Resource Centre

Peoples’ Forum Convenes to Prepare for CSO Engagement in the 2025 APFSD

Around a hundred and thirty representatives of civil society organizations (CSOs), including ASPBAE, and peoples’ movements from Asia-Pacific attended the opening of the two-day Asia Pacific Peoples’ Forum on Sustainable Development (Peoples’ Forum) in Bangkok, Thailand on 23-24 February. The participants included representatives from civil society organisations coming from countries delivering the Voluntary National Reviews (VNR) for 2025, particularly from Bangladesh, Bhutan, Federated States of Micronesia, India, Indonesia, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Malaysia, Malta, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines and Thailand. 

Among the participants is the ASPBAE delegation composed of its Executive Council (EC) Representative for East Asia (SR2), Takafumi Miyake, who also represents the civil society SDG network in Japan, Rene Raya (Regional Advocacy Coordinator and Lead Policy Analyst), Florence May Cortina (Education Out Loud (EOL) Regional Coordinator), and Lae Santiago (Advocacy and Youth Engagement Officer). Also joining the delegation from ASPBAE’s member coalition is Ubaid Matraji, National Coordinator of the Network for Education Watch Indonesia (NEW Indonesia).

The Peoples’ Forum aims to consolidate CSO positions on sustainable development covering urgent regional economic, social, and environmental issues, and to prepare for engaging the intergovernmental Asia Pacific Forum on Sustainable Development (APFSD) on 25-28 February. The forum also facilitates sharing and learning from the variety of experiences of organizations and constituencies and enhances the capacity of civil society participants on sustainable development, including identifying and dealing with key systemic issues and barriers to the achievement of sustainable development. 

The Deputy Executive Secretary for Partnership and Cooperation of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN ESCAP), Mr. Hirohito Toda,  and the representative of the Asia Pacific Regional CSO Engagement Mechanism (APRCEM), Ms. Joy Hernandez, welcomed the forum participants. Mr. Ajay K Jha, Director of the Centre for Community Economics and Development Consultants Society presented the keynote address on the State of the World and the Asia Pacific.

Mr. Dayyan Shayani, UNESCAP Statistician, presented the Asia and the Pacific SDG Progress Report 2025 by UN ESCAP providing the latest data and insights on progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the Asia-Pacific region. The report highlights regional achievements and persistent challenges, such as climate change, natural disasters, and critical data gaps. None of the goals is on track, while goal 13 on climate action shows regression. 

In the open forum following the presentation, ASPBAE’s Rene Raya, raised the issue of financing and transparency of SDG data and monitoring, noting that only about half of the SDG targets have available data. Mr. Dayyan acknowledged that investment on SDG data monitoring has declined and that Asia-Pacific is investing the least compared to other global regions. This is a worrying trend, showing the lack of substantive effort from Member States in tracking progress in the SDGs. 

The highlight of the forum is the agreement on CSO positions and recommendations on the five SDGs that will be reviewed this year – goals 3, 5, 8, 14, and 17 – which are then packaged into factsheets. The forum in breakout sessions also discussed and finalised the factsheets on militarism, climate crisis, corporate capture and multilateralism. The ASPBAE delegation actively participated in all the breakout sessions and contributed substantial points, including sharing its substantive experiences on CSO engagement in the VNR process such in Japan, and highlighted the following messages:

  • Strong attention should be provided on the education for decent work and livelihoods of marginalized and socially vulnerable youth groups.
  • There is a need to finance youth and adult learning and education (ALE) that supports continuing skills development, livelihood trainings, technical and vocational education and training (TVET) and flexible reskilling and upskilling programs that prepare workers for future jobs amidst digitalization.
  • Pursue just and green transition to low-carbon economy, and continue to uphold labour rights, social protection, and job security.
  • Ensure school curricula and pedagogies equip people with the relevant knowledge, critical thinking and life skills to navigate current and emerging social, economic, political and environmental contexts.
  • Promote gender-responsive budgeting and inclusive programming approaches to ensure equitable distribution of resources to marginalized groups, including women and indigenous peoples.
  • Strengthen digital governance and regulation by government, noting the rapid pace in the digital landscape, including in education. In particular, regulation must be set in place to prevent commercialised education through the private sector control of technology and digital learning platforms which lack quality monitoring and further deepen existing digital divides. 
  • Overseas development aid (ODA) should prioritise low-income countries and for education, health and social protection as these sectors have been de-prioritized amidst other competing government agenda. 
  • Governments must commit to reaching and maintaining an adequate tax-to-GDP ratio to finance basic state functions and social service delivery. This will involve preventing tax evasion and illicit funding flows, and by pursuing progressive taxation mechanisms that will increase domestic resources for education, health and social protection.   
  • The international community must continue to provide attention and support to the people in Myanmar and Afghanistan, including those who have been persecuted by the current military and de facto regimes, and recognizing that millions are denied their human rights in these countries, including the right to education.
  • Now more than ever, there is a need to protect, defend and mainstream human rights and peace education in schools and learning centers to promote global citizenship, peace and justice.
  • Governments should prioritize budget for health, education and social services over military spending.
  • Support climate change education within a climate justice framework.  Governments need to finance climate-smart public education systems. 
  • Interrogate the energy consumption and footprints linked to digital technologies, including the rising use of AI, and hold technology companies accountable for their contributory damage to the environment.

The final factsheets will be the basis of the CSO collective statement that will be the main outcome document of the two-day Peoples’ Forum. The collective CSO statement will be presented during the opening plenary of the APFSD that convenes from 25 to 28 February.