Southeast Asia Regional Conference on “Assessing Decentralization in Cambodia, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines”

11-13 February 2007, Yogjakarta, Indonesia

The regional conference on “Assessing Decentralization in Cambodia, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines” was organized by the Institute for Popular Democracy (IPD), Logolink’s node in Southeast Asia. It was held in Jogjakarta, Indonesia on February 12-13, 2007.

The event is part of the project on “Assessing Decentralization… ”–an aggregation of country and cross-country researches, workshops and conferences, and publications.

The main objectives of the conference were to validate and sharpen country assessment reports, and exchange ideas that will be useful in the process of deepening democracy in each country. For this multi-country discussion, IPD’s premise is that we citizens can better understand our own country’s situation by looking into that of other countries.

The conference brought together scholars, NGO workers, donors and activists, all of whom are at the forefront of local governance and democracy building in Cambodia, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines–four countries in Southeast Asia that have recently undergone decentralization.  The participants discussed and analyzed the politics of decentralization, and have proposed ways of understanding and advancing democratization. They have examined the challenges that pro-democracy forces face to build and reinforce democracy; and examined the requirements for deepening democracy. Read the full conference report here.