Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare

January 31th, 2012

Office of International Cooperation,
International Affairs Division,
Minister's Secretariat
Ministry of Health,Labour and Welfare, Japan
1-2-2 Kasumigaseki,Chiyoda-ku,Tokyo 100-8916, Japan
Tel: +81-3-3595-2404 (Direct)
Fax: +81-3-3502-6678

The 9th ASEAN & Japan High Level Officials Meeting on Caring Societies
Outline of Summary

Date : 25 October - 28 October 2011

Venue : Keio Plaza Hotel, Tokyo

Organizers:

Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, JAPAN (MHLW)

Collaborators:

The ASEAN Secretariat
World Health Organization , Regional Office for Western Pacific (WHO/WPRO)
International Labour Organization (ILO) Office for Japan
Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)

Participants:

Theme:

”Human Resource Development in the sectors of Welfare and Health
~ with a focus on capacity building of service providers and employability promotion of vulnerable people ~”

Outline of Discussion

The featured speakers were Hideharu Uemura, Professor, Department of Social Work, Japan College of Social Work; Junko Tashiro, Professor, St. Luke's College of Nursing; and Yuji Taniguchi, Associate Professor, Department of Human Resources Development, National Polytechnic University. Prof. Uemura introduced the transition in approaches to human resource development in the field of social work in Japan; Prof. Tashiro talked about the transition in public health care in Japan, and the challenges of capability and human resource development of community care specialists; and Associate Prof. Taniguchi talked about measures and issues related to employability promotion of the disabled and the elderly in Japan.

The ASEAN Secretariat introduced action plans for human resource development in the areas of health and welfare, and labour based on the strategy paper; and WHO/WPRO introduced the concept of People-Centered Care to promote community health services. JICA introduced its approaches to human resource development in the field of welfare, and the ILO Office for Japan introduced approaches to employment creation for the elderly and the disabled at the community level based on ILO policies.

During the country presentations, each country introduced the current status of as well as best practices and issues related to human resource development in health and welfare, and the employment of the disabled and the elderly to share the information, experience and the knowledge among ASEAN countries. Based on the information shared at this meeting, participants actively discussed approaches, common issues, cooperation among multiple fields and public and private sectors with a focus on capacity building for service providers and promoting the employability of vulnerable people. Finally, the items listed below were agreed upon by all participants at this meeting. (See the attached programme.)

Preamble

The participants representing health, social welfare and labour sectors at the 9thASEAN & Japan High Level Officials Meeting on Caring Societies held in Tokyo from October 25 to 28, 2011, express the following:

  1. Acknowledge with appreciation the initiative of the Government of Japan to convene the ASEAN-Japan High-level Officials Meeting on Caring Societies since 2003, we consider this 9th Meeting as an effective platform of information sharing and exchange of views on Human Resource Development (HRD) on health, social welfare and labour aspects;
  2. Realize the diversity and different levels of development among the ASEAN Member States (AMS) and the different challenges in promoting HRD at local and national levels in the health, social welfare, and labour sectors;
  3. Acknowledge that the issues related to vulnerable people are multidimensional, therefore, there is a need for closer collaboration and coordination among relevant Ministries, at both central and local levels, working in partnership with the people and private sectors, including civil societies, government officials, professionals and community volunteers;
  4. Recognize the need for follow-up actions on recommendations of the Meetings at the regional and national levels.

Agreements

The participants agree the following:

  1. The proceedings and outcomes of this 9th Meeting should be reported to the respective Ministers and other senior officials in each country;
  2. Japan with the support of ASEAN secretariat should report the proceedings and outcomes of this meeting to the ASEAN+3 Health Ministers Meeting and Senior Officials Meeting on Health Development Plus Three (AHMM+3/SOMHD+3), the ASEAN+3 Ministers Meeting on Social Welfare and Development and Senior Officials Meeting on Social Welfare and Development Plus Three (AMMSWD+3/SOMSWD+3), and the ASEAN+3 Ministers Meeting on Labour and Senior Officials Meeting on Labour Plus Three (ALMM+3, SLOM+3);
  3. The existing collaboration mechanisms through the SOMHD+3, SOMSWD+3 and SLOM+3 concerning HRD on health, social welfare and labour sectors should be strengthened.

Recommendations

The participants make the following recommendations:

  1. To identify challenges and needs of vulnerable people in each Member State in strengthening HRD programs for government officials, services providers, health and social workers, community volunteers to provide accessible, affordable and quality of health and welfare services. In addition, these human resources need to be properly allocated and distributed to alleviate urban and rural disparities;
  2. To facilitate a holistic approach that includes the active participation of responsible government officials from both national and local levels, relevant civil society groups, and the target population in policy formulation, programme implementation, monitoring and evaluation. These approaches should be consistent with relevant sectoral policies including health, social welfare and labour and also considered mutually complementary in order to improve the quality of life of the vulnerable;
  3. To promote collaboration among health, social welfare and labour sectors for the vulnerable people, including the strengthening/establishing of national committees charged with developing and adopting cohesive cross-sectoral policies and actions;
  4. To promote Public Private People Partnership (PPPP) in providing a supportive environment for the vulnerable groups to optimize their potential;
  5. To adopt the "People-Centered Approach" to ensure that individuals, families and communities are served by and able to participate in trusted systems which respond to their needs in humane and holistic ways in all settings across the health, social welfare and labour sectors, at all times;
  6. To protect human dignity and promote decent and productive work for older persons, people with disabilities (PWDs) and other vulnerable groups, equitable access to opportunity and appropriate channeling or referral to services and treatment should be promoted;
  7. To enhance the functional integration of the vulnerable people into communities, especially older persons and PWDs, by documenting best practices and supporting effective approaches in community based social welfare services;
  8. To recall and reaffirm the commitments made by the AMS in existing Declarations and frameworks;
  9. To have a cross sectoral policy dialogue and develop common language at the ASEAN level among sectoral bodies on health, social welfare, and labour, including ASEAN Conference on Civil Service Matters;
  10. To advocate health, social welfare and labour issues in human resource development agenda through effective communication, media campaign and public education.

ANNEX

The 9th ASEAN & Japan High Level Officials Meeting on Caring Societies
Programme

Tuesday 25 October 2011
Presentation 1 ：

“Human Resource Development in Social Work”(PDF:3,217KB)(Prof. Hideharu Uemura, Professor, Department of Social Work, Japan College of Social Work)

Presentation 2 ：

“Human Resource Development for Caring Society – from Nursing Perspective in Japan”(PDF:1,073KB)(Prof. Junko Tashiro, RN, PhD, Professor, St. Luke's College of Nursing)

Presentation 3 ：

“The Present Condition and Issues of Japan about the Employability Promotion for the Vulnerable People”(PDF:8,207KB)(Associate Prof. Yuji Taniguchi, Associate Professor, Department of Human Resources Development, National Polytechnic University)

Wednesday 26 October 2011
Thursday 27 October 2011
Presentation 4 ：

“ASEAN's Efforts in Human Resource Development (HRD) in the Health and Social Welfare Sectors and Promotion of the Employability of Vulnerable Individuals”(PDF:2,339KB)(Ms. Jintana Sriwongsa, Senior Officer, Health and Communicable Diseases Division, ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community (ASCC) Department, The ASEAN Secretariat and Ms. Kay Khaing Soe, Senior Officer, Social Welfare, Women, Labour and Migrants, The ASEAN Secretariat)

Presentation 5 ：

“Meeting the Social and Health Needs of Vulnerable People: A Systems Approach”(PDF:373KB)(Ms. Kathleen Fritsch, Acting Team Leader, Human Resources for Health and Regional Nursing Advisor, Division of Health Sector Development, WHO Western Pacific Region)

Presentation 6 ：

“Enhancing the Capacity of Human Resources in Social Welfare Sector”(PDF:688KB)(Mr. Shintaro Nakamura, Senior Adviser on Social Security, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA))

Presentation 7 ：

“Employment Creation for Older Persons and Disabled Persons at Community Level”(PDF:239KB) (Mr. Shinichi Hasegawa, Director, International Labour Organization (ILO) Office for Japan)

Group 1:

“Gaps between supply and needs in the community care services for socially vulnerable people, from the point of view of human resource development for service providers”

Facilitators:
Prof. Hideharu Uemura, Professor, Department of Social Work, Japan College of Social Work
Ms. Kathleen Fritsch, Acting Team Leader, Human Resources for Health and Regional Nursing Advisor, Division of Health Sector Development, WHO Western Pacific Region

Group 2:

“Gaps between supply and needs in the community care services for socially vulnerable people, from the point of view of human resource development for service providers”

Facilitators:
Prof. Junko Tashiro, RN, PhD, Professor, St. Luke's College of Nursing
Ms. Kay Khaing Soe, Senior Officer, Social Welfare, Women, Labour and Migrants, The ASEAN Secretariat

Group 3:

“Gaps between public and private sectors in terms of promoting self-sustainability of the socially vulnerable in communities”

Facilitators:
Ms. Etsuko Ueno, Japanese Society for Rehabilitation of Persons with Disabilities (JSRPD)
Ms. Jintana Sriwongsa, Senior Officer, Health and Communicable Diseases Division, ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community (ASCC) Department, The ASEAN Secretariat

Group 4:

“Gaps between public and private sectors in terms of promoting self-sustainability of the socially vulnerable in communities”

Facilitator:
Mr. Shintaro Nakamura, Senior Adviser on Social Security, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)

Friday 28 October 2011
The 9th ASEAN & Japan High Level Officials Meeting on Caring Societies Overall Summary (with photos)(PDF:1,410KB)

APPENDIX

Background of the Meeting

The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, Japan held"East Asian Meeting of High-Level Officials on Caring Societies" annually from 1997 to 2002 in order to strengthen the regional cooperation among East Asian countries from the viewpoint of the idea of "World Welfare Plan" that Japan had advocated in the Lyons summit in 1996. Through these East Asian Meetings of High-Level Officials on Caring Societies, the MHLW contributed significantly to further strengthening cooperation in caring society fields in the East Asian region. On the basis of these success in conducting the East Asian Meetings of High-Level Officials on Caring Societies, the MHLW, since 2003, has also held the ASEAN & Japan High Level Officials Meeting on Caring Societies and has invited high-level administrative officials who are in charge of health and social welfare policy from the ASEAN-10 countries to continue strengthening the development of human resources and to further promote collaborative relationships between the ASEAN countries and Japan.

ASEAN member countries understand that the High Level Officials Meetings provide essential support to the ASEAN+3 Health Minister's Meetings and the ASEAN+3 Ministerial Meetings on Social Welfare and Development.

The results of each meeting are regularly reported at the above-mentioned ASEAN+3 Ministerial Meetings, and ASEAN countries have expressed their expectation for future meetings focusing on collaboration between health and welfare services. After participation in the High Level Meetings, ASEAN countries have become more active in the enhancement of cooperation among health and welfare service sectors.

During the 8th meeting, the necessity of collaboration with other fields was suggested, especially in employment, and health and welfare services to support the socially vulnerable, including the elderly and disabled. Therefore, we decided to invite officials in charge of measures for the employment of the socially vulnerable to participate in this 9th High Level Meeting considering the possibility of collaboration in the area of employment.

Past themes of the ASEAN & Japan High Level Officials Meeting on Caring Societies

First Stage The 1st Meeting November, 2003 Human Resource Development for Social Welfare and Health Services
The 2nd Meeting August, 2004 Development of Human Resources and Implications of Aging Societies
The 3rd Meeting August, 2005 Health and Welfare Services for Children and People with Disabilities
The 4th Meeting August, 2006 Support to Vulnerable People (Children and Women)
Second Stage The 5th Meeting August, 2007 Collaboration of Social Welfare and Health Services, and Development of Human Resources and Community
-Community Services for the Elderly-
The 6th Meeting September, 2008 Healthy Next Generation:
- Strengthening Joint Collaboration between Health and Social Welfare -
The 7th Meeting August, 2009 Towards an Inclusive Society
-Strengthening the collaboration between social welfare, health and medical systems for Children with Disabilities-
The 8th Meeting August, 2010 Poverty alleviation with a focus on vulnerable people
- through strengthening collaboration between the social welfare and health services-
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