South-East Asia can significantly contribute to international security and peace by upholding international frameworks such as the Women, Peace and Security agenda. In recent years, ASEAN has increased its efforts to advance the agenda and engage women in campaigns to promote sustainable peace within the region.

Women and girls in South-East Asia face a number of security threats, some with long-standing roots, others more recently emerged. Violent extremists and terrorists are intensifying their recruitment and intimidation campaigns online; the COVID-19 pandemic has worsened women’s economic and social vulnerability; social conflict within the Asia-Pacific region upended the lives of numerous women and forced many to flee to neighboring countries including those in ASEAN; and large numbers of people are being forced from their homes and land as more frequent and more severe disasters induced by climate change strike the region.

The “Empowering Women for Sustainable Peace: Preventing Violence and Promoting Social Cohesion in ASEAN” project puts into action recommendations made in the ASEAN Regional Study on Women, Peace and Security, as well as United Nations Security Council resolutions that made Women, Peace and Security a global agenda.

Region-wide, the project works to promote policy frameworks such as the ASEAN Regional Plan of Action on Women, Peace and Security, which was launched on 5 December 2022; capacity-building activities such as trainings, workshops, dialogues and consultations; and exchanges of knowledge and good practices. The project also does country-level activities in Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand and Viet Nam.

This website, developed under the “Empowering Women for Sustainable Peace” project, seeks to bring together local and international policymakers, researchers, practitioners, civil society partners, activists and others working on Women, Peace and Security in the region to share resources to advance the agenda.

This website hosts:

• A knowledge hub for sharing research and guidance on promoting the agenda
• A newsroom page and awareness-raising and advocacy platform for sharing news, human interest stories, and multimedia and other resources
• A directory of civil society organizations (CSOs) working on the women, peace and security agenda, along with information on related events in the region

• Project brief
• Project explainer