September 2010 - Launch of the maiden issue of the Focus on the Global South Policy Review
September 19 - In Malaysia will be held the forum called "Regional
Strategy Meeting on Emerging Social and Cultural Concerns in ASEAN: Climate
Change, South East Asian Peoples’ Right to Information, Labor Migration and
Domestic Work and Platforms for Civil Society Engagement with the ASEAN." Focus Philippines will make a presentation on "Building
a Case for an ASEAN Protocol on Freedom of Information"
September 23 - 26 - Asean People's Forum in Hanoi, Vietnam. Fore more information, please send inquiries to the following: <apfhanoi-pc@aseanpeoplesforum.net>, <apfhanoi-ws@aseanpeoplesforum.net>. Ms Dorothy Guerrero, who is in the Bangkok office of Focus, seats in the Program Committee.
September 27 - October 1 - Freedom of Information Advocacy Week
September 23 - FOI Forum
September 27 - R2KRN will visit the Senate to renew the FOI campaign
September 28 - R2KRN will meet with Representatives of the Lower House
Extreme Weather Events: Focus on the Philippines 2009 YearBook
We are pleased to share
with you the release of the FOCUS ON THE PHILIPPINES 2009 YEARBOOK: Extreme
Weather Events. The 320-page publication covers key issues and
events in the Philippines. The book was first shared with Focus friends and
partners during our 15th Year Anniversary Celebration last January
20, 2010.
To request for a copy, please contact: Lourdes Torres at lou_torres[at]focusweb.org, +63 2 4330899
'Crisis and Change' Focus on the Philippines 2008 Yearbook
MANILA, PHILIPPINES-- Focus on the Global South, a Manila and Bangkok-based think tank, released its Focus on the Philippines 2008 Yearbook called 'Crisis and Change'. The 250-page yearbook contains analyses, commentaries, and reports on key economic and political issues that took center stage in 2008, such as Mindanao and the MOA-AD and the Economic Crisis.
Rounding up and engaging important debates and discourse in the Philippines, Crisis and Change: Focus on the Philippines 2008 Yearbook can serve as a key resource for researchers, activists and social movements, students and academics, media, policy makers as well as the general public.
For more information regarding the publication, email Qiqo Simbol (
) or Aya Fabros (
) or call 4333387.
Dilemmas of Competition and Community Building:
Developing Civil Society Response to Regional Trade and Economic Integration
by Jenina Joy Chavez and Alexander Chandra
Notwithstanding the proliferation of regional initiatives i n the last decade, the currency of regionalism and regional integration arises more out of the reaction to the rapidness by which the multilateral system is overtaking the world, rather than from an established (indigenous?) need for it. North America forged a Free Trade area as a reaction to the consolidation of the European Union. The initiatives in Asia and the Pacific have been prompted more by the desire of the bigger economies (US in the case of Asia Pacific have been prompted more by the desire of the bigger economies (US in the case of Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation; EU in the case of Asia Europe Meeting) not to be left out of any major moves by the developing world to cooperate with each other. While the EU can boast of the longest history of regional cooperation with broad focus, attempts elsewhere had been limited to economic (specifically trade) agreements, with some not even close to claiming any success (e.g. Latin America and Africa).
This publication is a part of South East Asian Committee for Advocacy’s (SEACA’s) Occasional
Papers. Released in January 2008, this Occasional Paper is available at
the SEACA office: #29-D Mayaman Street UP Village, Diliman, Quezon City
1101 Philippines. For inquiries about the purchase or distribution of
the publication, please contact SEACA at
or you may visit their website at www.seaca.net.
Civil Society Reflections on South East Asian Regionalism: ASEAN@40
edited by Alex Chandra and Jenina Joy Chavez
This book is an initial attempt at documenting how far peoples’
advocacies have reached in ASEAN. It is a product of collaboration
among groups and individuals involved in various advocacies and
campaigns in the region, most of whom are active members of the
Solidarity for Asian Peoples’ Advocacies (SAPA) Working Group on ASEAN.
Civil society is increasingly becoming an important element in the
regionalization process of South East Asia. On the one hand, the
Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) is starting to
recognize the roles of civil society as crucial in determining its
future shape and agenda. ASEAN is slowly, albeit cautiously, opening up
its door for the involvement of civil society groups in its processes.
On the other hand, the new interest in ASEAN reflects the growing
importance civil society gives to it, both in terms of its potential
benefits and in terms of the negative impacts an unaccountable regional
association could mean to the region’s peoples. Still, civil society
continues to regard ASEAN as elitist and state-centric; the regional
body will have to do more if it is to achieve its dream of becoming a
people-centered organization. Read the whole book description from the SEACA Website
Publications 
MANILA, PHILIPPINES-- Focus on the Global South, a Manila and Bangkok-based think tank, released its Focus on the Philippines 2008 Yearbook called 'Crisis and Change'. The 250-page yearbook contains analyses, commentaries, and reports on key economic and political issues that took center stage in 2008, such as Mindanao and the MOA-AD and the Economic Crisis.
Developing Civil Society Response to Regional Trade and Economic Integration
edited by Alex Chandra and Jenina Joy Chavez