The 5th Regional Conference of Asian Roundtable on Social Protection Network (AROSP) 2016 in Jakarta kicked off today.

AROSP is “a network of grassroots workers’ organisations, trade unions, NGOs, and scholars in Asia” that “aims to support and consolidate the regional struggle for social protection for the poor across various sectors in Asia.” This time, AROSP works with the Research Centre for Crisis and Alternative Development Strategy (Inkrispena) as its local partner to organize the roundtable in Jakarta. The conference participants are activists, unionists, community organizers, and researchers from various people’s organizations and grassroots NGOs in Asia.

I had the pleasure to moderate the very first panel on the theoretical debates surrounding social protection, exemplary practices of social protection “from below”, and the politics of social protection in Indonesian context, with my comrades Muhammad Ridha from Inkrispena and Anwar Sastro Ma’ruf from the Confederation of Indonesian People’s Movements (KPRI) as the speakers.

It was a rather short panel – we only had around 1 hour and 15 minutes for the whole package. But nonetheless we had a very enlightening and engaging discussion. Unfortunately I cannot attend the whole conference since I have other events to attend, but I’m sure the conference will be a great learning opportunity for all participants!