• Assess the current state of FOI in the region
• Reflect on the role of CSOs in advancing FOI and share good practices
• Build strategies to foster international and regional cooperation among the key actors in promoting FOI in the ASEAN countries.          

Parallel workshops and national working groups met to carry on in-depth discussions on regional or country strategies and specific advocacy tools. The participants discussed the possibilities of planning regional advocacy campaigns on FOI, creating country taskforces to initiate and support multi-stakeholder national coalitions for FOI advocacy and implementation, and promoting an ASEAN FOI working group for short- and long- term joint actions.  

The current international and regional contexts offer a window of opportunity to step up efforts in this field. Ms. Jamie Lee, UNESCO Communication and Information Specialist, saw the conference as an important meeting for regional experts to collaborate on joint initiatives in pushing for international-standard FOI laws in the region: “The meeting was an opportunity to compare notes on initiatives for open government and access to information in the region. With the formation of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) at the end of 2015 and the newly adopted SDG goals, there is more than ever motivation to promote freedom of information in ASEAN countries.”  

UNESCO’s mandate as set out in its 1945 Constitution specifically calls on the Organization to “promote the free flow of ideas by word and image.” To this end, UNESCO actively advocates for Freedom of Information as an integral part of the fundamental right to freedom of expression and an underpinning to basic human rights. At the country level, UNESCO Phnom Penh Office, with the support of the Government of Sweden, is implementing a three-year initiative to support a participatory Freedom of Information law-making process in cooperation with the Ministry of Information in Cambodia.