The Asian Round Table on Social Protection (AROSP) Southeast Asia Group welcomes the ASEAN
Declaration on Strengthening Care Economy and Resilience towards ASEAN Community Post-2025.
We support and strengthen our commitment to the ASEAN Declaration on the care economy,
emphasizing the critical need for regional collaboration and strategic planning to effectively address
systemic challenges in care work across Southeast Asia. Crucially, such a declaration would formally
recognize and standardize this undervalued sector of care work, and significantly improve labor rights and
protections for predominantly female care workers engaged in both formal and informal employment. It
would also address gender disparities by formally acknowledging the disproportionate burden of unpaid
care work, improving the quality of care services, and affirming the societal value of unpaid care work.
Additionally, the declaration would promote a cultural shift in the perception of care work, encourage
cooperative strategies among ASEAN countries for sharing resources and best practices, and address
common challenges like aging populations, migration of care workers (both domestically and
transnationally), and the need for sustainable care systems. Ultimately, a unified declaration would affirm
ASEAN’s commitment to enhancing the formalization status of care workers and the well-being of care
recipients, thereby fostering economic, social, and gender equity across the region.
The purpose of this position paper is to identify gaps in the current ASEAN care economy policy, propose
specific amendments, and issue a call to action. This initiative is driven by the insights and needs of trade
unions and informal worker organizations under AROSP, aiming to promote justice, equality, and
prosperity in the ASEAN community.
Read Full text below:
AROSP Position Paper_ASEAN Care Economy.docx
