Tuesday, 2 May 2017
As countries in the Asia-Pacific face diverse challenges ranging from job insecurity, rise of right-wing populists, impunity among elected officials, to the deterioration of democratic institutions, there is a more urgent need to retool our parties for campaign work. The Asia Pacific Campaign Forum (APCF) which took place in Makati City, Philippines last 1-2 April 2017, sought to bring together countries in the Asia-Pacific to share challenges and best practices from their most recent campaigns. The APCF is an initiative with the Australian Labor Institute.
The APCF was attended by delegates from Australia, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Papua New Guinea and the Philippines. The forum includes input sessions on building training capacity among parties, fundraising, digital campaigning, volunteer mobilization, polling and voter targeting.
One important question that surfaced during the discussions is the perpetual challenge of communicating social democratic values to our publics.