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Asean nations to collaborate on cross-country survey on families in region

By KidSTART Singapore November 6, 2024

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<strong>Asean nations to collaborate on cross-country survey on families in region</strong>

Asean nations to collaborate on cross-country survey on families in region

Asean member states will be coming together to exchange ideas and develop knowledge on families in the region under a new collaboration. 

In the Collaboration on Understanding the State of Asean Families, the countries will share data on families and work towards producing a cross-country survey on the state of families in the region, with the aim of presenting an Asean Report on Families.

This will help Singapore develop family-centred policies and refine practice in Asian contexts, said Minister for Social and Family Development Masagos Zulkifli on Nov 6. Mr Masagos was speaking at the Asian Family Conference, held at Sands Expo and Convention Centre and organised by the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) and the Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS).

The new collaboration was endorsed by the Asean member states on Nov 5 at the Special Asean Ministerial Meeting on Social Welfare and Development, where the countries discussed the key role of governments in supporting families.

“Through the collaboration, we encourage academic institutions and researchers in our countries to develop family-centred research and plan to develop a repository to house this research. We aim to engage local entities in our respective countries to support governments in this effort,” Mr Masagos said.

The Stephen Riady Foundation donated $1 million in support of the regional initiative, which has SUSS as Singapore’s research partner.

The collaboration comes after the Asean Declaration on Gender Equality and Family Development, which presented an Asean vision of a partnership and values-based approach to family and women’s development.

It hopes to develop new approaches to strengthen families to keep up with demographic changes in Asean societies such as an ageing population, changing family structures and declining birth rates.

To support families in line with domestic laws in each Asean nation, the members plan to collectively review the terms of the collaboration every two years.

Speaking about Singapore’s efforts to strengthen families, Mr Masagos cited ComLink+, a programme for lower-income families with children that proactively reaches out to families and links them with community resources and support schemes, instead of waiting for them to seek support.

He also cited the KidStart programme, which reaches out to parents as early as during the mother’s pregnancy to kick-start the families’ efforts to create a conducive home environment for children to learn and grow in before they enter pre-school.

“Rather than our social policies and social services operating solely as an emergency fire brigade, we want to create the enabling conditions so that fewer fires start in the first place, to help families build on strong foundations to thrive and become stronger,” he said.

Mr Masagos also cited family-centred policies in other Asean countries, such as Malaysia’s National Social Policy 2030 that seeks to uplift the welfare of families, and the Philippines’ unique conditional cash transfer programme 4Ps, which improves child health and education and strengthens familial relationships.

He highlighted an ongoing review of the family services landscape by social service sector representatives in Singapore since June.

Currently, families that are facing stresses can go to family service centres in the community, and those facing multiple issues and complex needs receive support from other social service agencies as well. Moving forward, Singapore’s vision is for families to receive family services through a single touchpoint to address their needs in a holistic and coordinated manner, he said.

Speaking about the new Asean collaboration, Mr Masagos said: “We hope that this effort will inspire our partners across the sectors to have a keen eye on the state of families as they themselves work and operate in society, and for practitioners and academics to embark on research that will strengthen our understanding of families, to inform better approaches.”

This article was originally featured in The Straits Times, published Nov 6, 2024.
https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/asean-nations-to-collaborate-on-cross-country-survey-on-families-in-region