At the 13th Meeting of the ASEAN Commission on the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Women and Children (ACWC) in October 2016, a project was adopted on inclusion and sustainable development in building the ASEAN Community through ensuring the recognition of the legal identity of all women and children in ASEAN.

At the 14th meeting of the ACWC in Jakarta, Indonesia, it was agreed that each ASEAN member state was to nominate a National Focal Point (NFP) for the project’s research workstream. In particular, the NFPs were to support the preparation and implementation of the research phase of the project and to collaborate on the completion of a questionnaire that will be developed.

The concrete aim of the Workshop is to bring together the National Focal Points and selected other participants. Through a consultative process the Workshop is designed to discuss the research phase of the project and to obtain feedback on the questionnaire, its methodology and the report outline. The Workshop will also be an opportunity to clarify the next steps in the research workstream and will give ample room for NFPs and/or ACWC Representatives to give presentations on their country-related key issues or themes, including good practices and lessons learned.