Vol. 38 No. 1 (2021)

Development is dependent on and intrinsically linked to our growth as humans and the contributions we are able to make to society, based on what support mechanisms exist to enable these contributions. This became particularly evident in the COVID era, where working from home turned into the norm, introducing a radical shift in how economies were managed and sustained. In some ways, there is no going back to how things once were; new realities must be acknowledged, and more than being accepted, they must be embraced and built upon. This issue offers a different perspective on development in ASEAN: a human one.