the launch and meeting on the operationalisation of the ASEAN SCP Framework.

Download ASEAN SCP Framework Summary document.