With the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Community coming into effect in 2015, the goal of strengthening its ASEAN Socio-cultural Community pillar by increasing the participation of stakeholders and the peoples of ASEAN in building the ASEAN Community is clear. One way to enable wider participation of stakeholders and peoples of ASEAN is the improvement of ASEAN-CSO engagement and interaction processes, aiding in the swift achievement of the ASEAN Community 2015. In order for such developments to take place, it is important to understand that ASEAN member states are at different stages of civil society involvement, and that greater effort must be made towards information gathering. The FES Office for Regional Cooperation in Asia, has therefore undertaken a mapping exercise of civil society in the 10 ASEAN member states and a study on the role of regional civil society organisations to support the process of greater civil society participation in ASEAN and also to fill a persisting knowledge gap by providing an overview of the civil society landscape in ASEAN. The mapping exercise identifies the strengths, challenges, gaps and development needs of the CSO sector in ASEAN member countries. It addresses questions on the diversity of CSOs in each member country, their level of organisation and structure as well as the structural processes of consultation. It further provides a framework to present the different CSO sectors for comparison and contrast, looking primarily at two dimensions: Externally, at the legal, political and advocacy environment as well as the thematic areas in which CSOs operate; and internally, at the organisational capacity of CSOs to perform their roles.

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