The ASEAN Social and Cultural Community (ASCC) was form to achieve a "socially cohesive and caring ASEAN". It is intended to foster co-operation in addressing a grab bag of social and cultural problems associated with rural poverty, population growth, unemployment, human resources development, education, environment, and health.
An example of the level of co-operation the member states have can be seen in the incident of SARs outbreak in Asia. ASEAN has been proactive in seeking to contain infectious diseases, which know no border. During the outbreak, a special ASEAN Leaders Meeting in Bangkok was called in Apr 2003; the ASEAN heads of government mandated a comprehensive regional response to the threat posed by the disease, the spread of which was wreaking havoc on their economies. Although the actual job of fighting the spread of the disease fell to the public health officials of the states, the coordination of measures was carried out at the health minister level of the ASEAN +3.
Another example is the Singapore-Malaysia dispute over Pedra Branca islands. Both countries laid claim to the Pedra Branca islands although Singapore had been the custodian of the Horsburg Lighthouse situated on the island throughout the last century. The dispute could not be resolved within ASEAN; however, both Singapore and Malaysia had agreed to bring it to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in 2007. This dispute came to an end with the ICJ ruling sovereignty of Pedra Branca to Singapore and that of Middle Rocks to Malaysia.
ASEAN also manage to resolve the Cambodian crisis during the 1980s thru the ASEAN-Post Ministerial Conference (ASEAN-PMC) which assumed its current form when the US, Canada and Japan joined in 1978.