Launch of the ASEAN Localisation Toolkit and Guideline and Awareness Raising Workshop on Localization of Women, Peace and Security in Cambodia

In November 2022, the ASEAN Leaders adopted the first ever ASEAN Regional Plan of Action on Women, Peace and Security (ASEAN RPA-WPS) which was launched on December 5th, 2022, in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. ASEAN RPA-WPS outlines ways for implementing the four key pillars of women peace and security agenda, including women’s protection, participation, prevention, and relief as well as recovery. Cambodia was one of the original members of the ASEAN Advisory Group on WPS and took a full leadership in driving the development of RPA-WPS. Currently, Cambodia continues to chair the ASEAN Advisory Group on WPS to oversee the implementation of the RPA-WPS as well as leading the development of the Guideline and Toolkit for ASEAN Member States to further localize the RPA-WPS into their national contexts with the support of UN Women. It is also the leading ASEAN Member States to promote women’s leadership and political participation at the regional level.

Within the Asia-Pacific region, Cambodia is the first recipient of Elsie Initiative Fund for Uniformed Women in Peace Operations (EIF) to conduct assessment on Measuring Opportunities for Women in Peace Keeping and this indicates a strong commitment and positive step taken by the government to identify challenges and opportunities enhance the meaningful role of women participation in peacekeeping missions. Also, this is a great opportunity to show leadership and lessons learned from this experience to other ASEAN Member States who also have a strong priority to promote the role of women in peacekeeping.

At the country level, Cambodia has a unique experience in post-conflict recovery, particularly in recognizing the crucial role of women in relief and recovery efforts. In recent years, the unprecedented momentum to localize the WPS agenda in the national and local contexts in Cambodia is driven by the increasing sense of urgency to address both traditional and emerging non-traditional security challenges – from conflict to climate change, trafficking to cybersecurity and transnational crimes. Women and girls bear the brunt of these challenges, while still not having their full voice and leadership recognized in peace and security policy and decision-making processes.

Given Cambodia’s leadership role in advancing the WPS Agenda and its strong interest to localize WPS in the context of Cambodia, synergies between regional and national level efforts will be key to accelerate buy-in and ownership at the national level. Within this context, UN Women in collaboration with the Ministry of Women’s Affairs (MOWA) is organizing the Awareness Raising Workshop on Localizing Women, Peace, and Security agenda on 14-15 December 2023.

Additional resources:

• The event was livestreamed on ASEAN YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/live/dErzsnYlT74?si=b3Pa2rCjU-ldHsWh
• [Press release] ASEAN launches guidelines for member countries to adapt women, peace and security policy

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