The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is seeking to improve its relations with civil society organizations (CSOs), and held a workshop last 20 June 2008 in Jakarta to learn from the experience of the World Bank (WB) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in dealing with these groups.   Dr. Surin Pitsuwan, ASEAN Secretary-General, said at the start of this workshop that ?ASEAN needs the support [of] civil society to facilitate the transformation of ASEAN into a people-oriented organization.? The ASEAN?s efforts to re-style itself were apparently inspired by its ongoing collaboration with the WB in assisting the cyclone victims in Myanmar.   Fr. Francis Lucas, ANGOC Chairperson, cited the lessons learned from ANGOC from its long history of critical engagement with organizations like the WB and ADB, pointing out the benefits of working with NGOs and CSOs, and proposed areas of cooperation between ANGOC and ASEAN.   Nhek Sarin, Executive Director of Star Kampuchea, an ANGOC member, made a number of recommendations  to improve the relationship and engagement between Cambodian CSOs, in particular, and ASEAN. Among others, he proposed that the ASEAN encourages CSO participation in ASEAN?s policy-making processes, and that ASEAN creates more opportunities for Cambodian CSOs to be involved in dialogue and cooperation projects  of ASEAN.   The workshop participants proposed the following measures to reform the ASEAN?s CSO accreditation procedures: 1. The accreditation guidelines are restrictive, and should be relaxed to create more opportunities for participation and engagement;  2. The ASEAN Secretariat should include modalities of engagement in the Guidelines; and The following ANGOC members participated in this workshop: Star Kampuchea (Cambodia), PhilDHRRA (Philippines).