ASEAN, UNICEF sign framework agreement for cooperation
A Framework Agreement for
Cooperation (FAC) between the Association of Southeast Asia Nations
(ASEAN) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) was signed in
Jakarta, Indonesia on December 4.
The signatories included ASEAN
Secretary-General Le Luong Minh and UNICEF Regional Director for East
Asia and the Pacific Daniel Toole.
The FAC sets an action
programme for the next five years and beyond with a view to pursue the
survival, sustainable growth, full development and participation of
children.
The goal is also in line with the Convention on the
Rights of the Child, the Millennium Declaration and the Millennium
Development Goals, as well as the global post-2015 development agenda.
Speaking
at the signing ceremony, Minh encouraged the UNICEF Regional Office for
East Asia and the Pacific to work closely with related ASEAN bodies,
especially its Secretariat, on a concrete action plans to realise the
FAC goals.
Minh also stressed the importance of a sustainable
approach to ASEAN-UNICEF cooperation through the pursuance of a
multi-year programme and the mobilisation of stable funding resources to
implement joint activities.
For his part, Daniel Toole
reaffirmed UNICEF's commitment to working with ASEAN on the promotion of
children's rights, saying that the implementation of the FAC will
support the newly adopted ASEAN-UN Work Plan for 2015 as well as other
framework agreements signed between ASEAN and other UN agencies,
contributing to the drafting of another plan for the beyond-2015 period.
The
ASEAN-UNICEF FAC is the second framework agreement that ASEAN has
concluded with an UN agency after the entry into force of the ASEAN
Charter in 2008. Earlier, ASEAN signed a FAC with the United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) in December
2013.-VNA